Jenni Calder

Jenni Calder (née Daiches) (born 1941) is an American-born British literary historian, and arts establishment figure.

Jenni Calder (née Daiches)
Born	1941 Chicago
Known for	Writer, poet
Children	Rachel, Gowan, and Gideon

For many years she has been an influential part of the literary community of Edinburgh, her home town. Her teaching and writing cover literary and historical subjects relating to both England and Scotland as well as the United States.

She has written 28 books on literary and historical subjects, including biographies of Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Orwell and Naomi Mitchison and books on Scottish history and Scottish emigration. She has a particular research interest in emigration and the Scottish diaspora. She worked at the National Museums of Scotland from 1978 to 2001 and latterly as Head of Museum of Scotland International. In 2003 she helped to organise the National Museum of Scotland's exhibition called 'Trailblazers - the Scots in Canada'. She was president of Scottish PEN, a not-for-profit organisation that champions freedom of expression and literature across borders.

She writes fiction and poetry as Jenni Daiches.

She was formerly married to Angus Calder, and is the daughter of David Daiches a prominent writer, critic and historian. She was born in the USA and spent time in Kenya. Her book Not Nebuchadnezzar is a partly a biography and a 'chronicle of the consuming search for that elusive concept known as 'identity''. She has spoken out about anti-antisemitism

On the question of Scottish independence; of 27 Scottish authors whose opinion was sought, Calder was one of only two who opposed.

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Jenni Calder at a literary event

Some works

• Chronicles of Conscience. A Study of George Orwell and Arthur Koestler. Secker & Warburg, 1968
• There Must Be a Lone Ranger: The myth and reality of the American Wild West. Hamish Hamilton, 1974
• Huxley Brave New World and Orwell Nineteen Eighty Four. Edward Arnold, 1976
• Women and Marriage in Victorian Fiction. Thames And Hudson, 1976
• The Victorian Home. Book Club Associates, 1977
• Heroes: From Byron to Guevara. Hamish Hamilton, 1977
• RLS: A Life Study of Robert Louis Stevenson. Hamish Hamilton, 1980
• Stevenson and Victorian Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, 1984
• Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty Four. Open University, 1988
• The Wealth of a Nation. Publications Office, Edinburgh, 1989
• Scotland in Trust: The National Trust for Scotland, 1990
• The Story of the Scottish Soldier, 1600-1914. National Museums of Scotland, 1992
• Enterprising Scot: Scottish Adventure and Achievemt. National Museums of Scotland, 1995
• The Nine Lives of Naomi Mitchison. Virago, 1997
• Scots in the USA. Luath Press, 2006
• Not Nebuchadnezzar. Luath Press