Benedict Freedman December 1919-- February 24, 2012 Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2012 A 39.
Written with his wife, Nancy Freedman, Mrs. Mike was a novelistic account of the early life of an acquaintance, Katherine Mary O’Fallon, who in 1907, at 16, was sent from her home in Boston to Calgary, where the pure air was meant to restore her health. There she met Mike Flannigan, a Canadian Mountie with eyes “so blue you could swim in them.”
She marries him, and follows him to his post in the Northern wilds. Through abundant hardship and devastating personal loss, Kathy is sustained by her husband’s unwavering love.
Mrs. Mike, which remains in print, has sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into more than two dozen languages. the film adaptation, starring Dick Powell and Evelyn Keyes, was released under the same title in 1949.
It is not so surprising that the novel, with its sweeping setting and persevering characters, captivated a weary postwar world. What is striking is that for a cohort of women born much later — circa 1960 — Mrs. Mike became a cherished mainstay of adolescence and beyond.
“Kathy is somebody who broke free of convention,” the journalist Peggy Orenstein, who first read the novel as a teenager in the 1970s, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “It was inspirational for a generation of women who were young teenagers during the early ’70s, when life for women and girls was changing really rapidly.”
After Ms. Orenstein wrote an article about her abiding love for Mrs. Mike in O: The Oprah Magazine in 2007, she received a flood of mail from similarly smitten women.
“I still get e-mails about it,” she said. “I’ve gotten e-mails from people who have named their kids Kathy. I’ve gotten e-mails from people who have been obsessed with the book for years. That book struck a chord.”
Perhaps most surprising is that Mr. Freedman never set out to be a novelist. A scriptwriter for radio and television, he was also an aeronautical engineer who worked on the Spruce Goose, the winged behemoth designed by Howard Hughes. But all he ever really wanted to be was a mathematician — and in his 50s, he became one.
Benedict Freedman was born in New York City on Dec. 19, 1919. His father, David, was a renowned writer for Broadway and radio who created the character of Baby Snooks for Fanny Brice.
Benedict became the dubious beneficiary of his father’s show-business connections early on. A brilliant student, he graduated from Townsend Harris High School at 13 in 1933, and proceeded on to Columbia University. But what 13-year-old can land a date to the senior prom? Into the breach stepped his father, who summoned a business associate, Gypsy Rose Lee.
Alas, it was not to be, for when Miss Lee gave her prospective prom date a preview of her talents, the young Mr. Freedman fled in terror.
Due to his father's unexpected death at the age of 36, Freedman dropped out of Columbia to support his family just before his 17th birthday. He became a well-known comedy writer for radio personalities such as Jimmy Durante, Al Jolson and Red Skelton; and later wrote comedy shows and later wrote for television shows including “My Favorite Martian” and Mr. Skelton’s comedy-variety hour.
He met his beloved soulmate Nancy Mars, whom he wed on June 29, 1940 on the eve of World War II, beginning a marriage that lasted 70 years. During the war, Freedman worked for Curtis Wright Tech and later Hughes Aircraft. He contributed the novel mathematical idea of using Newton's "calculus of finite difference" to design the Spruce Goose which is more appropriate than the usual "continuous calculus" for dealing with the mechanical properties of plywood.
Afterwards, while continuing his television career he also wrote novels with Nancy, including the bestseller Mrs. Mike, translated into dozens of languages as well as This and No More, The Spark and the Exodus, The Apprentice Bastard, Lootville, and Tresa.
Benedict Freedman, whose first novel, Mrs. Mike — based on the true story of a young woman’s life in the Canadian wilderness at the turn of the century — was a sensation after it was published in 1947 and inspired a Hollywood feature film, died on Feb. 24 at his home in Corte Madera, Calif. He was 92. His family confirmed the death.
Written with his wife, Nancy Freedman, Mrs. Mike was a novelistic account of the early life of an acquaintance, Katherine Mary O’Fallon, who in 1907, at 16, was sent from her home in Boston to Calgary, where the pure air was meant to restore her health. Mrs. Mike, which remains in print, has sold millions of copies worldwide and been translated into more than two dozen languages.
It is not so surprising that the novel, with its sweeping setting and persevering characters, captivated a weary postwar world. What is striking is that for a cohort of women born much later — circa 1960 — Mrs. Mike became a cherished mainstay of adolescence and beyond.
“Kathy is somebody who broke free of convention,” the journalist Peggy Orenstein, who first read the novel as a teenager in the 1970s, said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “It was inspirational for a generation of women who were young teenagers during the early ’70s, when life for women and girls was changing really rapidly.”
Fifty years after writing Mrs. Mike, Ben and Nancy returned to this popular work to publish two sequels, The Search for Joyful and Kathy Little Bird. Well into their eighties, they continued to write together producing two more works, There Was a Boy, There was a Girl, and Us, A Duography about their own remarkable romance. Ben also wrote what he considered his major lifework, Rescuing the Future, a tome of political philosophy that saw human beings as "value makers," values as living things and explored the practical implications of these conceptualizations for addressing global and interpersonal values conflict.
Freedman returned to college in 1966, fulfilling a lifelong dream to become a mathematician. He earned a B.A. from UCLA in 1968, and went on to complete his Ph.D. in Symbolic Logic. The correct interpretation of Godel's theorems was his consistent mathematical interest from age 13 to 92. His mathematical analysis of the "four number game" is posted on arXiv-11900051. Freedman was hired in the Department of Mathematics at Occidental College where he proceeded to teach for 25 years. He was the recipient of many teaching awards, and for several years directed Occidental's General Studies Program intruding many curricular innovations to the campus. Although he often said he would like to die at the blackboard, in 1995 Freedman retired from Occidental. He and Nancy moved from their home in Malibu to Northern California to help raise their youngest granddaughter. They spent their remaining years vibrantly and creatively, mentoring their 8 grandchildren, writing, mastering computer technology, making musical video dramatizations starring their daughter Deborah, and laying a foundation for a website displaying all their copious artistic product.
Ben and Nancy Freedman had three children, Johanna Shapiro, professor of family medicine and director of the Program in Medical Humanities at UC Irvine School of Medicine, Michael Freedman, recipient of the prestigious Fields Medal and an internationally renowned mathematician whose current work with Microsoft is focussed on development of the quantum computer, and Deborah Jackson, a music professor at UC Berkeley and well-known voice instructor and choral conductor in the Bay area. They also had eight grandchildren whom they cherished and four great-grand children. Ben's brother, Dr. Toby Freedman and Dr. David Noel Freedman predeceased him, he is survived by his sister Laurie Hayden.
Ben Freedman was a brilliant, wide-ranging thinker, a gifted mathematician, but also a polymath who could discourse knowledgeably--and humorously--on any subject. He was a scientist who had great respect for the scientific method, but also embraced the mystery and beauty found in Bach's B Minor Mass, the sonnets of Shakespeare and the poetry of Heine. He was an unparalleled raconteur and often quoted the Jewish proverb, "A good story is truer than the truth." Beyond the intellectual attainments, he was an unfailingly kind and generous man to his family, friends, and students. Former students revered him decades after he was their professor because of the wise life counsel he offered them, in addition to teaching them quadratic equations and calculus. His family gratefully acknowledged him as their patriarch because of his complete trustworthiness and goodness. In his last days, even his nurses and aides came to love him. His life is perhaps best summed up with a line he wrote in Rescuing the Future, "Between despair and faith lies hope." Ben and Nancy Freedman Creative Writing Awards has been established to identify future writers of excellence at all 6 Gilbert, Arizona high schools. Ben and Nancy are also remembered by prizes and up at Occidental College for student attainments in both writing and mathematics. In recognition of their lives, donations may be sent to Denise Frost, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Rd., M-33, Los Angeles, CA, 90042-3314.