Anonymous in Their Own Names: Doris E. Fleischman, Ruth Hale, and Jane Grant

by Susan Henry

Overview

A collective biography of three New York City women who pushed boundaries, changed media, and advanced the cause of equality

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826503343
Publisher:	Vanderbilt University Press
Publication date:	04/30/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Susan Henry is Professor Emeritus of Journalism at California State University, Northridge, and a former editor of Journalism History.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: "My name is the symbol of my own identity and must not be lost" 1

Part I Doris E. Fleischman

1 "I just knew she was the brightest woman I'd ever met" 9

2 "I won the right by the device of understatement" 25

Doris E. Fleischman Illustrations 41

3 "Keeping up the appearance of independence" 49

4 "Whatever your job is, you do it" 65

Part II Ruth Hale

5 "She totally conquered where she came from" 83

6 "A married woman who claims her name is issuing a challenge" 97

Ruth Hale Illustrations 115

7 "It was a curious collaboration" 125

Part III Jane Grant

8 "I meant to remain in the East once I got there" 145

9 "There would be no New Yorker today if it were not for her" 161

Jane Grant Illustrations 177

10 "I really preferred to get my financial reward from the magazine" 187

11 "I'm Miss Grant, though married-and happily, too" 203

Coda: "I still feel that she is looking over my shoulder" 219

Notes 231

Selected Bibliography 277

Index 283

Editorial Reviews

Living in New York City in the first half of the 20th century, Fleischman, Hale, and Grant had much in common: they worked as journalists, married reluctantly, kept their maiden names, and spent most of their lives supporting their husbands’ careers. Fleischman was the backbone of Edward Bernays’s public relations activities, but never met with clients. Sacrificing her own career and ultimately her marriage, Ruth Hale helped make Heywood Broun an enormously successful journalist. With Harold Ross, Jane Grant cofounded the New Yorker, but fought to be compensated for her efforts. In addition, these women maintained complex households, where they entertained guests several times per week in the service of their husbands’ business interests. Henry, a professor emeritus of journalism at Cal State–Northridge, is at her best showing how these conflicted feminists balanced a multitude of professional and personal tasks. However, Henry makes each woman the subject of a minibiography, and this three-part separation proves as odd as the title, an allusion to their participation in the Lucy Stone League, which supported women’s efforts to keep their birth names. A chronological or thematic approach might have served her subjects better. Photos. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"In Anonymous in Their Own Names, Susan Henry has told with sensitivity and verve the story of three modern women of achievement whose lives have been overlooked in the rush to celebrate their famous husbands. Through excavating the unknown lives of Doris E. Fleischman, Ruth Hale, and Jane Grant (married to journalism greats Edward L. Bernays, Heywood Broun, and Harold Ross), Henry has illuminated the history of professional women, feminism, and family relationships in the twentieth century. She has also reminded us of the deep roots of male preferment in our culture. Henry's book is a major contribution to the study of gender and biography which all readers will enjoy."
—Lois Banner, author of Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox and Intertwined Lives: Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, and Their Circle, and Professor of History and Gender Studies, University of Southern California

Susan Henry is to be roundly applauded for bringing to light the lives and accomplishments of these little-known women.
—Washington Independent Book Review

In the end, it tells the truth that most know but rarely acknowledge: women were there, these three especially.
—Foreword

"Henry... is at her best showing how these conflicted feminists balanced a multitude of professional and personal tasks."
-Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher