A hub for writers, scholars, students, teachers and readers of biography, the Leon Levy Center for Biography at CUNY’s Graduate Center builds connections between independent and university-affiliated biographers across disciplines.
With a variety of events and public programs available for book lovers to explore, the Leon Levy Center for Biography cultivates discussions about the art and craft of biography historically and in our time.
DATE OF EVENT: Sept 14th, 2023
The feminist writer and activist Betty Friedan (1921–2006) was powerful and polarizing. Born Bettye Naomi Goldstein, Friedan chafed at society’s restrictions from a young age. As a journalist she covered racism, sexism, labor, class inequality, and anti-Semitism. Her malaise as a housewife and her research into the feelings of other women resulted in the revolutionary The Feminine Mystique (1963), which made her a celebrity.
In this biography, the first in more than twenty years, Rachel Shteir draws on Friedan’s papers and on interviews with family, colleagues, and friends to present a new Friedan for a new era.
Rachel Shteir is an award-winning essayist, writer, and critic whose work has been published in many newspapers and magazines including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter, she is the author of Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show, Gypsy: The Art of the Tease and The Steal: A Cultural History of Shoplifting. She is founder and head of the Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism Program at the Theatre School at DePaul University.
Katha Pollitt is a poet, essayist and columnist for The Nation. She has written for many magazines and published numerous books, most recently Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights and The Mind-Body Problem (poems).