Herman J. Mankiewicz - Early Life

Early Life

Herman Mankiewicz was born in New York City in 1897. His parents were of German-Jewish ancestry: his father, Franz Mankiewicz, was born in Berlin and emigrated to the U.S. from Hamburg in 1892. He arrived in the U.S. with his wife, a dressmaker named Johanna Blumenau, who was from the German-speaking Kurland region." The family lived first in New York and then moved to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where Herman's father accepted a teaching position. In 1909, Herman's brother, Joseph L. Mankiewicz (who himself would have a career as a successful writer, producer, and director), was born, and both boys and a sister spent their childhood there.

The family moved to New York City in 1913, and Herman graduated from Columbia University in 1917. After a period as managing editor of the American Jewish Chronicle, he became a flying cadet with the United States Army in 1917, and, in 1918, a private first class with the Marines, A.E.F. In 1919 and 1920, he became director of the American Red Cross News Service in Paris, and after returning to the U.S. married Sara Aaronson, of Baltimore. He took his bride overseas with him on his next job as a foreign correspondent in Berlin from 1920 to 1922, doing political reporting for George Seldes on the Chicago Tribune.

He was a "bookish, introspective child who, despite his intelligence, was never able to win approval from his demanding father" who was known to belittle his achievements.

His children are screenwriter Don Mankiewicz, politician Frank Mankiewicz and the late novelist Johanna Mankiewicz Davis.