Charlotte Gordon
{{About|the writer|the Duchess of Richmond, née Lady Charlotte Gordon|Charlotte Lennox, Duchess of Richmond}}{{Short description|American writer}}
Charlotte Gordon is an American writer, distinguished professor of humanities at Endicott College, and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction for her book Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley (2015). Awarded a [https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/NEH%20grant%20awards%20August%202023.pdf grant] from the National Endowment for the Humanities, she is the director of [https://www.endicott.edu/academics/centers-institutes/tadler-center-for-the-humanities The Tadler Center at Endicott College.]
Life
She was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1962, and received her B.A. in English and American literature from Harvard College. She received her M.A. in creative writing and her Ph.D. in literature from Boston University.[http://www.endicott.edu/newprod/mediaexperts/index.php?var=1357 Endicott College Profile] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527122922/http://www.endicott.edu/newprod/mediaexperts/index.php?var=1357 |date=May 27, 2010 }}
She was awarded the Massachusetts Book Award for non-fiction for her biography of the seventeenth-century poet, Anne Bradstreet, Mistress Bradstreet: The Untold Life of America's First Poet.Massachusetts Book Award: Mistress Bradstreet {{cite web|url=http://www.massbook.org/massbooks2006.html |title=Book Awards 2006 |accessdate=2010-07-23 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720155145/http://www.massbook.org/massbooks2006.html |archivedate=2011-07-20 }} This was followed by The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths,[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20091022_jonathan_kirsch_on_the_woman_who_named_god Review of The Woman Who Named God] which in the author's own words describes the "shadows, gaps and silences" in the biblical texts about Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.Gordon, Charlotte (2009) The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths. New York: Little, Brown, xv Examining them as stories, and drawing on the Bible both as a source of literature and religion, she notes that "some of the most crucial western ideas about freedom come from Hagar".Gordon, Charlotte (2009) The Woman Who Named God: Abraham's Dilemma and the Birth of Three Faiths. New York: Little, Brown, xiv Gordon was the [https://lubar.wisc.edu/archive/2012-2013/TheringFellow_CharlotteGordon.html 2012 Rose Thering Fellow from the Lubar Institute] for her work exploring interfaith issues.
Her book, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley (2015), is about the mother and daughter pair of writers. The first Mary died giving birth to the second in 1797, and, according to The Independent, "Gordon sheds new light on these visionary women who believed in making their own rules." It was named a Book of the Year by The London Times, a New York Times notable book, and favourably reviewed in Vogue, the Boston Globe, the Seattle Times, The Wall Street Journal and many others..{{Cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/vindication-of-a-righteous-woman-1437163449|title=Vindication of a Righteous Woman|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=17 July 2015|last1=Altenberg|first1=Karin}} Romantic Outlaws was the BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week on August 10, 2015,{{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b064xjn1|title = BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Romantic Outlaws - the Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, Escape and Elopement}} and won the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/business/the-sellout-wins-national-book-critics-circles-fiction-award.html |title='The Sellout' Wins National Book Critics Circle's Fiction Award |work=The New York Times |author=Alexandra Alter |date=March 17, 2016 |accessdate=March 18, 2016}} She is also the author of [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mary-shelley-a-very-short-introduction-9780198869191 Mary Shelley: A Very Short Introduction], part of the Oxford University Press series, and the "Introduction" to [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/557081/frankenstein-the-1818-text-by-mary-shelley-introduction-by-charlotte-gordon-editorial-apparatus-by-charles-e-robinson/ Mary Shelley: Frankenstein:The 1818 Text.]"
Her new book, I Speak of Wrongs, tells the story of the rise and fall of the 19th century women's movement.
See also
- Lyndall Gordon, also a literary biographer of Wollstonecraft (2005) and of mother-daughter pairs
References
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External links
- Charlotte Gordon's website [http://charlottegordonbooks.com]
- Little, Brown's author page [https://web.archive.org/web/20100217140400/http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/authors_Charlotte-Gordon-(1004037).htm]
- NPR interview [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4616663]
- CBC Radio interview [http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2009/01/january-02-2009.html]
https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/inline-files/NEH%20grant%20awards%20August%202023.pdf
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Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Category:Endicott College faculty
Category:American women non-fiction writers
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)