“Writing the ‘Outrageous' Life”: Blanche Wiesen Cook and Eleanor Roosevelt

What is the role of biography in not only revising the image of an iconic figure, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, but in revising our perceptions about gender and sexuality?  What strategies are employed by the biographer to reveal a “transgressive” and controversial aspect of a subject’s sexual behavior and how do those strategies differ from those used in historical writing?  Finally, what is the impact of contemporary contexts and developments on our vision of the past?.

I would like to explore these questions with Blanche Wiesen Cook,  author of the critically acclaimed two-part (soon to be three-) biography of the late first-Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. My presentation will include the text of an interview/discussion with Cook to examine the above questions, among others.