WULOLIFE
The World: A Farewell to the 20th Century 1950-2000 Author: [UK] Jane Morris Translator: Fang Jun/Lv Jinglian CITIC Publishing Group
The World: A Farewell to the 20th Century 1950-2000 Author: [UK] Jane Morris Translator: Fang Jun/Lv Jinglian CITIC Publishing Group
Description
Introduction · · · · · ·
Jane Morris, a British national treasure writer and historian, wrote fascinating cultural essays through her global journey from the 1950s to the early 20th century. In the 50 years of changes, Morris witnessed one important historical moment after another, from the first human ascent of Mount Everest to the Eichmann trial and the fall of the Berlin Wall to the return of Hong Kong. In the 50 years of life, Morris changed from "he" to "she", from a journalist to a literary writer. In the dual identity change, she always kept a sensitive eye on the world. Although the journey was hurried, she used the eyes of a historian to connect the present to the past and imagine the future. The turbulent Middle East, the chaotic Caribbean, the Soviet Union in the Cold War, the divided South Africa, Britain gradually fading its imperial halo, and the flowing Europe... In the historical changes, she captured the decisive details in the second half of the 20th century when the world was changing dramatically.
About the Author
Jan Morris (1926-2020), formerly known as James Morris, is a British writer, historian, and travel writer. He served in the British Army during World War II and was stationed in Trieste. In the 1950s, he worked as a reporter for The Times and The Guardian, traveling around the world to report on many major historical events, including the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956, and the Eichmann Trial in 1961. He won the George Polk Journalism Award in 1960 for his outstanding overseas reporting.
From the mid-1960s, he became a freelance writer, traveled the world, and began his transition from male to female. He finally underwent sex reassignment surgery in 1972 and changed his name from "James" to "Jane".
In her writing career of more than half a century, she has published more than 40 works, including many historical works on the rise and fall of the British Empire, many fictional novels, many memoirs, as well as numerous travel literature works and essays. With her keen insight and extensive historical literacy, the history and reality, world conditions and human hearts of the Middle East, the Far East, Europe, America, Africa, Australia and other places are condensed into eternal moments in her writing.
For her outstanding contribution to travel writing, she won the Thomas Cook Travel Literature Award Special Prize in 2004 and the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing in 2018. She was awarded the Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement by the British PEN Club in 2005, and in January 2008, she was ranked 15th in the "Top 50 British Writers Since 1945" by The Times.
She died on November 20, 2020 at her home in Wales at the age of 94.