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Personal Information for Frances Fineman Gunther - Printer Friendly Page
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Personal Information for
Frances
Fineman
Gunther
Born: January 1, 1897
Died: December 31, 1964
Occupations:
Authors, Human Rights Worker, Journalists, Political Activists, Scholars, Social Reformers
Subjects:
Journalism, Public Welfare, Reform, Social, Theater, Zionism, Books
Biographical Information: Journalist and writer Frances Fineman Gunther was born in 1897 in New York, the younger of two children of Sonia Paul Fineman and Dennis Fineman, both Russian Jews.
Frances attended Barnard College, took a year (1919-1920) at Radcliffe, and was graduated in 1921. During the 1920s, she went to the Soviet Union and studied Russian theater. Frances Fineman met John Gunther in 1921; after working together in Europe for several years, they married in 1927. The Gunthers lived in Europe (London, Paris, Rome, Vienna) from 1925 to 1936. Frances worked in association with John for many years in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and for the News Chronicle and the Chicago Daily News. As a foreign correspondent for the London News Chronicle, Frances covered the 1934 establishment of a fascist regime in Austria. From 1937-1938, the Gunthers traveled in the Middle East and Asia, meeting Chaim Weizmann, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawarharlal Nehru, the Chiang Kai-sheks, and T.V. Soong; this trip resulted in the continuing friendship between Frances and Jawarharlal Nehru.
During World War II, Frances wrote articles and made speeches critical of British Imperialism and advocating the independence of India. Among other organizations, she spoke before the Washington Press Club, the Quaker Institute of International Relations, and the Post War Council in New York. Her speeches are collected in the book, Revolution in India (1944).
Becoming absorbed with the idea of world peace, Frances Gunther tried to understand and to propose solutions to global conflicts. Looking for explanations of political behavior through personal introspection, she continued to seek enlightenment through relevant courses and lectures. She began psychoanalysis in New York in 1923, continuing in Vienna and other places where she lived over the next four decades. From 1943-44 she attended the Graduate School of International Relations at Yale to learn more about foreign policy. As a result, she began a study, never completed, entitled "Empire: Notes for a Study of the Theory and Practice of Empire." In 1948-49 she attended lectures by Karen Horney and others at the New School in New York City, and she herself spoke on Psychoanalysis and the News World before the Association of the Advancement of Psychoanalysis.
Increasingly conscious of her Jewishness and resentful of its suppression, in late 1949 she joined other Zionists in settling the newly established State of Israel. She took Hebrew lessons and, inspired by Martin Buber and other provocative thinkers whom she met there, began a long range study of Arab-Israeli relations. Her interest in the connections between religion and politics culminated in an unpublished work entitled "A Study of Theo-Politics." From 1960-1961 she returned to New York from Israel to take courses in religion, linguistics, and sociology at Columbia University.
The Gunthers had two children, both of whom died in childhood: Judy in 1929, before her first birthday, and John, Jr. (Johnny) at 17, in 1947. Johnny's fifteen month struggle with a brain tumor was the subject of John Gunther's book Death Be Not Proud, of which Frances Gunther wrote the last chapter. Frances and John Gunther were divorced in 1944, but maintained contact. Frances Fineman Gunther was living in Jerusalem at the time of her death in 1964.
Related Organizations (1)
Related Collections (1)
Related Organizations
Ladies Aid Society
Related Collections
Frances Fineman Gunther Papers
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