Funlover Jessica Mitford sings The Beatles

1917 Jessica Mitford (d. July 22, 1996), eccentric, aristocratic Anglo-American author (The Making of a Muckraker; Kind and Unusual Punishment: The Prison Business; Hons and Rebels; The American Way of Birth); one of the noted Mitford sisters.

She emigrated to the United States of America from England, after having run away with her cousin, Esmond Romilly, a nephew of Winston Churchill to join the Republican forces in Spain. She was an adherent of communism (member of the Communist Party of the United States of America until 1958), despite her privileged background, and was the sister of well-known Hitler supporter Unity Mitford. Her other sisters were Nancy Mitford, the essayist and satirist, and Diana Mitford, who married the British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.

Her book exposing the greed of the American funeral industry, The American Way of Death, is now considered a classic. In the 1950s she concocted the fund-raising technique of charging guests only $5.00 to come to an event, then charging them much more to leave. Mitford was a columnist for Mother Jones magazine. In her old age, she was a barroom singer in San Francisco, famously and enthusiastically performing such numbers as an hilarious version of the Beatles' 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'.

Listen to the song (mp3, 5.13MB)

Categories: jessica, mitford, american, english, literature, communism, fascism, eccentric, eccentrics, beatles, mp3