Belle: A Biography of Belle Case La Follette

by Lucy Freeman, Sherry LaFollette, George A. Zabriskie

A devoted boyhood admirer of Fighting Bob LaFollette, I've become, since reading this marvelous memoir, a grey-haired admirer of Belle.
-- Studs Terkel "Before the Kennedys, before the Roosevelts, there was another great and determined liberal family. Among its members was Belle Case LaFollette, wife of Robert LaFollette, Sr., and a true pioneer on everything from woman's suffrage to worker's rights to keeping the warriors at bay. I enjoyed the book immensely and learned much."
-- John Kenneth Galbraith

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Lucy Greenbaum Freeman was a reporter and an author. Her early coverage of psychiatry and mental health for The New York Times led to wider reporting on the subject. Ms. Freeman persuaded editors to allow coverage of the growth of psychiatry and the preservation of Sigmund Freud's private papers.

She graduated from Vermont's Bennington College with a B.A. in 1938 and was hired by The New York Times in 1940.

Her nonfiction books, ranging from detailed studies of Freud to those exploring sources of anger and anxiety, helped familiarize a popular audience with what had long been a hush-hush practice.

Ms. Freeman's first book, Fight Against Fears, recounted her own experience as a psychoanalysis patient who struggled to overcome her shy, whispery voice and social fears. Published in 1951, the book was in print for 47 years.

Her work earned the Writers Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 1976 and the National Media Award from the Chicago Institute of Psychoanalysis in 1986. Ms. Freeman also wrote 77 other books, including mystery novels and memoirs.