Abstract The Edgar & Helen Snow marriage was a rare combination of two gifted young Americans with great ambition, bright ideas, dauntless courage and unshakeable persistence in seeking truth from facts. Having formed a two-person team, they cooperated closely and worked out wonders that would later shake the world. Red Star over China and Inside Red China, the Snow’s life achievements, are always considered as two companion volumes about the Chinese revolution under the Communist Party. Remaining as classics for over 60 years, they have real communication in all ways, and had more real influence on the history of their time. These two books justified their 10 years in China and their lifetime career in journalism.
Theirs was and still is a model marriage, very productive and successful. This was Gung Ho producerism and a powerhouse marriage in which the productivity was not doubled but multiplied many times as each partner divided the labor and worked at a synergetic project. Facts proved that their marriage helped build up both of them and accomplish their life achievements in the East, especially in China.
War changed man. Nearly all the war correspondents suffered from the war experience, and Edgar was becoming more like the famous ones who were his new friends, most of whom got divorces and younger wives. According to Helen, Edgar wanted to enjoy his laurels, take a rest and turn over a new leaf, but she was still bogged down with all the unfinished writing never done because of all the incessant do-gooderism, year after year. However, Helen also thought it was time for a change or she might be stuck with all the old problems of all kinds though she well realized what a grand tradition it had built up as an example. The Snows shared nearly all points in common, but they had quite different personalities. The Snow divorce was inevitable, and necessary for both of them might be destroyed by this marriage that had caused trouble and was a drag on their development.
If we say that the Snow marriage helped build up both Edgar and Helen in their early career in China, the divorce after 17 years of marriage helped accomplish what each one of them wanted but unable to do so after they had established themselves.
The year 1949 was an important divide not only for the Chinese, but two of their friends. Just before the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, the New York Times reported that Helen Foster Snow received a divorce from Edgar Snow, a foreign correspondent and associate editor for the Saturday Evening Post.
It was sad that the divorce became part of the year for both Edgar and Helen Snow who had been working hard for so many years for the independence and liberation of China. The divorce was a blow to the prestige of the American “nuclear marriage”, not only in China and India, but even in the United States, where admiring articles had listed them among a dozen such teamwork marriages. Quite a few Chinese friends of theirs were, and still are very sorry for the divorce because the Snow marriage was regarded as a model in those days among the Chinese youth.
It was, and still is not easy for their friends and readers to understand why the divorce? Was the Snow marriage still a model? Was this marriage a success or tragedy? What were the opinions of Edgar and Helen about their marriage? Without answering these questions, which are constantly asked, it is hard to have a comprehensive, fair and accurate assessment on their life achievements in China, especially that of Edgar Snow’s.