Marya Mannes

Marya Mannes (November 14, 1904 – September 13, 1990) was a 20th-century American author and critic, known for her caustic but insightful observations of American life. Mannes also wrote under the pen name of "Sec."

Life and career

Mannes lived most of her life in New York City, where she was born. Her brother was musician Leopold Mannes. Her parents, Clara (Damrosch) Mannes and David Mannes, founded the Mannes College of Music in New York. Her maternal grandfather was conductor Leopold Damrosch, and her maternal uncles were conductors Walter Damrosch and Frank Damrosch. Her father was Jewish; her mother was from a mostly Lutheran German family (and was of part Jewish descent through her own grandfather).

Mannes was an editor at Vogue and later wrote prolifically for the magazines The Reporter and The New Yorker. Mannes published a number of books of essays, sharply and wittily critical of American society, including More in Anger: Some Opinions, Uncensored and Unteleprompted. She was a much-sought-after social commentator on radio and television. She hosted her own 13-week television show on New York's WNEW-TV in 1959, I Speak for Myself.

Other books by Mannes included Subverse (1959), a satirical verse, Out of My Time (1971), an autobiography, and two novels, Message From a Stranger (1948), and They (1968).

Married three times, Mannes had one child who survived her.

She died in San Francisco, California.

External links

• Marya Mannes article at Encyclopædia Britannica.
• New York Times obituary, 1990
• Marya Mannes "My Journey through Inner Space" The Baltimore Museum of Art: Baltimore, Maryland, 1965 Accessed June 26, 2012