5 comments about Madame de Pompadour: Mistress of France.

1. Remembered today in narratives of the past, heralded in poetry and song, Madame de Pompadour, born Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson in 1721, continues to be a fascinating and enigmatic figure.

   The daughter of a mother noted for her beauty and high spirits, Jeanne inherited both of these qualities. In addition, a fortune teller predicted that the little girl would one day be the mistress of Louis XV. This foretelling Jeanne later told Voltaire "struck her with the force of a thunderbolt." And, it was a prophecy that the young woman seemed hellbent on fulfilling.

   Christine Pevitt Algrant's comprehensive and cogent portrait of the woman who would, indeed, become the most potent force in the court of Louis XV is a welcome addition to the annals of history, as it includes a telling picture of a troubled France.

   Courtiers were shocked when the humbly born Poisson became recognized as the king's maitresse declaree. After all, the king's prior inamoratas had all been members of the elite, born of royal lineage. However, it was one thing to become his lover, and quite something else to become his sole confidante and the power behind the throne. A title was purchased for her thus the transformation into Madame de Pompadour was complete. She was reviled by many, and obeyed by all.

   With Versailles as her backdrop she became an important patron of the arts, nurturing such luminaries as Voltaire, Diderot, Rousseau, and Boucher. It was she who masterminded the building of the Petit Trianon Palace at Versailles.

   Yet as a part of the world continued to be torn her quest for power was unsatisfied. France and England were at odds, and she cast a pall over the treaty allying France with her hated Austria. She succeeded in removing her enemies from positions of influence, and replacing them with trusted friends. Her creation of an opulent court incurred public wrath, and her political maneuverings created foes in court.

   Nonetheless, the king's trust in his paramour never waned.

   Incisive and thoroughly researched "Madame de Pompadour" bursts with color and intrigue. It is fact even more fascinating than fiction.

   - Gail Cooke




2. Madame Pompadour broke through an enormous social barrier for women of society - she was the first of the bourgeoisie to be appointed "official mistress" to a French King. (Even in the Court of Versailles, women faced glass ceilings). Her relationship with Louis XV, a man of immense carnal appetites, was hardly the stuff of which romance is made: she was groomed for her role by a clique of favor-seeking investment bankers, who duly cashed in when she achieved influence. Pompadour's real talent - and greatest legacy - was her patronage of arts and literature, most notably Boucher and Voltaire, but also the fine arts such as the porcelain works as Sevres. Her role in policy, on the other hand, was hardly beneficial in the long run: for all the talented ministers she was able to promote, none of them solved the profound inequities of ancien regime France. What, though, could be expected under the reign of Louis XV? As Pevitt demonstrates, he must qualify as one of history's most boorish (and depraved) leaders. This is a well-balanced biography - giving all due credit to Pompadour's good taste and cultured eye, yet ruthless in exposing her pettiness and pretentiousness.



3. I was hoping for insight on more of the private life of Pompadour; instead, I got a very in-depth account of her political involvement. These were so detailed that at times, I tired of the seemingly endless political escapades Pompadour was a involved in. Sometimes, the book felt more like a biography 18th century French politics rather than the life of Pompadour. Her life was abrupt and her time as the romantic love of Louis XV's even shorter. After it was obvious that Louis XV no longer looked to her as a romantic partner, Pompadour positioned herself as a confidant, a friend, an advisor, among many other roles. This made her a very well-known woman in French royal society; some dubbed her as the Prime Minister of France, others called her the true Queen. While this book was well researched and well written, I still feel that it's a pity that this book focused more on her foray into politics rather than the overall doings of her private life.



4. Louis XV, historically France's "bien-aime, is rendered here the "bien-damne." Algrant's vision cuts deeply across historical accounts of both the king and his mistress. Students of French literature will recognize Madame de Pompadour portrayed as the intelligent and enlightened patroness of the arts.
   That the seeds of Louis XVI's demise were sown in the reign of Louis XV is not news. However, the degree of Louis XV's dereliction of duty and almost lecherous exploitation of teenage concubines portrays him beyond merely oblivious to the state of his country. He becomes almost "Nero-esque."
   While Louis XV "fiddled," Madame de Pompadour "burned" passionately with grandiose political schemes taking on the role of Prime Minister. Her political disasters drained France of both blood and money as she waged war against England and Prussia simultaneously. Additionally the monarch and former mistress carried on an aggressive building program. It is apparent why she was so greatly despised by the general French population, and remarkable that the French Revolution was delayed until some twenty-five years after her death. I cannot improve on a comment offered by Alistair Horne "...Madame de Pompadour makes you hear the rattle of the tumbrels, just thirty years down the road."



5. Really enjoyed reading about this amazing woman. I think the French monarchy was amazing in their choice of mistresses -- I would have hated being a wife!

5 comments about True North: A Memoir.

1. Jill Conway's True North did little to answer the question as to how a talented, ambitious, learned female copes with a manic-depressive husband. Actually, I was disappointed in finding out very little about John who must have been an incredible intellect, bon vivant, and wifely challenge. Jill may want to fulfill a need of many spouses dealing with a bipolar mate by writing a sequel.



2. This "sequel" to Road From Coorain was not a disappointment. It is beautifully written, sensitive and so clearly represents what it was (and still is) like for women in academia. As a young woman in higher education, I know that I will read this book again and again. It affirms the experiences of women who are climbing the tenure ladder in an old boys network that does not welcome women and provides the mentorship that we so desperately need.



3. Since I did not read the first volume of Conway's now-three-part memoir, I have nothing to compare this to. But I liked her light and tasteful touch with personal details. Conway wasn't dealt the easiest hand in life, but here readers will find no self pity. This is not a book for the empty-headed. But as a former history student and current college instructor, I can identify with much of what Conway writes about; I'm nowhere near as intellectual as she is, however. But this is a great book if you want to explore a woman's coming of intellectual age.



4. AND I FELT REALLY CONNECTED TO THE AUTHOR

   I really can't explain my feelings in words. Look at the subject first then read on. They are all by Dr. Jill Ker Conway (shes a phd). The titles are The Road from Coorain (also a Exxon Mobil Masterpiece Theater movie as well), True North, and A Women's Education. Is she orginally from New South Wales, Australia. Came to the United States for graduate school, but stayed there after that, but was Canada as well for 6 years. Boys you will also love reading them as well. Thank you.




5. Jill Ker Conway leaves her native Australia for a doctoral program at Radcliffe College not only to further her career, but perhaps even more to break free from her co-dependent birth family's stifling ties. For the first time in her life, Jill lives among people who believe that it's not only acceptable - but mandatory - for a woman to develop her intellect to its full potential. People who find ideas exciting, and who encourage Jill to treat her own emotional well-being as an absolute priority; not as a luxury to be sacrificed for the "good" of her mentally ill mother. In this new and amazingingly nurturing environment, she thrives.
   
   When it's time for her to start instructing undergraduates, something she's already experienced in her Australian university, Jill falls under the supervision of Harvard professor John Conway. This Canadian war veteran is a generation older, witty, brilliant, and immensely attractive to a woman in love with intellect. Before Jill's stay at Harvard ends, they're married. The next year is spent in Europe, learning how to be a couple (not the easiest of lessons for either partner, since both are sufficiently mature to be set in their ways) and preparing for John's return to his native country. For he, too, is putting Harvard into the past.
   
   Jill's years as a Canadian professor of American history open up yet another new universe, as she takes leadership - by default, not choice, at first - in the 1970s rise of women's history as a topic for scholarly study. Her personal and professional growth through this period doesn't come easily, and it's fascinating reading.
   
   True North picks up where The Road from Coorain left off, and carries this remarkable woman through to her move from Canada back to the United States, to take up her duties as the newly appointed president of Smith College. For me this book is a memoir of an era I remember well because I, too, lived it. For readers younger than my generation and that of Jill Ker Conway (who is my oldest sister's contemporary), it should make a fascinating look at an era when working women still had to deal with limited expectations and blatantly limited compensation structures. A great read from first chapter to last!

5 comments about The Private World of Georgette Heyer.

1. If you love Georgette Heyer this book will make you a little sad. In private Ms. Heyer wasn't the person some fans would've wished her to be. Does this change my fondness for her books?Certainly not. The most important thing is the tale not he or in this case, she who tells it.



2. The private world of Georgette Heyer was always firmly and politely closed to her reading public; she denied all interviews, was reluctant even to be photographed, and limited her publicity work to writing blurbs for advertising campaigns. Surviving family, friends, and the literary estate continue to honor the author's preference, leaving only open records, publisher correspondence, and the books themselves to speak for their creator. Hodge's book is the better for this; the private world of the title relates to the literary world that Heyer created, and Hodge tells the story of the author's literary career, offering only a broad sketch of the events of Heyer's life and limiting her speculation into emotional states. Hodge's careful reading of the Heyer ouevre and Heyer's correspondence surrounding the creation and marketing of her books allows fans (and literary scholars) to eavesdrop on a lifelong literary career, offering insights into a woman with a keenly intelligent mind, passionate opinions, fastidious manners, and highly ambivalent views about her own work and its readers. The portrait is drawn without judgment (Hodge leaves that to the reader) and her prose is clear, well-structured, and as readable as Heyer's own. In a tone both fond of and perceptive about its subject, without requiring any recourse to gossip, scandal, or salacious tidbits (which Heyer herself would have no doubt abhorred!), Hodge's biography is both an interesting overview of the Heyer canon and a respectful portrait of the woman who created it. I particularly enjoyed the illustrations that brought the private world of Heyer's beloved Regency romances to light.



3. I have read Heyer off and on growing up and rediscovered them a while ago. Surfing the local library catalogue, I bumped into this book and found it fascinating. The world Heyer built was charming and perfect, where manners and propriety is must and wit is romance. Its the world I like to escape into and Hodge does homage to both the creator and the works respectful of Heyer's sentiments. Her style of analysing and studying the books chronologically makes a splendid approach to following Heyer's life and work as an author. However, while doing so she does not reveal much about the plot itself, but definitely does let you in on what it must have taken - research and otherwise - for Heyer to have produced it.
   It is well written and exposes Heyer only as much as she herself might have allowed. I thought it a novel way to write about an author who put so much of herself (essence of herself rather) in her books. Through out the book, you see Heyer herself evolving, as you see her family grow and surround her.
   I would recommend this book - in fact go so far as to say it is a must - for any Heyer fan. The other author it made me think of is Edgar Wallace. In fact, I found a curious reference to him in the book - his daughter was Mrs.Frere, a close friend of Heyer.



4. Jane Aiken Hodge wrote the first critical perspective of Heyer's books, and it is one of the most useful books. Not only is it an insight into Georgette Heyer's world, but also a glimpse into her own life. Hodge had access to her diary's and notebooks, a privilege not extended to anyone else until Mary Fahnstock Thomas did her critical perspective. (Also very good)
   
   The Private World of Georgette Heyer should be put into perspective. It shows the development of Heyer's writing, from the first episodic book she wrote for her brother (Black Moth) and published at the age of 17, to her experiment with modern novels (all suppressed) to her experiments with writing mysteries, historical novels, her movement into her most famous genre, Regency Romances, and finally to the works she considered her most eponymous - that is of Medieval fiction. Her last work was left unfinished, and was published as such. It is perhaps her most disliked by her modern readers.
   
   Heyer is also perhaps not necessarily recognised by the wider public as the woman who spawned the Regency Romance genre. She was badly copied by the likes of Barbara Cartland, but as Heyer's fans know, Heyer did hours of painstaking research on her subjects. Hodge does an excellent job of showing this in this book. Some of the illustrations Heyer copied from books and magazines in the British Library are reproduced, but more usefully, Hodge goes through each book and allows a chapter for it and Heyer's life at the time. Usually there is a struggle with the Inland Revenue involved as Heyer seemed to have to write to pay the tax bills more often than not.
   
   There are occassional lapses where Hodge makes minor mistakes on books etc, these are pretty forgiveable in a book of this scope and they usually don't affect the understanding of Heyer and her books too greatly.
   
   For anyone wishing to understand Heyer, or get a greater understanding of the period of history she was writing about (or living in) this is an excellent work. If nothing else just flick through and look at the pictures. An extraodinary woman, and a very private life well illustrated.



5. Georgette Heyer was a very private personage. She had to be to keep up with her voluminous writing and family responsibilities. It takes time to write and do it well, which the legions of Ms. Heyer's fans will attest.
   Jane Aiken Hodge used the private letters, interviews, current readings of all her books to interweave a biography through the author's work. The excellent index allows a reader to discover what was happening in Ms. Heyer's personal life when a particular book was published.
   The British system of taxation almost destroyed Ms. Heyer career, but it gave readers many delightful stories as she struggle to meet its demands.
   A must volume for any Heyer fan, who still enjoys a wide readerships over thirty years after her death. "The Private World of Georgette Heyer" is both scholarly and intimate, a difficult achievement for any author.
   Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."

1 comments about Living A Dream: A Journey from Aide to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 9/11 to Full-Time Cruiser.

1. One word comes to mind to describe this book: wow! Living a Dream, by Suzanne Giesemann, details the first year of retirement for military retirees Ty and Suzanne Giesemann. The book opens in a very strange place for a book about sailing adventures: The Pentagon. Ty is a retired Navy ship driver, both as Captain and Destroyerman, who has had an impressive career of Naval exploits. They were working on the West coast when Ty's job no longer held the challenge and stimulation that he needed, so he found a great job in Washington. Suzanne was a successful career Navy woman serving as a Fleet Support Officer. Through a little social networking she ended up working in Washington with her husband, and shortly thereafter the Pentagon as an aide-de-camp to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, no small potatoes. The second chapter of her book details her experiences from 9/11. Being connected to one of the most powerful men in the country meant she saw things and did things that no other person would that day. She witnessed what will be written in history books firsthand, and recounts it with pathos and clarity. Giesemann, and those aboard the plane on which she was flying, were the only ones to see the devastation of both the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, from the air, in person, in the same day. Her recounting of that momentous day brought back a stream of memories.
   
   Everyone who is of age will recall exactly where they were when they first heard what had happened on 9/11; the feeling in their stomach when they first saw the video of the plane flying into that mighty tower. I remember the feelings I had, but I also remember how quickly those feelings passed. I was a naïve child, a sophomore in college, who did not think that the events of that fateful day would really affect me. Now that I am out in the 'real world' I can't help but wish I had known better, that I had been more informed. This book brought that back to me and I am grateful for that reminder. Today, we are spared the images of that day, yet without constant reminders, our memories get pushed aside as complacency tries to wash out what should be vivid images of hate and destruction; images painted in vibrant black, white and red, instead replaced by lackluster shades of gray.
   
   But I digress. Their experiences that day led them to forsake the 'normal' life and pursue their dream, to sell off their possessions, buy a sail boat, and cruise into the sunset. Having read every page on their website (http://www.libertysails.com/) I was concerned that this book would have little more to offer. I stand corrected! They followed the same path as they describe on their site, yet in more depth and with more feeling. Suzanne's style completely engrosses the reader with emotion and descriptions that did not overstay their welcome. I felt like I was with them aboard Liberty living the life. I shrugged off schoolwork in favor of reading this book, and I feel better for it. Who needs a foreign language when you have a story like theirs tempting you. I have not sped through a book or enjoyed one this much in years.
   
   This book is the newest edition of Living A Dream. A previous edition was self-published in 2004. The new edition, published by Paradise Cay Publications, is far superior to its predecessor. The textual content remains the same, but they have included twice as many photos at twice the quality. If you're debating on which version to buy, the 2008 edition is surely the way to go. Pick up a copy and you won't be disappointed.

No comments about Women in the Old Testament.

4 comments about Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan.

1. I thouroughley enjoyed reading this book,a story about courage, devotion ,espionage and the life of this insperational young woman Noor Inyat Khan. Born into a Sufi family, taught the Sufi values of service , truthefullnes and pacifisim, Noor volenteers to serve as a underground radio operator in occupied France during the second world war. This book went some way to answering the question Iwas asking myself. Why would a young lady bought up with Sufi values, who studied music and child phycology at the Sorbon volanteer to undertake such a mission? With such obviousley conflicting values and rolls this young lady served the Allied countrys with strength and fortatude rarley seen in the toughest of soldiers letalone a diminitave girl of her nature.A wounderfull insight into an extrondary life. Well reserched but is some of the facts are in conflict with the ABC and Wicapedia, none the less well done to the author. MICK GUILFOYLE



2. Noor Inayat Khan was a SOE agent, working as a wireless operator in occupied France. This is an interesting read about her childhood, how she became a spy, and the aftermath. Through the story of one agent and her family, you realize the magnitude of the war, where the mission became far more important than family ties. A musician and student of child psychology, who writes stories for children, eventually finds herself running from house to house in Paris, evading the gestapo. Shrabani Basu's writing is full of details but dull at times, but the power of the human spirit comes through.



3. I had read this before and am delighted to have my own copy. My Sufi teacher gave me her name as a spiritual name. I am honored.



4. "SPY PRINCESS"; The Life of Noor Inayat Khan was as unique a story as any fictional novel could be. The only difference is ... this story was true. Noor Inayat Khan was born to the union of an American journalist, Ora Ray Baker, and Hazrat Inayat Khan, a descendant from the Tipu Sultan of India who led an uprising against the British in 1799.
   
   The author, Shrabani Basu does a superb job of delving both into the mystical side of Noor Khan as well as, the secular side of her life and her work as a spy for British intelligence.
   
   Here is a book that portrays a real patriot, and... a real avatar. The reader can not help but see that Noor Khan actually takes on a "Christ figure" in her life as well as in her death. She is "Arjuna" from the Bhagavad-Gita, and at the same time, she emanates the incarnate spirit of a real Joan of Arc.
   
   Noor's artistic side is no less impressive. She was a writer of children's books (Twenty Jataka Tales), poetry, and indulged in various classical arts.
   
   On the secular side, Noor Khan was an exceptional patriot who becomes a member of the British SOE and was recruited for special assignment behind enemy lines in occupied France (her adopted country), during WWII. She becomes the first female wireless operator to enter France and the last wireless operator in Paris before her betrayal and arrest by the Gestapo.
   
   The author indicates that Noor Khan was totally truthful. A fact that may have sealed her fate even while still training in England. During the war, India was struggling for its own independence and was a real possible threat to Britan. When she appeared before a board that would either pass or fail her in on-going spy training, she was asked; what she thought of the Indian situation, and... which side would she support in case of conflict. Ms. Khan told the board she would, if necessary, stand for India against England...after the war with Germany. Despite the disapproving grunts she was still passed on for further training. I can not help but wonder if, the British government sent her into "harms way" knowing... that her survival chances were more than slim.
   
   None the less, Noor Inayat Khan chose to follow her path(karma), and like Joan of Arc... met her end and was burned at the martyrs alter.
   
   This is a very strong and tragic story, but one that should be read and felt by everyone!

2 comments about El pais bajo mi piel.

1. I've read the book (in its extremely sensitive and emphatic German translation immediately after my wife finished reading it and told me that it was a must for me to read!)

   The "must" was worthwhile because of the incredible breadth of Belli's writing expressiveness and intensity of the emotions expressed. In this respect I felt with her and for her in all her moods, life situations, her frustrations and her moments of joy.

   Reading it in that way, it is truthful, self-critical, just fascinating.

   But....and the BUT is my critical BUT.....where Belli, whose dairy-like autobiography this is (because otherwise whe would never have been able to reconstract the three decades of her life she talks about in "The Country Under My Skin" where she recalls all those names an situations with the accuracy as she does), the political aspect being portrayed in the book is strikingly unfair
   and is in severe contradiction to what is known to have actually happened between the terribel '72 earthquake and the end of the millenium as regards the Sandinistas and their revolution and the latter-day developments.
   The political stance Ms. Belli takes throughout her narrative is heavily lop-sided, if not naïve. Ms. Belli, who has in many ways "run into her hated enemy's arms" by living in the US, and does not really appear to have had any qualms about it, nor about passing on pure hear-say about political intrigues and movemements, acribically puts down dates and names and improper behaviour of the so-called enemies of the revolution, but she does not find any need to set right the warped political picture her Sandinista ideologists have slyly - and successfully - embedded in her mind.

   Ms. Belli should stick to writing her very beautiful prose - and stop loving her country by lashing out at phantoms, and painting a halo of "libertador" on irrespressive revolutionaries like Castro at al.....Nicaragua has not stopped suffering from the aftereffects of power-obsessed personalities, much as as it had been suffering from the Somoza nightmare.
   To be sure that I am not just blowing off steam for the sake of criticism, I have once again taken time and consulted credible sources on the actual facts of Nicaraguas transition from Somozism to Sandinism-Tercereistas and the years that followed....and have tried to do this without being blind on one eye...

   What I have finally found to be a representative truth does certainly not identify with many aspects Ms. Belli sets forth in her autobiography.
   Personally, I love South America. My mother tongues were English and Spanish, having spent my childhood in Venezuela, Argentina, Perú and Colombia.




2. Gioconda is another magnificent representative of the Latin American generation of authors that emerged in the seventies and eighties amidst social turmoils. Gioconda's artistry of words and poetry are evident throughout this book. Also the book arrangement, i.e. two threads set at two different time periods of her life, if not innovative fits nicely to convey her passionate, powerfully feminine message. This is perhaps the strongest point in this autobiography: the utmost defense of "las compañeras" in her struggle for equality and respect.
   
   Other little jewels are Gioconda's experience with iconic men like Torrijos and Fidel. These two anecdotes deserve to be in a study of the human condition: even in an egalitarian or progressive mind, machismo can be present.
   
   My 4 out of 5 star rate for this book is related to the author's ambiguous political position after the collapse of Sandinismo. In the last part of the book her message comes forth blurred by Gioconda's comfortable upper middle-class life in a serene Californian homestead. Suddenly, all that life-commitment with the revolution becomes a Sunday afternoon TV movie on "Oxygen" or "We". Then several pages, filled with apparently extensively meditated explanations, try to justify why she chose comfort to revolution. Personally, I think she closed the circle (as she likes to repeat through her book): she came back to her cradle in a solacing environment. Eventually, she goes back to Nicaragua to plunge back into "people's struggle" while being aware that she can always return to his Californian refuge. Not exactly a revolutionary life.

1 comments about My Heart in a Suitcase (Library of Holocaust Testimonies).

1. Do you know how I can contact Anne L. Fox, author of "My Heart in a Suitcase (Library of Holocaust Testimonies)?" I understand that she is working on a new book on a topic that interests me.

5 comments about Elizabeth.

1. Frankly, I'm enjoying this bio of La Liz. After 60 years she is still considered a quintessential superstar. No matter how much you've read about her, there is still a tidbit or two for readers to enjoy. Elizabeth Taylor has continually fascinated the public with her multiple marriages, escapades, and addictions - and we never seem to get enough. And she has survived it all. Which is the stuff Hollywood legends are usually made of. A good read!



2. A fascinating book! Very well researched and written by Taraborrelli with great respect for the "legend" Elizabeth Taylor.I bet Ms. Taylor would enjoy reading this book too,because it is honest and there is no bad gossip at all.



3. Elizabeth "Don't Call Her Liz" Taylor has had such a crazy life, punctuated by frequent illnesses (at one point, the author provides a list of the health crises she'd suffered -- and it's a long one -- before she'd even turned thirty) and marriages and divorces and scandals and weight gains and weight losses and multiple trips to rehab, that it is easy to overlook what a great actress she was. Of course, many of her movies were lousy, but even in a turkey like "Butterfield 8" (which Taylor herself detested and only did because she was forced to), she gave a terrific performance.
   
   Oh, and she was beautiful too. Very beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that had she not already established herself as a fine actress from childhood, she may have been dismissed as purely ornamental. No one has had a face like Taylor's -- the sable hair, the flawless skin, the perfectly-formed lips, the incredible eyes (not violet, as legend has it, but a luminous blue, surrounded by, as is revealed in the book, a double set of eyelashes), and as if all that wasn't enough, she had a stunning hourglass figure.
   
   Yet, she has never been fixated on her own looks; her mother Sara is quoted as saying, "She has no idea how beautiful she is," and though that's commonly said about beautiful people, I'm inclined to believe that it is true in Taylor's case. This book doesn't shy away from showing Taylor's flaws -- basically, she's monstrously spoiled, selfish, childish, tantrum-prone, and sometimes downright nightmarish -- but vanity is not one of them.
   
   This biography has many surprisingly touching moments which help balance out some of the more appalling scenes. Sometimes she was such a pill that it's hard to fathom why anyone put up with her. But it's clear that she met her match in Richard Burton, who was just as much of a pill as she was. Burton was perhaps the only person who had no qualms whatsoever about insulting Taylor to her face, and he really could be cruel. Given the knock-down drag-out fights they had in public, it is more than a little scary to imagine what their private fights were like.
   
   In sum: this book doesn't contain any earthshattering revelations, although it does have some rare photographs, such as one of Taylor's mother Sara during her brief spate as an actress. However, it is written with great affection and respect, and it is a fascinating story.



4. I didn't know much about Elizabeth Taylor before I read this book, but I am a fan now. Other reviewers have criticized this book for repeating information found in other Taylor sources, and I can't comment on that. As a read...this book is a little tedious. I purchased it from the bargain book rack at Borders. I probably wouldn't have read it otherwise, but I'm glad to know more about such a fascinating American icon.



5. I was hesitant to buy this biography, because for some reason it gave me the feel of one of those biographies full of lies. But I ended up loving it! It's told as a complete story of Ms. Taylor's life, full of detail.
   I would recommend it to any of her fans, or anyone who wants to read a very entertaining story.

5 comments about The Autobiography of Margaret Sanger (Dover Value Editions).

1. To interpret yourself and hope everyone after you swallows your interpretation was the wistful hope of this author. What a stark comparison between the Margaret Sanger of this autobiography and the real Margaret Sanger! What the world remembers is that her family planning clinics were usually located in Black neighborhoods. Ms. Sanger doesn't consciously disclose the connection between Darwinian Evolution and her campaign to reduce the birth rate among peoples she considered to be inferior, of lower intelligence, poor or poorly bred.
   Go to a real historian like George Grant for the full story. (Grant is as readable as a good story-teller.) >Grand Illusions: The Legacy of Planned Parenthood<, a book he wrote in 1988, tells what Margaret Sanger was really like.



2. Growing up the daughter of a practicing lay midwife in the middle of the Hippie Era, I have seen the consequences of not planning ahead before making babies. Margaret Sanger is a great historical figure for everyone, female and male alike, and her memory has been unfairly sullied by funamentalist ninnies and misogynists. I wholly support her vision, with the proviso that because of the increase in average lifespan because of modern medicine, none of us, even the fittest, can breed indiscriminately, and it's even more critical that people with genetic health issues as well as people whose families haven't fit into society very well exercise the better part of valor and refrain from reproducing.



3. There is more to Margaret than she tells. This is all you really need to know: "The most merciful thing a large family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it" - Margaret Sanger



4. ...the reality is that she fought hard to make access to BASIC contraceptive information available to ALL families--wealthy, middle-class, poor, immigrant, WASP, African-American, etc.
   
   Her battle against Anthony Comstock's puritanical Comstock Law--which made it illegal to give a pamphlet to a woman explaining basic menstruation--is legendary. Her article "Comstockery in America," written in 1915 and discussed in this book, highlighted the campaign by government officials to keep basic information out of the hands of the average person.
   
   Special interest groups have created a campaign over the past 20 years to smear Sanger as a eugenicist, writing books that are published by biased publishing companies as part of a clear agenda. This autobiography stands on its own as one woman's story about her work to spread basic information to families who asked for it.



5. It is difficult for women of today to understand a time when knowledge of basic biology was denied them. We don't know the fear of producing children which we are not healthy enough to produce or care for.
   
   Before you it in judgement of Margaret Sanger or any feminist, read your history. Learn how laws were written and interpreted 100 years ago and realize how much things have changed because of such women.