Last Updated on April 3, 2023
Eleanor Lewis will review Writing Women’s Lives: An Anthology of Autobiographical Narratives by Twentieth Century American Writers edited by Susan Cahill [New York: Harper, 1994] on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 7 PM in the Auditorium.
This is a collection of autobiographical narratives written by fifty twentieth century American writers. Editor Susan Cahill chose some well- known writers like Lillian Hellman, Eudora Welty, Maya Angelou and Madeleine L’Engle. She included others, perhaps waiting in the wings to be discovered, like Mary Antin, a Russian-Jewish immigrant writing her story in 1912 and Dorothy Allison, almost a century later, identifying
herself as a “cross-eyed, working-class lesbian.” Their stories are diverse.
Some writers recall their lives and activities in World War II in minute detail, while others take you back to their childhood. Jane O’Reilly, for example, reevaluates the childish world view she had been raised with in privileged mid-century America against the backdrop of the emerging women’s movement. Jane Addams, traveling abroad, writes with great sensitivity of the conditions of poor women in England, situations which inspired her to found Hull House in Chicago when she returned to this country.
At the start of each section the editor has given a short introduction to the writer’s life and accomplishments. She has chosen excerpts from their memoirs, complete in themselves, so that in a brief four or five page coverage there is always a satisfying conclusion. It is the perfect book for bedtime reading. The life stories of women of all ages, dispositions and experiences are told in their own words.
Author Susan Cahill, Ph.D wrote Earth Angels and edited many anthologies. She has taught at Queens College and Fordham University.
Resident Eleanor Lewis has a background in teaching religion at the university and seminary level, followed by advocacy for underserved people. She is an active volunteer at Charlestown and has presented over a dozen book reviews.