{{Short description|American journalist (1897–1960)}} {{Infobox person | name = | image = Milly Bennett circa 1920s.jpg | caption = Bennett {{circa}} 1920s | birth_name = Mildred Jacqueline Bremler | other_names = Mildred Mitchell <br> Mildred Amlie | birth_date = {{birth date |1897|05|22}} | birth_place = [[San Francisco, California]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age |1960|11|07 |1897|05|22}} | death_place = [[Stanford, California]], U.S. | workplaces = | education = | alma_mater = | spouse = {{marriage|Mike Mitchell|1921|1926|end=div}}<br />{{marriage|Evgeni Konstantinov|1931|1936|end=div}}<br />{{marriage|[[Hans Amlie]]|1937|1949|end=died}} | relatives = [[Thomas Ryum Amlie]] (brother-in-law) }} '''Milly Bennett''' (born '''Mildred Jacqueline Bremler'''; May 22, 1897 – November 7, 1960) was an American journalist and writer who covered political conditions in China, social conditions in the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and various events in the United States.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1960-11-07 |title=M1LLY BEMETT, 64, FORMER REPORTER |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/11/07/archives/m1lly-bemett-64-former-reporter.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name="oac" />
==Early life== Bennett was born on May 22, 1897, in [[San Francisco, California]].<ref name=oac/> She was graduated from Girls' High School in San Francisco in 1915 and then attended the [[College of Hawaii]] from 1915 to 1917.<ref name=oac/>
==Career== As a journalist and a writer, Bennett, worked around the world under the [[pseudonym]] Milly Bennett.<ref name=oac/> She also used her married names for her bylines, Mildred Mitchell and Mildred Amlie.<ref name=oac/> She spent much of her career producing propaganda for the English language newspapers of communist governments in the [[USSR]] and China.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=174}}
Bennett was a reporter at ''[[The Daily News (San Francisco)|The Daily News]]'' in San Francisco from 1917 to 1921 and at ''[[The Honolulu Star-Bulletin]]'' from 1921 to 1926.<ref name=oac/> While in San Francisco, she covered the trial of [[Thomas Mooney]].{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=174}}
She was then the editor of the Chung-Mei News Agency in [[Beijing, China]] from 1926 to 1927.<ref name=oac/>{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=174}} During the years 1927 to 1931, Bennett was a reporter for ''[[The Daily News (San Francisco)|The Daily News]]'', the [[E. W. Scripps Company|Scripps-Howard News Service]], and the [[United Press]].<ref name=oac/> She also worked on the ''Peoples Tribune'' in [[Hankou, China]] with [[Rayna Prohme]].<ref name=oac/> From 1931 to 1935, she was a reporter for the new ''[[The Moscow News|Moscow News]]''.<ref name=oac/>{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=56}}{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=174}}{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=77}} For a time, she ran the Moscow bureau of the [[International News Service]] from her apartment.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=77}}
In 1935 and 1936, she was a reporter for the [[Newspaper Enterprise Association]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', and the [[International News Service]].<ref name=oac/>{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=77}} In 1936 and 1937, she reported from Spain for the [[Associated Press]], the [[United Press]], and the ''[[London Times]]''.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=174}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Preston |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wt7ABAAAQBAJ&dq=%22milly+bennett%22&pg=PT106 |title=We Saw Spain Die: Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War |date=2012-03-01 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-1-78033-742-5 |language=en}}</ref> She was also a staff member for the English-language section of the Press and Propaganda Service of the Spanish Government, working alongside her friend [[Kate Mangan]].<ref>''The Good Comrade, Memoirs of Kate Mangan and Jan Kurzke'', [[International Institute of Social History]] (IISH), Amsterdam.</ref> Taking the job in Spain allowed her to reclaim her ideals, instead of working for the "capitalist press," and to let her cover a war, which interested her personally.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=77}}
In her memoir, ''On Her Own,'' Bennett describes living in the Soviet Union just before [[World War II]] broke out, living through the [[Spanish Civil War]], life in China during the [[Northern Expedition]], and her various other posts as a reporter.<ref name=book/> She also discusses her many love affairs and other highlights and disappointment in her life.<ref name=book/>
==Personal life== In 1921 Bennett married Mike Mitchell, but they were divorced in 1926.<ref name=oac/> She moved to the [[USSR]] in 1931, and around that time she married [[Evgeni Konstantinov]] in Moscow.<ref name=oac/> After Konstantinov was arrested for being a homosexual, she struggled to maintain her faith in the communist party.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=74-75}} She visited him in his [[Siberia|Siberian prison]].{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=75}} They divorced in or before November 1936.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=77-78}}
[[File:War Bride and Groom Back From Spain.jpg|thumb|right|Bennett with her third husband, [[Hans Amlie]], 1938]]
She lived in the USSR until December 1936<ref name=oac/>{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=175}} when she moved to Spain to [[Spanish Civil War|fight the fascists]].{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=75}} On December 1, 1937,{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=179}} she married [[Hans Amlie]], a commander in the volunteer [[Abraham Lincoln Brigade]] and brother of [[Thomas Amlie]].<ref name=hotel/><ref name=oac/>{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=175}}{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=179}} While in the USSR and briefly after she moved to Spain, she had an affair with [[Hermann Joseph Muller]].{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=175}} She also had an affair in Moscow with [[Lindsay Parrott]].{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=76}} While in Spain, Bennett had a brief love affair with Wallace Burton, an ex-pat fighting in the Spanish Civil War.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=178}} Previously, while in China in the 1920s, she had an affair with his twin brother, Wilbur.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=178}} She was pregnant while in Spain.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=179}}
In January 1938, Bennett returned to the United States with Amlie.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=187}} They set up a home in [[Mill Valley, California]].{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=187}} She died in 1960.<ref name=oac/>
==Communism== In late May 1937, her application for membership in the [[Communist Party of the United States]] was denied.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=175}} Though she was instructed to wait until she had returned to the United States to apply again, she sent another application in October of that year while still in Spain.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=174}} Though she attempted several times, she was never admitted as a party member.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=175}}{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=179}}
After Bennett and Amlie returned to the United States, they were investigated and surveilled by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]].{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=217-218}} The FBI believed Bennett to be a spy for the Spanish Republic.{{sfn|Kirschenbaum|2015|p=217}}
== Selected publications ==
* {{Cite news |last=Bennett |first=Milly |date=1935-11-10 |title=SOVIET RUSSIA DISCOVERS 'HOME, SWEET HOME'; The New Place of Women in the State Reflected in Stricter Social Laws |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/11/10/archives/soviet-russia-discovers-home-sweet-home-the-new-place-of-women-in.html |access-date=2022-12-29 |issn=0362-4331}} * {{Cite book |last=Bennett |first=Milly |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1119537925 |title=On her own : journalistic adventures from San Francisco to the Chinese Revolution, 1917-1927 |publisher=M. E. Sharpe |year=1993 |isbn=978-1-56324-182-6 |location=Armonk, New York |oclc=1119537925}}<ref>Reviews of ''On Her Own'' * {{Cite journal |last=Vanlandingham |first=Beth |date=1995 |editor-last=Bennett |editor-first=Milly |editor2-last=Grunfeld |editor2-first=A. Tom |editor3-last=Clifford |editor3-first=Nicholas R. |editor4-last=Stephens |editor4-first=Thomas B. |editor5-last=Lodwick |editor5-first=Kathleen L. |title=There and Back Again: Foreigners and the Chinese Revolution |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23612874 |journal=The Journal of American-East Asian Relations |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=181–188 |doi=10.1163/187656195X00336 |jstor=23612874 |issn=1058-3947|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last=MacKinnon |first=Stephen R. |date=1994 |title=Review of On Her Own: Journalistic Adventures from San Francisco to the Chinese Revolution, 1917-1927. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2949939 |journal=The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs |issue=31 |pages=187–189 |doi=10.2307/2949939 |jstor=2949939 |issn=0156-7365|url-access=subscription }} * {{Cite journal |last=King |first=Marjorie M. |date=1994 |title=Review of On Her Own: Journalistic Adventures from San Francisco to the Chinese Revolution, 1917—1927 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23728654 |journal=China Review International |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=59–62 |jstor=23728654 |issn=1069-5834}}</ref>
==Legacy== Bennett's papers are held at [[Stanford University]]'s [[Hoover Institution]].<ref name=oac/> The 2020 novel, ''Salt the Snow'' by Carrie Callaghan follows the story of Bennett.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Callaghan |first=Carrie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRKYwgEACAAJ |title=Salt the Snow |date=2020 |publisher=Amberjack Publishing |isbn=978-1-948705-64-6 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|refs=
<ref name=book>{{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Milly |title=On Her Own: Journalistic Adventures from San Francisco to the Chinese Revolution, 1917-1927|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OcJb3e1wk3AC|accessdate=January 16, 2020|year=1993|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-1-56324-182-6}}</ref>
<ref name=hotel>{{Cite news | url = https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jun/20/hotel-florida-truth-love-death-spanish-civil-war-amanda-vaill-review | title = Hotel Florida: Truth, Love and Death in the Spanish Civil War – review | first = Paul | last = Preston | date = June 20, 2014 | accessdate = January 16, 2020 | work = The Guardian }}</ref>
<ref name=oac>{{cite web | url = https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf6n39n837/entire_text/ | title = Register of the Milly Bennett papers | publisher = [[Online Archive of California]] | accessdate = January 16, 2020 }}</ref>
}}
==Works cited== *{{cite book |last=Kirschenbaum |first=Lisa A. |title=International Communism and the Spanish Civil War |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TqYHCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA187 |accessdate=January 16, 2020 |date=July 28, 2015 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-10627-7}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Milly}} [[Category:1897 births]] [[Category:1960 deaths]] [[Category:Writers from San Francisco]] [[Category:Mass media people from Honolulu]] [[Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni]] [[Category:American expatriates in China]] [[Category:American expatriates in the Soviet Union]] [[Category:American expatriates in Spain]] [[Category:American communists]] [[Category:California socialists]] [[Category:People from Mill Valley, California]] [[Category:American women memoirists]] [[Category:Memoirists from California]] [[Category:20th-century American women journalists]]