Ruth Comfort Mitchell

Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young (July 21, 1882 – February 18, 1954) was an American writer and playwright, best known for her novel, Of Human Kindness. She wrote under her maiden name Ruth Comfort Mitchell, as well as her married name, Mrs. Sanborn Young. She was the wife of California State Senator Sanborn Young. Several of her stories were made into films.

Early life and education Mitchell was born in San Francisco, California, July 21, 1882. Born to wealth, her father being a successful hotelier, she spent summers in the town of Los Gatos, where her parents and grandparents had summer homes. Educated at mostly at home, she took some schooling at a school then known as the Irving Institute. New York Times reviews were positive about her works, regarding them as "light fiction" and "as romantic as possible."

Her short stories appeared in Ladies' Home Journal and Woman's Home Companion and she openly aimed for a female audience. One of her plays, The Sweetmeat Game (1916) was set in San Francisco's Chinatown and inspired her to design her home, known as the Yung See San Fong House, in a Chinese style. She considered Steinbeck's work to have defamed her beloved state. It is considered her finest work.

Nobel Prize in Literature

In 1941, Mitchell was nominated by Victor W. Bennett, a professor of English and history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and Benjamin B. Biesel, a professor of history at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. During the deliberations, the Nobel Committee was said to be "content to give a brief idea of the absurdity of [her] only published work and thus also of the absurdity of a prize proposal, for which there were not many parallels in the Committee's papers."

Personal life

Because of her fame, many of the literati visited her home. The Youngs were known to be friendly with W. C. Morrow, Robert W. Service, Gertrude Atherton, James Phelan, Gertrude Stein and Wendell Willkie.

With her husband, the couple took a keen interest in politics. She campaigned for Hoover, while her husband became an anti-drugs and conservation campaigner, eventually serving three terms in the California State Senate. Ruth served as Republican National Committeewoman from California for eight years and as national and state president of Pro-America, an organization of Republican women founded in 1933.

In February 1954, she died from heart failure, while taking a bath at home. Her husband living a further ten years.

Writings The Night Court and Other Verse (1916) Play the Game! (1921) Jane Journeys On (1922) Corduroy (1923) Narratives in Verse (1923) A White Stone (1924) The Wishing Carpet (1926) Call of the House (1927) Army With Banners (1928) Water (1931) The Legend of Susan Dane (1933) Old San Francisco Fire! (The Fifties) (1933) Strait Gate (1935) His wife could eat no lean (Contemporary California short stories) (1937) Of Human Kindness (1940) Dust of Mexico (1941) They shall Come Again (1944)

Filmography

The Price of Happiness (1916), adaptation from a play The Blindness of Love (1916) Perjury (1921) Into Her Kingdom (1926) A Six Shootin' Romance (1926)