Sally Belfrage

Sally Belfrage

Sally Belfrage (October 4, 1936 – March 14, 1994) was a United States-born British-based 20th century non-fiction writer and international journalist. Her writing covered The Troubles in Northern Ireland, the American Civil Rights Movement and her memoirs. According to her obituary in The New York Times, she was 'an intelligent and humorous journalist and critic who ardently searched for the truth'.

Life and work

Sally Mary Caroline Belfrage was born in Hollywood, California, on 4 October 1936. Her parents, Cedric Belfrage and Molly Castle, later moved to New York where she studied at the Bronx High School of Science and Hunter College. She returned to England when her parents were deported to London as alleged Communists. After her return she matriculated at the London School of Economics. After graduating she attended the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow, visited to China and worked for the Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, in 1957.

Belfrage became a social activist and world traveller. Her books include The Crack: A Belfast Year (1987, retitled Living with War: A Belfast Year for United States distribution), Un-American Activities: A Memoir of the Fifties (1995), Freedom Summer (1999), A Room in Moscow (1958), and Flowers of Emptiness: Reflections on an Ashram. In 1969, Belfrage signed a war tax resistance vow, along with 447 other American writers and editors. It was published in the January 30, 1969 edition of the New York Post.

Death

Belfrage lived most of her life in London, where she died at Middlesex Hospital from lung cancer (adenocarcinoma) in 1994, at age 57.

Personal life

Marriage and family

In 1965, she married Bernard Pomerance who was best known for his play, The Elephant Man. They had two children: Eve Pomerance, a casting director, screenwriter and producer in Hollywood, and Moby Pomerance, a playwright and screenwriter.

Belfrage's brother was Nicolas Belfrage, a Master of Wine and wine critic. Her uncle was Bruce Belfrage, a BBC newsreader during World War II, and her great-uncle was Bryan Powley, an actor.