I think we women writers sometimes scant the snow, and the weather in general, in favor of the human characters that obsess us.
Snow
New Year’s Day
I am wishing all of you, friends, acquaintances and strangers, who are kind enough to read these thoughts, the most beneficial, peaceful and fruitful new year—a cold winter with lots of snow, a spring full of bloom.
Christmas Eve: My Mother’s 111th Birthday
I understand her decision although it causes me a spasm of regret, as all the dreams abandoned by women do: the great heap of the unrealistic and the unrealizable that lies alongside nearly every woman’s life.
A Memore of Christmas Past
Nostalgia is not my strong suit. Most family rituals, in my experience, long outlive their usefulness… Fortunately, there are exceptions.
Peggy Guggenheim: Life as Art, Art as Life
All those big artist’s names, and never a woman’s, although she did have a show in the gallery she owned earlier, first in London and then in New York, of thirty-one women artists.
Closing in on Doris Duke
What a hegira this has been, from the first day I called for a box of research materials at the Duke University Library to the pile of manuscript pages lying beside my computer.
Colorado Springs: Black Friday
When deranged individuals receive permission for their deranged acts from irresponsible political groups and irresponsible demagogues, why are we unable or unwilling to make the connection?
Thanksgiving for Friends
All of us who live alone although close to family and at times sharing seasonal celebrations know that we have a core of friends who are not just an alternative to relatives. They may know us better and even love us more!
Doris Duke in Pictures and the Deconstruction of the Past
My chapters about Doris’ war-time service are some of the most revealing, and most controversial, in my upcoming biography.
A Day of National Humiliation
Perhaps a national day of humility might disembarrass us of some of the pernicious would-be leaders we are now threatened with anointing to the position once held by Abraham Lincoln.