Up close with Helen

After Helen returned to the US, she immediately wrote about her 1978 trip and sent the manuscripts to An, who translated a section of it before having it published in a Chinese literary magazine.

"Upon receiving a copy of the magazine, Helen asked a Yale University professor from Taiwan to translate my article back into English so that she could compare the two versions," An said. "I got to know this only years later. But what I did know was that she called to see if I was interested in translating more of her works."

Meanwhile in her hometown, Helen had found another dedicated helper in Sharon Crain, who majored in Chinese studies at Duke University and who first went to China in 1977. Crain had read about Helen when Deng Xiaoping, then China's vice-premier, visited the US in early 1979 to formalize diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"While Helen was invited to the reception in Washington, my husband and I were sitting in our home in Connecticut reading about her," Crain said. "In 1937, upon her departure from Yan'an, Mao wrote Helen a letter for her to take to Deng, in which Mao asked Deng to assist Helen and offer her protection and convenience during her interviews on the war front. Unable to meet Deng due to a change of events back then, Helen was able to present Mao's letter to Deng at the reception, calling him'a hard man to find'."

Crain was fascinated before she arrived at the very last sentence of that New York Times article, which reads: "Helen Snow now resides in the small town of Madison." "I couldn't believe it: an important China hand lived three miles from my house and I had absolutely no idea about it," she said.

Crain telephoned her, but Helen's reaction was "one of fear". "She had been through the McCarthy era when anyone in America who had connections with China became objects of suspicion, interrogation and hate," Crain said. (Against that backdrop, Edgar left the US for Switzerland in 1959, where he died.)

But Crain was persistent, and Helen, who never learned to drive, needed someone to send her materials to the printers from time to time. That was the beginning of another lasting friendship.

"Huang Hua would always come to visit her at great effort when he was at the UN," Crain said."And the day before, Helen would call me and say: 'When they come, go out and buy fast food.' Helen wanted to save every minute for what she called the food for thought."

When Crain visited China again in 1981, she met An at the insistence of Helen. The three would meet regularly at Helen's home while An was a visiting professor to Trinity College in Hartford between the summers of 1985 and 1986.

"I would ride the Sunday train to Helen's place, where, despite my willingness to help with household chores, she often insisted that I sit down and listen to her story," An said. "I tape-recorded her talks; there were about 70 hours in total."

Those tapes, together with her fountain pen and hemp shoes from the Yan'an period, are now in Xi'an, part of the collection of a former Communist army office-turned memorial museum, where Helen spent one night on her way back to Beijing in 1937.

An also took Helen's typewriter from the 1930s, after buying her another one from a local antique store. "Helen stuck to manual typewriters throughout her life," An said.