Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World

by Claudia Roth Pierpont

A series of extraordinary explorations of the biographies and literary achievements of twelve modern women writers, Passionate Minds tells the stories of women who "rewrote" the world that they inherited, shaping beliefs about vital issues ranging from religion to sex to race to politics.

Claudia Roth Pierpont organizes these probing portraits into three sections. Broadly speaking, the first deals with issues of sexual freedom, in essays on Olive Schreiner, Gertrude Stein, Anaïs Nin, and -- surprisingly, for those who do not know her as a writer -- Mae West. The second section, which examines Margaret Mitchell, Zora Neale Hurston, and Eudora Welty, deals with issues of race and the American South during a period of wrenching change and retrenchment. The third focuses on politics, particularly on the experience and historical interpretation of Soviet Communism and Nazi the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva, Ayn Rand, Doris Lessing, and, in a dual essay that is also a moving account of an enduring friendship, Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy. Throughout, Pierpont anatomizes both the lives and the art of her subjects and suggests their roles in the progress -- if it has been progress -- that has taken place in the attitudes of women over the course of the century.


Individually published in The New Yorker during the past eight years, these essays -- brought together in revised and expanded form, and containing ample new material -- reveal unsuspected parallels, contrasts, and influences among the twelve women discussed, illuminating each of them in new and startling ways.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Feminism, History, Essays, Womens, Writing

320 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a collection of essays/criticism by Pierpont, examining the lives and work of twelve women writers: Olive Schreiner, Ayn Rand, Mae West, Gertrude Stein, Anais Nin, Eudora Welty, Margaret Mitchell, Zora Neale Hurston, Mariana Tsvetaeva, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy and Doris Lessing. It is absolutely excellent - a perfect blend of biography and criticism, and one of the most interesting books I have read this year. Pierpont writes essays that discuss the lives and works of her subjects with clarity and wit - and I was left with a better understanding of all of these authors, but she doesn’t sink into the jargon/post-modern nonsense that drove me out of the English department when I was a college student. Pierpont doesn’t always like her subjects (to be fair, they were not all very likable Ayn Rand), but she is fair to them, explaining why they did what they did and what they wrote about and why we should care about them at all. If you have any interest in writing, or women’s issues, or really, just good stories about people, I highly recommend this book. Pierpont writes for the New Yorker, and I was able to read a few more of her reviews on-line, but alas, she hasn’t yet written another book. I sought out some other literary criticism in the wake of reading this but haven’t found anyone who has excited me like this book did. One of my favorite books of 2008.

[Christian Engler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhaustively researched and knowledgeably sifted, Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World is an incisively engaging work that exhilarates the mind while also extending beyound the mere bland categorization of 'biography' and 'women's studies,' for it stretches quite easily into other academic dimensions: sociology, psychology, history and economics; it is a work that is more than what it is promoted to be. Pierpont's succinct yet smooth academic prose is honed and streamlined; excess language and descriptive clutter is cast aside, and only the germane pith, the be-all and end-all, is critically dissected. Writing is a soul-searching craft-that more often than not-offers an intellectual and spiritual cartharsis. It is a powerful talent (one of many) by which many positive changes can be enacted, for when asked why they do what they do, writers, broadly speaking, would never hesitate to say, "The pen is mightier than the sword." The twelve writers, authors in Passionate Minds would have used the above-in varying degrees-as a life philosophy. From Hannah Arendt and Ayn Rand to Olive Schreiner and Marina Tsvetaeva, the lives profiled were not of simple women who 'slothfully' mused over global issues and then did nothing about them. The concerns, though mostly relegated to a specific gender, nonetheless, addressed all of humanity. Economic equality and intellectual stimulation, rather than artistic expression, would be at the top of the pyramid in this case. The broader essence of the book is how a person or persons broaches a subject that is of pressing concern to him or herself. What tools could and can be used to rectify specific areas that have long ago been ignored or deemed too weighty in intensity to even approach? In Ayn Rand's case, could it be done through collectivism or individualism? For Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy especially, collectivism would tower, the two probably being the modernized propellant of the literati activist, now being emulated. But the one thing that linked all these women was the printed word, printed utterances that came in the form of essays, novels, plays, journalism, poetry. These were the weapons of transformation (see Mae West, Doris Lessing, Anais Nin), racial exploration (see Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Mitchell) and onward. What is remarkable about these lives is that they either rose from abject poverty and anguish or dived headlong into it in order to write, to do something that had a greater and profound good that was not yet visible to the masses: "I write for thee/I suffer privately/ And glory comes when I am gone..." These writers had battle scars from sacrifice. And the improvement is so little.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claudia Roth Pierpont's style of writing and lack of pedantry delighted me while reading this collection of essays about female writers. She can be lyrical in her metaphors, and more than once, my mouth bent into a wry smirk. She doesn't fangirl over anyone, but gives praise when due. Pierpont is also clean and incisive when cutting at the image of certain iconic literary figures. I am bolstered in my resolution to never waste my time or mind on Margaret Mitchell. When reading about the pecadilloes of Anais Nin, I couldn't help but compare her to the tryhard rebelliousness of Taylor Momsen. I got jealous over the descriptions of Mae West, and I was downright startled by revelations about Doris Lessing. I never ran towards women's lit, so I excavated quite a lot from these essays. Someone who pursued that degree, or something similar, might not gain as much knowledge or be as titillated as I was. If I was in school and writing papers, this could be a secondary source loaded with wit and nicely pruned paragraphs. I learned quite a bit without ever being bored, or taxed by untangling the dense sentences of academia. Pierpont's wit saves her from being gossipy. This was a true pleasure to consume, and it was good for me!

[Leah W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claudia Roth Pierpont's book is a collection of essays exploring major female writers from Olive Schriener through Mary McCarthy & Hannah Arendt through both their biographies and the reception to the written works (and how the critical response to their works has changed over time). Balancing biography and criticism of the criticism could be difficult, but Roth Pierpont does it nimbly. I especially enjoyed her essay on Mae West (though it seemed a bit slighter than other essays), as well as her defense of West's inclusion in the collection.

Those New Yorker critics, they sure know how to criticize well.

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so intrigued by this book when I discovered it. WAS EXCITED to read about various powerful women. For 80% of the subjects were new to me so I was thrilled to get to learn something new.
HOWEVER the authoress's tone was not exciting. She did not make me CARE about her subjects. I did not care about them after reading the book so I am unlikely to want to read or reread anything that they wrote. This was a major disappointment!
Also on a personal note I was born at 6 months gestation the description of AN's abortion of her 6th month pre-born daughter was horrible and heartwrentching!
This had SO much potential and failed in so many ways!!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

i thought this was merely one of my mom's well-intentioned book gifts of the "you like women, right?" stripe, destined to sit on the shelf being almost something i'd read. but, read in all-other-books-are-packed desperation, it was essentially a really long, one-note new yorker. that doesn't sound good, but it is.

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exquisitely written book profiling the lives and writings of women writers. I highly highly recommend it

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is worth picking up just for the section on Mae West. Did you know she was a revolutionary?

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has the highest ratio of lame title:awesome content I've ever seen. A great salve for election madness.

[Loree · Rating 4 out of 5]

good collection of biographical profiles of 12 women writers.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recommend the essay on Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind." I learned about the author and her life--and what gave her the inspiration to write this fictional piece.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting study of famous women writers who made us change the way we think.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it. One of the best books I have ever read.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful to read about these authors who were pioneers of thought and lifestyle.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Especially the chapter on Mae West! Never knew that she began as an experimental writer.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of essays. Pierpont is an excellent writer.

[Beetqueen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book. I found it in the discount section of Half Price Books. I’d read books by several of the writers featured in it and liked the idea of more insight into their works.

While there is definitely some interesting analysis of their writings as well as some illuminating research into their lives. However, the author’s bias both for (and against) some of these women is glaring and in the few cases I am fairly familiar with, unwarranted. Of course every writer should look critically at their subjects. Of course they should not sugar coat the information or feature only the bright points of a subject’s life, but I felt a bit of her personal disdain for some of her subjects.

The writing is also more than a bit dull at times. I was a bit disappointed that after reading it I didn’t feel inspired to pick up that many works by these authors I had not already read. Mae West is the only author I hadn’t read anything by that I want to read something by. I am interested in reading additional works by Lessing and Welty, but that interest was there before this book.

I just feel this book could have been so much more inspiring.

[Tamara Willems · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now this is one of those books, that I almost left before I had really started - but then something compelled me to start it again. I am so very glad that I did. I thoroughly enjoyed this indepth exploration and biographies of some remarkable women and their contributions to literature, and to women!

[Kelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

A dry book that was hard to read. The point that connects all three women together is that they have had an extraordinary effort on readers. They told stories that changed the way people thought and lived. This would be a good book for those interested in Women's Studies.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ought to have been more interesting than it was.

[Carla]

Roth Pierrepont manages to be clear and deep about her literary “heroines” — women whose world views or fiction shaped the modern world. She is not shy about laying bare the paraodoxes of so-called independent women who relied on their husband’s money to enjoy their freedom. The sexually experimental Anais Nin turns out to have had a mild-mannered guy footing the huge bills, and Olive Schreiner’s endowment was funded by her long-suffering spouse. Only Gertrude Stein emerges as genuinely herself, even when obscure in her writing.

[JayeL]

July 2015: not available on audio at Mechanics' Institute

[Lisa]

Passionate Minds: Women Rewriting the World (Vintage) by Claudia Roth Pierpont (2001)