Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedley
Agnes Smedleywas an American journalist and writer, well known for her semi-autobiographical novel Daughter of Earth as well as for her sympathetic chronicling of the Communist forces in the Chinese Civil War. During World War I, she worked in the United States for the independence of India from the United Kingdom, receiving financial support from the government of Germany. Subsequently, she went to China, where she is suspected of acting as a spy for the Comintern. As the lover of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionAutobiographer
Date of Birth23 February 1892
CountryUnited States of America
Gambling in the mark has been the great indoor sport of the capitalists for months, and consequently food has increased by 25 to 100 per cent.
There's something dreadfully decisive about a beheading.
When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
Now, being a girl, I was ashamed of my body and my lack of strength. So I tried to be a man. I shot, rode, jumped, and took part in all the fights of the boys.
Germany is in terrible condition this year. This is particularly true of the working masses, who are so undernourished that tuberculosis is having a rich harvest, particularly of adolescent children.
Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
I have loved and bitterness left me for that hour. But there are times when love itself is bitter.
I have always detested the belief that sex is the chief bond between man and woman. Friendship is far more human.
More and more do I see that only a successful revolution in India can break England's back forever and free Europe itself. It is not a national question concerning India any longer; it is purely international.
There are many men - such as those often to be found among the Indians - who are refined until they have qualities often attributed to the female sex. Yet they are men, and strong ones.
Thousands of women are crushed and made inarticulate by that system and never develop as their natures would force them to develop were they in a decent environment.
Yet it is awful to love a person who is a torture to you. And a fascinating person who loves you and won't hear of anything but your loving him and living right by his side through all eternity!
But settled things were enemies to me and soon lost their newness and color. The unknown called.
To die would have been beautiful. But I belong to those who do not die for the sake of beauty.