Hist/GWST 214/314
Winter,
2004
Women's
Autobiographies
Europe
& America, 17th-20th centuries
Written by Herself:
Autobiographies of American Women, An Anthology, ed. Jill Kerr
Conway (Vintage, 1992). PS647.W6 W75 1992
Written by Herself. Vol. 2: Women's Memoirs from Britain, Africa,
Asia, and the United States, ed. Jill Ker Conway
(New York : Vintage Books, 1996). PS647.W6 W752
1996
Strong-Minded
Women and Other Lost
Voices from Nineteenth-Century England, ed. Janet Horowitz
Murray (NY: Pantheon, 1982)
These Modern
Women: Autobiographical Essays from the Twenties, ed. Elaine Showalter.
(New York: Feminist Press and CUNY, 1989). Seventeen
brief autobiographical essays printed in The Nation in 1926-27, with
comments at the end by three psychologists of the time.
Useful introductory essay by Showalter. Knox
has these issues of The Nation. (PSG has book)
Addams, Jane (1860-1935).
Twenty Years at Hull House (1910). HV4196
.C4H7 1910. U.S. social reformer.
Anderson, Marian
(b. 1902). My Lord, What a Morning: An Autobiography (1956). African American singer.
Antin, Mary (1881-1949). From Plotzk to Boston.
Jewish immigrant to U.S.; written when she was 13 years old.
______. The
Promised Land: The Autobiography of a Russian Immigrant (1912) E69.5 .A66
1912 (See also Princeton University Press edition,
1985)
Baker, S. Josephine
(1873-1945). Fighting for Life (New York: Macmillan,
1939). American physician who significantly contributed to public health
and child welfare in the U.S.
Balabanoff, Angelica
(1878-1965). My Life As a Rebel (1938). (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1973)
Baum, Vicki. (1888-1960) It Was All Quite Different: The Memoirs
of Vicki Baum (NY: Funk and
Wagnalls, 1964). Austrian-born American novelist.
de Beauvoir, Simone
(b. 1908). Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (1959). Grew up to be an extremely influential French feminist
and intellectual. PQ2603 .E362 Z523
______. Prime of Life (1963) PQ2603
.E362 Z5153 1962b
______. All Said and Done (1974) PQ2603
E362 Z52513 1974b
Brittain, Vera
(1893-1970). Testament of Youth (a British woman
living through World War I). D640 .B715 1933a. Two other volumes of her memoir follow: Testament
of Friendship (about her friendship
with Winifred Holtby; PSG has copy) and Testament of Experience (covering the
years 1925-1950) PR6003.R385 Z477
Buck, Pearl (1892-1973).
My Several Worlds: A Personal Record (NY: John Day,
1954). American Nobel Prize author noted for
her novels of life in China, where she lived the first half of her life. PS3503 .U198 Z5
Butler, Josephine
G (1828-1906). Autobiography (London, 1911). British social reformer, especially noted for her
work on the reform of prostitution.
Catherine the Great
(1729-1796). The Memoirs of Catherine the Great, ed. Dominique
Maroger, trans. Moura Budbert (NY: Collier Books, 1961). DK 170 .A262. Empress
of Russia.
Cohen, Rose (1880-1925).
Out of the Shadow: A Russian Jewish Girlhood on the Lower East Side (1918) F128.9 .J5C673 1995
Day, Dorothy. The
Long Loneliness (NY: Harper and
Row, 1952). Liberal Catholic activist and journalist.
BX 4668 .D32; also BX 4668 .D3 A33 1981
Delany, Sarah (1889-1999),
and A. Elizabeth Delany (1891-1995), with Amy
Hill Hearth. Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years (NY: Kodansha International,
1993). Sarah: First African-American home economics
teacher in white N.Y. schools and an author. Bessie:
an author.
Durant, Ariel (b.
1898 as Ida Kaufman) and Will. A Dual Autobiography (1977). Husband-wife
team who wrote popular philosophy and history. D15
.D87A33
Ferber, Edna (1887-1968).
A Peculiar Treasure (1939). Pulitzer
Prize winning author who wrote about midwestern American life. 813 F346XA
Foakes, Grace (b.
1901). My Part of the River (London: Futura,
1976). Working-class British woman.
Foote, Julia (1823-1900).
A Brand Plucked from the Fire: An Autobiographical Sketch by Mrs. Julia
A. J. Foote, in Sisters
of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century, 161-232. Foote was a free black woman and a preacher. BV3780 .S57 1986. Longer
version in Spiritual Narratives BR1713 .S65 1988
Gilman, Charlotte
Perkins (1860-1935). The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: An Autobiography (1935). American feminist, lecturer, writer and publisher;
a leading theorist of the women's movement; author of The Yellow Wallpaper and Women and
Economics. PS1744 .G57Z5
1972
Glasgow, Ellen
(b. 1873). The Woman Within (NY: Harcourt
Brace, 1954)
Glückel of
Hameln (1646-1724). The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln. A 17th-century
Jewish woman in Germany. DS 135 .G5 H33813 1977
Goldman, Emma (1869-1940).
Living My Life, 2 vols. (1931).
Early 20th century immigrant; became a prominent anarchist. HX843 .G6 1970C
Halkett, Anne (1622-1699).
The Autobiography of Anne, Lady Halkett, ed. John Gough
Nichols (Westminster: Camden Society, 1875). Royalist
author writing in the context of the English Revolution.
DA 447 .A3 L6
Hellman, Lillian
(b. 1905). An Unfinished Woman: A Memoir (1969). PS 3515
E343Z5. American playwright.
Followed by Scoundrel Time (1973) PS 3515
.E343 Z499 and Pentimento (1976) PS 3515
.E343 Z498.
Hepburn, Katharine
(b. 1909). Me (NY: Random House,
1991)
Hopkins, Sarah
Winnemucca (1844?-1891). Life among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883) E99 .P2H7 (University
of Nevada Press, $14.95, ISBN0874172529)
Hurst, Fannie (1889-1968).
Anatomy of Me: A Wonderer in Search of Herself (1958)
Hurston, Zora Neale
(1891-1960). Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography (1942). PS3515
.U789Z5. African-American anthropologist.
Jacobs, Harriet
(1813-1897). Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (Harvard University
Press). A 19th-century slave narrative. E444.J17 A3 2000
Keckley, Elizabeth
(1824-1907). Behind the Scenes; or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years
in the White House (1868). E457.15
.K26 1988
Keller, Helen (1880-1968).
The Story of My Life (1902). (NY: Penguin,
1988). Blind and deaf American author.
Kohut, Rebekah
Bettelheim (b. 1864 in Hungary; d. 1951). My Portion: An Autobiography (1925). Jewish activist responsible for developing Jewish
women's organizations.
______. More Yesterdays: An Autobiography(1925-1949) (1950)
Kollontai, Alexandra
(1872-1952). The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926) (PSG has
copy)
Leduc, Violette
(1907-1972). La Bâtarde. PQ2623 .E3657
B33
Lee, Jarena (b.
1783). The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee in Sisters
of the Spirit: Three Black Women's Autobiographies of the Nineteenth Century, pp. 25-48. Lee was a free black woman and a preacher. BV3780 .S57 1986. Longer
version (including an account of her preaching to slaves) in Spiritual
Narratives BR1713 .S65 1988
Leighton, Caroline.
Life at Puget Sound, with Sketches of Travel in Washington Territory,
British Columbia, Oregon, and California (1865-1881) (1884)
Lindbergh, Anne
Morrow (b. 1906). Gift from the Sea (NY: Random House,
1955) BD 435 .L32 1991
Markham, Beryl
(b. 1902) West with the Night (San Francisco:
North Point Press, 1983; first. pub. 1942) A pilot, horsetrainer, writer,
and adventurer. TL540 .M345 A3 1983
Martineau, Harriet
(1802-1876). Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, ed. Maria Weston
(Boston, 1877). English intellectual novelist of history and economics. HQ 1597 .M375 1985
Mead, Margaret
(1901-1978). Blackberry Winter (1972). Prominent American anthropologist. 301.2 M47XA
Meysenbug, Malwida
von (1816-1903). Memoirs: Rebel in Bombazine, trans. Elsa von
Meysenbug Lyons, ed. Mildred Adam (NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1936)
Michel, Louise
(1830-1905). The Red Virgin: Memoirs of Louise Michel, ed. and trans.
Bullitt Lowry and Elizabeth Ellington Gunter (University of Alabama Press,
1981). French anarchist and liberal socialist;
participant in the Paris Commune, 1871. DC 342.8
.M64 A313
Mitchell, Hannah. The Hard Way Up: The Autobiography of Hannah Mitchell,
Suffragette and Rebel, ed. Geoffrey
Mitchel (London: Virago, 1977)
Mogador, Céleste
(1824-1909), Memoirs of a Courtesan in Nineteenth-Century Paris, trans. Monique
Fleury Nagem (University of Nebraska Press, 2001) PN2538.C5 A313 2001
Mother Jones (1843?-1930).
The Autobiography of Mother Jones (Chicago: Charles
H. Kerr, 1972). Union labor organizer and one of the founders of the Social
Democratic Party. 331.092 J78
Mountain Wolf Woman
(1884-1960), Mountain Wolf Woman, Sister of Crashing Thunder; The Autobiography
of a Winnebago Indian. Univ. of Michigan, 1961. E90 .M6 A3
Mourning Dove (1888-1936). Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography, ed. Jay Miller
(University of Nebraska Press, 1990). Life at
the turn of the 20th-century in the northwest, by a woman who was brought
up in traditional native America culture but was also educated in and worked
in white society. E99.S21 M68 1990
Oliphant, Margaret
(1828-1897). The Autobiography and Letters
of Mrs. M. O. W. Oliphant, ed. Mrs. Harry
Coghill (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1899)
Ossoli, Margaret
Fuller (1810-1850). Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, 2 vols. (Boston:
Phillips, Sampson, 1852). American critic, teacher,
and social reformer.
Pankhurst, Emmeline
(1858-1928). My Own Story (London: E. Nash,
1914). Prominent British suffragist. JN979 .P26 1985
Pilkington, Laetitia.
Memoirs of Mrs. Laetitia Pilkington, 1712-1750, Written by Herself (London, 1928)
Pesotta, Rose (b.
1896 in Russia). Bread upon the Waters (1944). A labor organizer. HB8072
.P375 1987
Qoyawayma, Polingqysi
(Elizabeth Q. White). No Turning Back; a true
account of a Hopi Indian girl's struggle to bridge the gap between the world
of her people and the world of the white man (University of
New Mexico Pres, 1964). E90 .Q6 A3
Rich, Mary. The Autobiography of Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick, vol. XXII, ed.
Thomas Crofton Croker (London: Percy Society, 1848).
Roosevelt, Eleanor
(1884-1962). This
Is My Story (1937) E807.1 .R44; This I Remember (1949) E807.1 R428
Prominent social & political activist ; wife of President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt.
Rowlandson, Mrs.
Mary. A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682), in Journeys
in New Worlds: Early American Women's Narratives, ed. William L.
Andrews (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1990). E187.5
.J68 1990. (Also in Classic American Autobiographies,
CT214.C53 1992)
Sand, George (1804-1876).
The Story of My Life: The Autobiography of George Sand. Knox has an abridged version:
My Life, PQ 2412 .A2 E5
a979. Nineteenth-century French novelist.
Sanger, Margaret
(1879-1966). Margaret Sanger: An Autobiography (1938). HQ 764 .S3 A3. American birth control activist.
Sarraute, Nathalie
(b. 1900). Childhood, trans. Barbara
Wright. (NY: G. Brazilier, 1983) PQ2637 .A783 Z46413 1984
Shaw, Anna Howard
(1847-1919). The Story of a Pioneer (1915) American
preacher, temperance lecturer, and suffrragist. JK1899.S6 A3
Stanton, Elizabeth
Cady (1815-1902). Eighty Years and More (1815-1897): Reminiscences of
Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1898). [on order at Knox]
Stein, Edith (1892-9142).
Life in a Jewish Family, vol. 1 of the
Collected Works of Edith Stein (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1986).
PSG has copy. Very interesting for what it leaves
out—the author's conversion to Catholicism. She
died in Auschwitz and has since been declared a saint by the church. [See critical essay in Hampl, I Could Tell You
Stories. BX 4705 .S814 L5]
Stein, Gertrude
(1874-1946). The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933). The life of Stein, a prominent American author who
lived much of her life in Europe, as though written by her companion Alice
B. Toklas. PS3537 .T323Z5 1933
Tarbell, Ida (1857-1944).
All in the Day's Work: An Autobiography (1939). Social reformer and "muckraking" journalist; Knox
graduate. 813 .T179 XT
Thérèse
of Lisieux (1873-1897). Story of a Soul: The
Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. A woman very influential
on 20th-century Catholic spirituality. BX4700
.T5A5 1976
Thornton, Alice
(1627-1707). The Autobiography of Mrs. Alice Thornton, of East Newton
Co., York.
Trupin, Sophie. Dakota Diaspora: Memoirs of a Jewish Homesteader
Vigée-le-Brun,
Elisabeth Louise (1755-1842). The Memoirs of Mme. Elisabeth Louise Vigée-le-Brun,
1755-1789, trans. Gerard
Shelley. (London: John Hamilton, n.d.). Successful French painter.
Wald, Lillian (1867-1940).
The House on Henry Street (1915); Windows
on Henry Street (1937). 331.85
.W157. Political and social reformer.
Watson, Rachel. The Life of My Family, Or, the Log-House in the
Wilderness, A True Story (1871)
Webb, Beatrice
(1858-1943). My Apprenticeship (1926). Prominent British
socialist.
Wengeroff, Pauline
(b. early 1830s). Rememberings: The World of a Russian-Jewish Woman in
the Nineteenth Century DS135 .R95 W46
2000
Zitkala-Sä
(Gertrude Bonnin). "An Indian Teacher among Indians,"
"Impressions of an Indian Girlhood," "The School Days of an Indian Girl,"
"Why I Am a Pagan," (1900-1902) in Classic American Autobiographies. CT214.C53 1992
Recent
Memoirs and Autobiographies (Authors born 1910
and later)
N.B. Some of these are autobiographical novels, and
sometimes it's difficult to distinguish fiction
from memoir.
Angelou, Maya (b. 1928). I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (NY:
Random House, 1969). African-American poet &
writer. E185.97 .A56 A3 1970
Aubrac, Lucie (b. 1912). Outwitting
the Gestapo (University of Nebraska
Press, 1993). A Catholic woman in the French resistance during WWII. D802.F8
A7913 1993
Bauman, Janina. Winter in the Morning : A Young
Girl's Life in the Warsaw Ghetto and Beyond, 1939-1945 (NY: Free Press, 1986). DS135.P63 B383 1986
Bell, Susan. Between
Worlds: In Czechoslovakia, England, and America: A Memoir (Dutton, 1991). A
WWII girlhood. PSG has copy.
Bornstein, Kate (b. 1948). Gender Outlaw: On
Men, Women, and the Rest of Us
(NY: Routledge, 1994). Male-to-female transsexual.
HQ77.9 .B67 1995
Cardinal, Marie. The Words to Say It: An Autobiographical
Novel (1975), trans. Pat Goodheart
(Cambridge, MA: VanVactor &Goodheart, 1983). Narrative
of a psychoanalysis. PQ2663 .A7 M613 1983
Carey, Lorene. Black Ice (NY: Random House, 1991).
Story of a young black girl's experience at an elite prep school.
F44 .C7 C44 1991
Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street
(NY: Random House, 1989) PS 3553.178
.H68 1988
Conway, Jill Kerr (b. 1934). The Road from Coorain (NY: Vintage Books, 1989).
Growing up in the outback of Australia and Sydney, by a woman who
later became president of Smith College (Massachusetts).
HQ1397 .C66 1989
______. True North. Continuation of Conway's
story, from her beginning graduate school in the U.S. to being named president
of Smith.
Crowdog, Marg. Lakota Woman (NY: G. Weidenfeld, 1990) E99 .D1 M425 1990
Davis, Angela (b. 1944). Angela Davis: An Autobiography (NY: International
Publisher, 1988).
Duras, Marguerite (b. 1914), The War: A Memoir (NY: Pantheon, 1986). PQ2607 .U8245 A62613 1986b
E185.97.D23 A3 1988. Philosopher and black
activist.
Ehrlich, Elizabeth. Miriam's
Kitchen: A Memoir (Penguin, 1998). Food, gender, generations, and Jewish identity. PSG
has copy.
Frame, Janet. To the is-land: An Autobiography (NY: G. Braziller,
1992). PR9639.3 .F7Z477 1982
Ginsburg, Debra. Waiting: True Confessions of
a Waitress (Perennial, 2001). Your restaurant experience may never be the same
again.
Giovanni, Nikki. Gemini: An Extended Autobiographical
Statement on My First Tewnty-Five Years of Being a Black Poet (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1971)
PS 3557 .I55 Z5 1972
Gornick, Vivian. Fierce Attachments (NY: Farray, Straus & Giroux, 1987). HQ755.85
.G67 1988. Growing up in a Bronx tenement in
the 1940s and beyond; much on relationship between Gornick and her mother.
Background of eastern European Jewish immigration to the U.S.
Graham, Katherine (b. 1917) A Personal History (Knopf, 1997. By the
woman who eventually became editor-in-chief of the Washington Post, with the first half the book on her life as daughter
and wife. Z473.G7 A3 1997
Greenberg, Joanne. I Never Promised You a Rose
Garden (Hold, Rinehart & Winston,
1964). Autobiographical novel about time in a mental institution. PS3557.R378
I5 1964
Hampl, Patricia. A Romantic Education (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981). A midwestern childhood, coming of age in a time of
protest, and a journey to Prague, the place of her family's origin. 1992
edition has an update based on a 1991 return trip to Prague. DB2614 .H35
1981
______. Virgin Time: In Search of the Contemplative
Life. Coming to terms with her
Catholic upbringing. (PSG has copy).
Hansberry, Lorraine. To Be Young, Gifted, and
Black (Prentice-Hall, 1969). By the playwright who wrote A Raisin in the Sun. PS3515.A515 Z8
Heilbrun, Carolyn. The Last Gift of Time (Ballantine, 1998) Prominent feminist scholar
reflects on life in her 60s, after retirement.
Hellman, Lillian. An Unfinished Woman (Boston: Little, Brown, 1969).
First in a trilogy of memoirs by this prominent American playwright.
Focuses on her upbringing in New Orleans and her adult relationships, including
with the mystery writer Dashiell Hammett. PS3515.E343 Z5
______. Pentimento (Boston: Little, Brown, 1976) PS3515.E343 Z498
______. Scoundrel Time (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973). Focuses on the
McCarthy era (1950s) and its impact on her circle. PS3515.E343 Z499
Holiday, Billie, with William F. Dufty. Lady
Sings the Blues (NY: Doubleday,
1956). African-American blues singer. ML420.H58 A3 1984
Jameson, Kay Redfield. An Unquiet Mind (NY: Knopf, 1995). On growing up with autism.
Kaplan, Alice. French Lessons. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993). A memoir about language learning.
Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs
of a Girlhood among Ghosts (NY:
Knopf, 1976). Chinese-American. CT275.K5764 A33 1989
Lessing, Doris (b. 1919). The Memoirs of a Survivor (London: Octagon, 1974). 826 L639, Om
Lorde, Audre. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Crossing Press, 1982). African-American poet;
lesbian. PS3562.O75 Z23 1982b
Mairs, Nancy. Carnal Acts (NY: Harper & Row, 1990) (and several other
collections of autobiographical essays). Mairs
deals with a wide variety of essays, including disability (her own from multiple
sclerosis). PS3563.A386 Z464 1990
McCarthy, Mary. Memories of a Catholic Girlhood (NY: Harcourt Brace, 1957).
Memoir focused on the very difficult childhood of someone who became
a leading American intellectual. PS3525.A1435 Z55 1993
McCloskey, Deirdre. Crossing: A Memoir (University of Chicago Press, 1999). A prominent
economist; male-to-female transsexual. HQ77.8 M39 A3 1999
McDonnell, Jane. News from the Border. A mother (and English
professor at Carleton) writes about bringing up her autistic son.
McNaron, Toni. I Dwell in Possibility: A Memoir. A lesbian growing
up in Alabama; also deals with issues of alcoholism. PE64.M38 A3 1991
Miller, Sue. The Story of My Father. A novelist
writes a memoir about her relationship with her father, who died of Alzheimer's
disease.
Moraga, Cherríe. Loving in the War Years:
lo que nunca pasó por sus labios (Boston: South End
Press, 1983). A collection of poetry, prose,
and personal stories written by a Chicana lesbian. PS3563.O753 L6 2000
Norris, Kathleen. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993). A collection
of essays about place and this person's place in it.
______. Cloister Walk. Another essay collection,
focusing more extensively on issues of spirituality. BX2435.N57 1997
O'Faolain, Nuala. Are You Somebody? The Accidental
Memoir of a Dublin Woman (NY: Holt,
1998). Irish woman on family, love, and work. PN5146.O39 A3 1998
Reichl, Ruth, Tender at the Bone: Growing Up
at the Table.
Rhys, Jean. Smile, Please: An Unfinished Autobiography (NY: Harper & Row, 1989).
An unfinished, posthumously published autobiography by the author
of Wide Sargasso Sea and other
novels. PR6035.H96 Z474 1980
Sarton, May. I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for
an Autobiography (NY: W. W. Norton,
1959). Sarton was a poet and novelist, but is probably best known for her
extensive autobiographical writings, in memoir and journal form. 813 S251,
XA
______. Journal of a Solitude (New York: Norton, 1973).
______. Plant Dreaming
Deep. (New York: Norton, 1968)
Segal, Lore. Other People's Houses (orig. pub. 1964). WWII memoir; a Jewish girl's
dislocation from a privileged family in Europe to domestic service in England.
T275.S4286 A3 1986
Simon, Kate (b. 1912). Bronx Primitive: Portraits
in a Childhood (NY: Harper &
Row, 1982) F128.9 .J5 S57
Steedman, Carolyn K. Landscape for a Good Woman (1986) (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,
1987). A working class childhood in London, analyzed
with help from Freud and Marx. HQ1599.E5 S74 1987
Tompkins, Jane. A Life in School: What the Teacher
Learned (NR, acad. autobiog) FacDevCollection
LA2317 .T65 A3 1996
Volk, Patricia, Stuffed: Adventures of a Restaurant
Family
Williams, Donna. Nobody Nowhere (New York: Times Books, 1992).
Autism. RC553.A88 W55 1992
______. Somebody Somewhere: Breaking Free from
the World of Autism (NY: Times
Books, 1994)
Williams, Patricia J. The Alchemy of Race and
Rights: Diary of a Law Professor (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991). Williams
is a lawyer, a professor, and the great-great-granddaughter of a slave and
a white southern lawyer. This collection of autobiographical
essays reflect on race, gender, class, and more. KF4757.W53 1991