Her Brilliant Career : Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties
Author(s): Rachel Cooke
An exuberant group biography—"a splendidly various collection of 'brief lives' written with both gusto and sensitivity" (The Guardian)—that follows ten women in 1950s Britain whose pioneering lives paved the way for feminism and laid the foundation of modern women's success.
In Her Brilliant Career, Rachel Cooke goes back in time to offer an entertaining and iconoclastic look at ten women in the 1950s—pioneers whose professional careers and complicated private lives helped to create the opportunities available to today's women. These plucky and ambitious individuals—among them a film director, a cook, an architect, an editor, an archaeologist, a race car driver—left the house, discovered the bliss of work, and ushered in the era of the working woman.
Daring and independent, these remarkable unsung heroines—whose obscurity makes their accomplishments all the more astonishing and relevant —loved passionately, challenged men's control, made their own mistakes, and took life on their own terms, breaking new ground and offering inspiration. Their individual portraits gradually form a landscape of 1950s culture, and women's unique—and rapidly evolving—role.
Before there could be a Danica Patrick, there had to be a Sheila van Damm; before there was Barbara Walters, there was Nancy Spain; before there was Kathryn Bigelow, came Muriel Box. The pioneers of Her Brilliant Career forever changed the fabric of culture, society, and the work force.
This is the Fifties, retold: vivid, surprising and, most of all, modern.
Her Brilliant Career is illustrated with more than 80 black-and-white photographs.
Review(s):
“Lively…. Cooke offers up a “sly kind of feminism” with this collection of rule-breakers and role models…What shines through in these intimate stories is Cooke’s respect for her subjects’ shared attitude of ‘derring-do’.”
“In a series of engaging, gossipy essays, filled with sharp observations, she examines the lives of 10 very different women…. It’s clever and amusing, a series of sketches that provide a revealing glimpse into the culture of 1950s Britain.”
“Both entertaining and touching…. It’s Cooke’s intention to “make people reconsider the ‘lost’ decade between the war and feminism” and to “pull the reader along” with these tales of “derring-do.” She succeeds on every count.”
“Shines a new light in an elegantly original way into the 1950s…. A very enjoyable and distinctive book.”
“Reveals the challenges, failures, triumphs and sex lives of those who came of age during World War II by defying society’s expectations…The men and women, loves and losses that shaped them are a fascinating reminder of how the choices we make both imprison and free us.”
“I always thought of British women of the sixties as cultural pioneers, but I had no idea how fascinating and accomplished—how daring and tough—were the women of the decade before. Thank you, Rachel Cooke, for stylishly adding a chapter to this provincial American’s personal women’s studies curriculum.”
“The lessons gleaned from these women of another era are timeless and relatable.”
“The stories are insightful and crafted with care…. A satisfying read for anyone interested in narratives about women’s lives in the early to mid-20th century.”
“Rachel Cooke’s Her Brilliant Career is that rare beast: a work of history as utterly enjoyable as it is important. Cooke writes with a novelist’s authority, humor, and eye for detail and, in doing so, has crafted a history for the ages.”
“Witty, intelligent, poignant, and exuberantly opinionated. Each life history is as rich and strange as a novel, and Cooke has a novelist’s feeling for story. She never condescends to the past but enters into the conditions of these lives with sympathy and imagination. A superb book.”
ISBN: 9780062333872