'Ivy Litvinov (nee Low)'
'Ivy Litvinov (nee Low)'
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Ivy was born in London in 1889, her father - Walter Low, died when she was five years old. Her mother, Alice Baker remarried in 1896. Ivy's family background and the relationship to Joan Hudleston is clearly indicated in the following link. Litvinov - Low - Baker - Hudleston family connections Alice Baker was Joan's aunt/godmother and they maintained contact until Alice died in 1942. Ivy's mother Alice Low (nee Baker, 1869 - 1942) wrote several novels under the name of Alice Herbert (Her name in her second marriage after the death of Ivy's father - Walter Humbolt Low). These include: The Measure of our Youth (1909), Garden Oats (1914), Heaven and Charing Cross (1922). A Pen and Ink Passion (1928). I have not been able to obtain copies of them all but I have read Garden Oats which appears to describe in a fictional form Alice's home life with her father Lieut. Colonel Baker. In it is described the arrival of a governess and her seduction of the 'good' Colonel. It could be assumed that the governess mentioned bears some resemblance to Joan's grandmother, Isabella Anna Maria Fox.
Garden Oats I have prepared in epub format, and can be obtained from LULU or iBooks at:
Between the Lights, a small book of poems by Alice Herbert, and published in 1903, I have prepared in pdf format and can be obtained from LULU or iBooks at:
The Questing Beast by Ivy Low Litvinov I have prepared in epub format and can be obtained from the LULU or iBooks at:
Growing Pains by Ivy Low (Ivy Litvinov) I have prepared in epub format and can be obtained from the LULU or iBooks at:
You and Me, a free translation by Alice Herbert of Paul Géraldy's Toi et Moi and published in 1927, I have prepared in epub format and can be obtained from LULU at: In a similar fictional form Ivy wrote in 1967 a short story entitled She Knew She was Right. This describes the courtship of Ivy's mother, after her first husband died, by both Joan's father 'Frank' Hudleston and the man Alice married - 'Sandy' Herbert. John Carswell wrote an excellent biography (The Exile (1980) Faber and Faber, London) on Ivy and on p.30 he states: "Two suitors soon presented themselves to Alice. Both were employed in that temple of learning, the British Museum Library, but otherwise were very different. One was in Printed Books and later went on to be the Librarian of the War Office - a man of eminence and charm. He took Alice to restaurants in the Thames valley, where he toyed with a diamond ring in the presence of five-year old Ivy, for the benefit of the mother. The other John Alexander Herbert(Sandy), was an expert in medieval illuminated manuscripts - a scholar, conventional, assiduous, loyal and dignified; but of narrow horizons." 'Frank' Hudleston was Librarian of the War Office. Sandy and Alice married in 1896. In 1903 'Frank' married Alice's half-sister Evelyn Fox. Ivy Low, 1913 while working at the Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd, had her first novel published Growing Pains - "in which the heroine tells her own story of the comic tragedy of her progress to womanhood" - (Samuel Lipman). In 1914 it was followed by The Questing Beast - "a torrid (for its time) account of office life and the sexual pitfalls of loneliness" - (Samuel Lipman - "The new Criterion", 1984). She also had literary friends such as D.H. Lawrence, Viola Meynell and Catherine Carswell.
Maxim returned to Russia towards the end of 1918, later becoming the Soviet Foreign Minister. Ivy followed him two years later. Ivy became a translator, and also wrote the novel His Masters Voice in 1930. During the period 1941 - 1943 Maxim was appointed Soviet Ambassador to the United States and was replaced by Andrei Gromyko. Maxim returned to Russia as deputy Foreign Minister under Molotov but lost this position about 1946. He died in 1951. Ivy stayed on in Russia working mainly as a teacher of music/English and translator. She made a short visit to England in 1960 and returned permanently in 1972 residing in Hove. Her daughter Tanya joined her about 1976 and she continued writing short stories, some being published in The New Yorker. In 1971 several of her short stories were published in She Knew She Was Right. Authors, some of whose works were translated by Ivy, sometimes in conjunction with her daughter Tanya (Tatiana), include Alexei Tolstoy, Sergeevich Turgenev, Anton Checkhov. Ivy Litvinov died in April 1977. |
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Ivy met Maxim Litvinov just after the onset of the First World War. In 1916 they were married in Hampstead and in 1917 Misha was born followed by Tanya in 1918.