Priscilla Hiss

Priscilla Hiss (October 13, 1903 – October 14, 1984), born Priscilla Fansler and first married as Priscilla Hobson, was a 20th-century American teacher and book editor, best known as the wife of Alger Hiss, an alleged Communist and former State Department official whose innocence she supported with testimony throughout his two, highly publicized criminal trials in 1949.

Background

Priscilla Harriet Fansler was born on October 13, 1903, in Evanston, Illinois. Her father was Thomas Lafayette Fansler and mother Willia Roland Spruill. She had two older brothers Dean Fansler (a teacher of English at Columbia University and acquaintance of Mortimer J. Adler, a classmate of Whittaker Chambers ) and Henry Fansler (who as the Hiss Case began had moved recently to Preston, Maryland, and whom the FBI reported was a "something of a drunkard" ). In 1924, she graduated cum laude from Bryn Mawr College. Her roommate Roberta Murray (of Murray Hill, Manhattan) became for a time her sister-in-law as Roberta Fansler. Later, she obtained an MA in English literature from Yale University.

For 1933–1934 and 1934–1935, her Bryn Mawr alumni records show that she engaged in "Research": for 1935–1936, her occupation is blank. At both trials, FBI typewriter experts testified that the Baltimore Documents from Chambers's matched samples typed in the 1930s by Priscilla Hiss on a Woodstock model number N23009 typewriter that the Hiss family had owned.

On March 17, 1978, The New York Times published a letter from her: Miscarriage of JusticeTo the Editor: For more than a quarter of a century, I have kept silence amid the clamor concerning the conviction of Alger Hiss. Recently, statements have appeared in print to the effect that I have made remarks indicating that Alger Hiss was guilty. I fear that if I do not now speak out, my silence will be Interpreted as confirming these statements. At all times. and with my every fiber, I have believed in the innocence of Alger Hiss. I have never spoken a word to the contrary. To me the conviction of Alger Hiss represents a cruel miscarriage of justice. I do not intend to make any further statements concerning this painful subject. PRISCILLA HISS New York, March 10, 1978 (The letter preceded by just a few days the publication of Allen Weinstein's definitive book Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. )

Personal life and death Hiss residence 3415 Volta Place in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. (2019) In 1925, Priscilla Fansler married Thayer Hobson, a New York book publisher (who bought William Morrow and Company when Morrow himself died). In 1926, they had one son, Timothy Hobson. In 1927, they divorced; her alumni records show her "divorced" in 1928.

On December 13, 1929, Priscilla Fansler Hobson married Alger Hiss in Washington, DC. On August 5, 1941, they had one son, Tony Hiss. In 1959, they separated but did not divorce. (Alger Hiss remarried after her death and outlived her by 12 years.) They had met earlier, in 1924, on an ocean-liner to England. Their nicknames for each other were "Hill" (or "Hilly") and "Prossy" (important because during proceedings Whittaker Chambers and Esther Shemitz remembered "Hilly" and "Dilly").

Her Bryn Mawr alumni details include addresses over the years, including: Fansler, Priscilla Harriet A.B. 1924Mrs. Alger Hiss, (formerly Mrs. Francis Thayer Hobson.) 12/31: 180 Claremont St., Cambridge, Mass. 11/33w: 3411 "O" St., N.W., Washington, D.C. or 378 Central Park West, N.Y.C. 2/35: 2831 - 28th St., Washington, D.C. – Perm: 1427 Linden Ave., Baltimore, Md. 1/39: 3415 Volta Place, N.W., Washington, D.C. Full: 12/43: 3210 P. St., " " 7 " 12/47: 22 E. 8th St., NYC. 3.

Hiss died age 81 on October 14, 1984, at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan.