Judith M. Amory

Judith Malev Amory (1938-2024) passed away peacefully after a short illness on December 28, in New York, the city of her birth. She was the widow of Hugh Amory (1930-2001). She is survived by her brother Jonathan Malev, and her three sons, Patrick Amory (1965-), Michael Amory (1967-), and Colum Amory (1970-), along with four beloved grandchildren. She held an A.B. from Radcliffe College and studied linguistics at Columbia University, where she met Hugh, and broke off her graduate studies. After raising the family in Brookline, Massachusetts, she went back to academia, this time at library school. She then worked at Houghton & Mifflin and Harvard University Library. In her retirement, she volunteered in cataloging at the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A brilliant linguist, she mastered seven languages, including Mandarin, which she took up in her 60s. She is known for translations of multiple works from Chinese into English alongside her colleague Yaohua Shi, most notably Yang Jiang’s 洗澡 (Baptism), a fictionalized memoir about public confessions in the wake of the Chinese Revolution. She had a wide circle of friends and a large extended family including many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, and cousins, all of whom mourn her deeply.