Jeannette Mirsky

Jeannette M Ginsburg
A young white woman with dark hair, in an oval frame
Jeannette Mirsky, from the 1924 yearbook of Barnard College
Born(1903-09-03)September 3, 1903
Bradley Beach, New Jersey
DiedMarch 10, 1987(1987-03-10) (aged 83)
Princeton, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Other namesJeanette Mirsky
OccupationAuthor

Jeannette Mirsky Ginsburg (September 3, 1903 – March 10, 1987) was an American writer who was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947 for her biographical writings on the history of exploration.

Early life and education

Jeannette R. Mirsky was born in Bradley Beach, New Jersey and raised in New York City, the daughter of Michael David Mirsky and Frieda Ettleson Mirsky. Her father was in the garment business.[1] Her brother was Alfred Mirsky (1900–1974), a cell biologist involved in the discovery of DNA.[2] She was a student at the Ethical Culture School, class of 1921. She attended Barnard College, graduating in 1924.[1] She did graduate work in anthropology at Columbia University with Franz Boas and Margaret Mead. She was later awarded an honorary doctorate from Columbia University.[3]

She moved to Princeton, New Jersey in 1950.[1]

Career

Mirsky traveled extensively to access rare papers, maps, and artifacts related to her research.[4] She won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947,[5] as well as a Rockefeller Foundation grant and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.[6] She wrote the entry on "Polar Exploration" for the Encyclopedia Americana (1956). Because of her interest in the far north, she was invited to give the keynote lecture at Alaska's Festival of the Arts in 1966.[7]

Works by Jeannette Mirsky

  • To the North: The Story of Arctic Exploration from the Earliest Times to the Present (1934; later republished as To the Arctic!)[8]
  • Elisha Kent Kane and the Seafaring Frontier
  • The Westward Crossings (Balboa, Mackenzie, Lewis & Clark) (US ed. 1946; UK ed. 1951)[9]
  • Balboa: Discoverer of the Pacific (1964)[10]
  • Houses of God (1966)[11]
  • The Gentle Conquistadors (1972)[12]
  • Sir Aurel Stein, Archaeological Explorer (1977)[13]
  • The World of Eli Whitney (with Allan Nevins)
  • The Great Chinese Travelers: An Anthology (1974, edited and wrote introduction)[14]

Personal life

Jeannette Mirsky married engineer Edward Bellamy Ginsburg in 1941.[15] The couple moved to South Carolina for Edward's work, and then to Princeton, New Jersey in 1950. She was widowed in 1959, and died in 1987, at age 83, in Princeton. Her papers are archived at Barnard College.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c Edwin McDowell, "Jeannette M. Ginsburg, 83, Author and Editor", The New York Times (March 20, 1987).
  2. ^ Seymour S. Cohen, "Alfred Ezra Mirsky" Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 73(1998): 322. ISBN 9780309060318
  3. ^ a b Heather Lember, Guide to the Jeannette Mirsky Papers Barnard Archives and Special Collections.
  4. ^ "Author of Book on Arctic Never Has Been There" Bismarck Tribune (April 1, 1948): 9. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  5. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellows directory.
  6. ^ "The Faculty" Princeton Alumni Weekly (February 12, 1974).
  7. ^ "Distinguished Visitor" Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (April 7, 1966): 1. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  8. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, To the Arctic: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times to the Present (University of Chicago Press 1998). ISBN 9780226531793
  9. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, The Westward Crossings: Balboa, Mackenzie, Lewis and Clark (Knopf 1946).
  10. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, Balboa: Discoverer of the Pacific (Harper and Row 1964).
  11. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, Houses of God (Viking Press 1965).
  12. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, The Gentle Conquistadors: The Ten Year Odyssey Across the American Southwest of Three Spanish Captains and Esteban, a Black Slave (Kaye & Ward 1972).
  13. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, Sir Aurel Stein, Archaeological Explorer (University of Chicago Press 1998). ISBN 9780226531779
  14. ^ Jeannette Mirsky, The Great Chinese Travelers: An Anthology (University of Chicago Press 1974). ISBN 9780226531823
  15. ^ "Edward Bellamy Ginsburg," Report of the Harvard Class of 1920 (Harvard University 1945): 287.