Marian Cannon Schlesinger


Marian Cannon Schlesinger was an American artist and author. From 1940 to 1970, she was the wife of historian Arthur M. Shlesinger Jr., during which she was among John F. Kennedy's circle.

Biography

Schlesinger was born on September 13, 1912, in Franklin, New Hampshire, to physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon and feminist author Cornelia James Cannon. Her siblings included surgeon Bradford Cannon and art historian Wilma Cannon Fairbank. Raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she graduated from Radcliffe College in 1934. She travelled from an early age, including three months in Europe at age 17, and living in China for a year alongside her sister Wilma following her graduation from college.
In 1940, Schlesinger married historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who she had met at her parents' house during college. They had four children together, including Christina and Stephen Schlesinger. Through her husband, she met John F. Kennedy, who she endorsed. They divorced in 1970, after which Arthur remarried in 1971, and Schlesinger never remarried.
Following their divorce, Schlesinger returned to Cambridge, where she worked as an author and painter. She published two volumes of her memoir, Snatched from Oblivion: A Cambridge Memoir and I Remember: A Life of Politics, Painting and People, as well as five children's books, which she also illustrated. She painted landscapes and portraits, and spent time in China, where she visited her sister and studied art.
The New York Times described Schlesinger as having been "raised in an opinionated family". She did not consider herself a feminist, despite her mother being one. She was still independent, with Robert F. Kennedy once asking Arthur if he was in control of his wife. She did, however, inherit her mother's ethnic hatred; she said Irish people were "too attractive for defeat", though still supported Kennedy, who was of Irish descent.
Schlesinger died on October 14, 2017, aged 105, in Cambridge.

Works

', 1939; 2d. edition Cambridge MA: Gale Hill Books, 1998.