Eleanor Flexner
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Eleanor Flexner (October 4, 1908 – March 25, 1995) was an American distinguished
independent scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
and pioneer in what was to become the field of women's studies. Her much praised ''Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States'', originally published in 1959, relates women's physically courageous and politically ingenious work for the vote to other 19th- and early 20th-century social, labor, and reform movements, most importantly the push for equal education, the abolition of slavery, and temperance laws.


Family

Flexner was the younger of two highly intelligent daughters of well-known parents. Her mother,
Anne Crawford Flexner Anne Crawford Flexner (June 27, 1874 – January 11, 1955) born Anne Laziere Crawford, was an American playwright. Early life and education Anne Laziere Crawford was born in Georgetown, Kentucky, the daughter of Louis G. Crawford and Susan Far ...
(1874-1955), a successful playwright and children's author, organized professional playwrights into an association that later became the Dramatists Guild of the Author's League of America. Eleanor's father,
Abraham Flexner Abraham Flexner (November 13, 1866 – September 21, 1959) was an American educator, best known for his role in the 20th century reform of medical and higher education in the United States and Canada. After founding and directing a college-prep ...
(1866-1959), was a leader in several fields including, with his brother
Simon Flexner Simon Flexner, M.D. (March 25, 1863 in Louisville, Kentucky – May 2, 1946) was a physician, scientist, administrator, and professor of experimental pathology at the University of Pennsylvania (1899–1903). He served as the first director ...
at the Rockefeller Institute, the reform of early 20th-century medical education and medical research in the United States and Canada. Abraham founded and served as first director of the
Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...
in
Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...
. His ideas for the structure and purpose of the institute so appealed to theoretical physicist
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theor ...
that Einstein chose it over competing university appointments when he emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1933. Eleanor's sister, Jean Flexner, became one of the first employees of the Division of Labor Standards in Washington, DC. Encouragement and financial assistance from her parents carried Flexner through the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
and gave her the means to experiment as a playwright and social organizer. Her mother at her death left Eleanor a lifetime income. Both Anne and Abraham Flexner were feminists who supported passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
and both marched in the 1915 New York woman suffrage parade.


Career

Eleanor Flexner was born in
Georgetown, Kentucky Georgetown is a home rule-class city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 37,086 at the 2020 census. It is the 6th-largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the seat of its county. It was original ...
, but spent her youth in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. A biographical statement in the
Schlesinger Library The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America is a research library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. According to Nancy F. Cott, the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director ...
Archives at
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
outlines Flexner's early career: During this period of her life Flexner found her way into New York's radical left. She joined the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...
in 1936 and spent several years writing CP articles and pamphlets, under pseudonyms, and working for various social and political causes. As a member of the League of American Writers, she served on its ''Keep America Out of War Committee'' in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact.Franklin Folsom, ''Days of Anger, Days of Hope'',
University Press of Colorado The University Press of Colorado is a nonprofit publisher supported partly by Adams State University, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Metropolitan State University of Denver, the University of Colorado, the University of Northern ...
, 1994,
She worked alongside the
National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses The National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses was a professional organization for African American nurses founded in 1908. Foundation In 1906, Connecticut nurse Martha Minerva Franklin surveyed African American nurses to see what challenges ...
. In 1946, she became the executive director of the Congress of American Women This activist background allowed Flexner to appreciate the disappointments, triumphs, and bracing camaraderie experienced by the 19th- and early 20th-century women whom she later described in ''Century of Struggle''. In the 1940s, Flexner began researching the 19th-century labor struggles of American women but found that few historians had touched on the subject. She was by that time already planning to write a history of the American woman suffrage movement and gradually became convinced that a comprehensive treatment must deal with the experiences of working class women and politically active women of color. Flexner worked on the manuscript that was to become ''Century of Struggle'' through most of the 1950s. Her original publisher,
Harper Harper may refer to: Names * Harper (name), a surname and given name Places ;in Canada *Harper Islands, Nunavut *Harper, Prince Edward Island ;In the United States *Harper, former name of Costa Mesa, California in Orange County * Harper, Illi ...
, refused to publish it unless she removed the parts about women of color. Fortunately, when she showed the completed book to the historian Arthur Schlesinger, he recognized its value and urged her to offer it to
Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...
, which readily accepted it for publication. It was published in 1959. Many of the concepts that inform ''Century of Struggle'' were developed by a small group of
Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
women — including, in addition to Flexner, Susan B. Anthony II,
Gerda Lerner Gerda Hedwig Lerner (née Kronstein; April 30, 1920 – January 2, 2013) was an Austrian-born American historian and woman's history author. In addition to her numerous scholarly publications, she wrote poetry, fiction, theatre pieces, screenp ...
, and
Eve Merriam Eve Merriam (July 19, 1916 – April 11, 1992) was an American poet and writer. Writing career Merriam's first book was the 1946 '' Family Circle'', which won the Yale Younger Poets Prize. Her book, ''The Inner City Mother Goose'', was describe ...
. It was only in 1982, however, that Flexner publicly acknowledged her past membership in the Communist Party. In 1957, Flexner moved from New York to Northampton, Massachusetts, where her life partner, Helen Terry, was on the faculty of
Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's coll ...
. Flexner completed ''Century of Struggle'' and wrote her last book, ''Mary Wollstonecraft'', in this setting.


Major work

*''American Playwrights, 1918-1938: The Theatre Retreats from Reality'', (1938, 1966; reprinted in 1969 with a new preface by Eleanor Flexnor). *''Century of Struggle: The Women's Rights Movement in the United States'', (1959, expanded edition 1975; enlarged edition 1996 co-authored with Ellen Fitzpatrick, who also wrote a biographically valuable foreword). *''Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography'' (1972).


Capsule summaries of Flexner's books


''American Playwrights, 1918-1938: The Theater Retreats From Reality''

From Flexner's 1969 preface: Plays evaluated in ''American Playwrights'' are by dramatists
Sidney Howard Sidney Coe Howard (June 26, 1891 – August 23, 1939) was an American playwright, dramatist and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925 and a posthumous Academy Award in 1940 for the screenplay for ''Gone with the Wind''. ...
,
S.N. Behrman Samuel Nathaniel Behrman (; June 9, 1893 – September 9, 1973) was an American playwright, screenwriter, biographer, and longtime writer for ''The New Yorker''. His son is the composer David Behrman. Biography Early years Behrman's parents, Z ...
,
Maxwell Anderson James Maxwell Anderson (December 15, 1888 – February 28, 1959) was an American playwright, author, poet, journalist, and lyricist. Background Anderson was born on December 15, 1888, in Atlantic, Pennsylvania, the second of eight children to ...
,
Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earli ...
, by comedy writer
George S. Kaufman George Simon Kaufman (November 16, 1889June 2, 1961) was an American playwright, theater director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals for the Marx Brothers and other ...
(variously collaborating with
Marc Connelly Marcus Cook Connelly (December 13, 1890 – December 21, 1980) was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. Biogra ...
,
Edna Ferber Edna Ferber (August 15, 1885 – April 16, 1968) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. Her novels include the Pulitzer Prize-winning '' So Big'' (1924), '' Show Boat'' (1926; made into the celebrated 1927 musical), '' C ...
,
Moss Hart Moss Hart (October 24, 1904 – December 20, 1961) was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director. Early years Hart was born in New York City, the son of Lillian (Solomon) and Barnett Hart, a cigar maker. He had a younger brother ...
, Herman Mankiewicz,
Morrie Ryskind Morris "Morrie" Ryskind (October 20, 1895 – August 24, 1985) was an American dramatist, lyricist and writer of theatrical productions and movies, who became a conservative political activist later in life. Life and career Ryskind was born in ...
, Howard Dietz, Katherine Dayton, and others), and by comedy writers George Kelly, Rachel Crothers,
Philip Barry Philip Jerome Quinn Barry (June 18, 1896 – December 3, 1949) was an American dramatist best known for his plays ''Holiday'' (1928) and '' The Philadelphia Story'' (1939), which were both made into films starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Gran ...
, and Robert E. Sherwood. In the penultimate chapter, "The New Realism," brief attention is given to
Susan Glaspell Susan Keating Glaspell (July 1, 1876 – July 28, 1948) was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. With her husband George Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theatre company. First know ...
,
Arthur Richman Arthur Richman (c. 1925 – March 25, 2009) was an American baseball writer at a New York City newspaper who become a sports executive, working in the front office of both the New York Mets and New York Yankees. Biography He was hired by the ...
,
Elmer Rice Elmer Rice (born Elmer Leopold Reizenstein, September 28, 1892 – May 8, 1967) was an American playwright. He is best known for his plays ''The Adding Machine'' (1923) and his Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of New York tenement life, '' Street Sce ...
, Sophie Treadwell, John Howard Lawson, Paul Green, Paul & Claire Sifton, George Sklar & Albert Maltz, Paul Peters & George Sklar,
John Wexley John Wexley (1907 – February 4, 1985) was an American writer, best known for his play '' The Last Mile''. Early life and career Wexley was born in New York City. His early career involved acting as part of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Th ...
,
Clifford Odets Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 – August 14, 1963) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and actor. In the mid-1930s, he was widely seen as the potential successor to Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill, as O'Neill began to withdra ...
, Albert Bein,
Irwin Shaw Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: '' The Young Lions'' ...
, Emanuel Eisenberg,
Sidney Kingsley Sidney Kingsley (22 October 1906 – 20 March 1995) was an American dramatist. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play '' Men in White'' in 1934. Life and career Kingsley was born Sidney Kirschner in New York. He studied at ...
,
Marc Blitzstein Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro- union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, was shut down by the W ...
, and Ben Bengal. Flexner regrets in her 1969 preface to the book that she did not include
Lorraine Hansberry Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was a playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin in the Sun'', highli ...
,
Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
, and
Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...
among the playwrights singled out for special notice.


''Century of Struggle: The Women's Rights Movement in the United States''

''Century of Struggle'', originally published in 1959, was the first authoritative narrative of the woman's rights movement. It became a point of departure for generations of historians who built the field of women's history. Professor Ellen Carol DuBois (UCLA) wrote in 1991 that ''Century of Struggle'' "has stood for thirty years as the most comprehensive history of American feminism up to the enfranchisement of women in 1920." Ellen Fitzpatrick (University of New Hampshire), another leading scholar and co-author of the 1996 enlarged edition, wrote: The book covers the woman's rights movement from
Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (née Marbury; July 1591 – August 1643) was a Puritan spiritual advisor, religious reformer, and an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her ...
in the 17th century through the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which ensured women's right to vote. For the book, Flexner interviewed Clara Lemlich Shavelson and the granddaughter of
Leonora Barry Leonora M. Kearney Barry (13 August 1849 – 18 July 1923) was born in County Cork, Ireland, to John and Honor Granger Kearney. As the only woman to hold national office within the Knights of Labor, she brought attention to the conditions of wo ...
, and did significant original research in the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
and the Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History at
Smith College Smith College is a private liberal arts women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith and opened in 1875. It is the largest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite women's coll ...
.


''Mary Wollstonecraft: A Biography''

Mary Wollstonecraft Mary Wollstonecraft (, ; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was a British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. Until the late 20th century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional personal relationsh ...
Godwin (1759-1797) was an English feminist, writer, and philosopher. There are at least three sources of her continuing renown in Britain and America: She is the author of ''A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'' (1792). She opposed the eminent Edmund Burke's views concerning the French Revolution in her ''A Vindication of the Rights of Men'' (1790) and was present in Paris in 1793 when England and France declared war. Finally, she is the mother of Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, who wrote ''Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus'' (1818). In this classic biography, which has not been reprinted, Flexner recounts the glories and miseries of Wollstonecraft's childhood and professional life. She describes Wollstonecraft's crushing self-doubt and unstable temperament, as well as her capacity for hard work even in times of significant adversity. Drawing on contemporary letters and diaries, Flexner adds new material to earlier lives of Wollstonecraft, especially concerning Wollstonecraft's literary friendships and her relations with her sisters and brothers.


Notes

Thomas Neville Bonner's ''Iconoclast'' and Ellen Fitzpatrick's foreword to the 1996 edition of ''Century of Struggle'' were the major sources of information about the Flexner family. Information about Flexner's work history and the development of her ideas comes variously from Kate Weigand's ''Red Feminism'', from the Schlesinger Library Archives, Harvard University, and from Ellen Fitspatrick's foreword to ''Century of Struggle''.Ellen Fitspatrick, ''Century of Struggle'' (foreword)


References


Further reading

*Thomas Neville Bonner, ''Iconoclast: Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. *Ellen Carol DuBois, ''Woman Suffrage and Women's Rights'' (Chapter 12: "Eleanor Flexner and the History of American Feminism"). New York University Press, 1998. *Kate Weigand, ''Red Feminism: American Communism and the Making of Women's Liberation'' ''(Reconfiguring American Political History)''. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.


External links


Eleanor Flexner in NorthamptonAbraham Flexner's extraordinary career

Difficulty of achieving the vote for women

Eleanor Flexner Papers.Schlesinger Library
Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Flexner, Eleanor 1908 births 1995 deaths Swarthmore College alumni American people of German-Jewish descent Feminism and history People from Georgetown, Kentucky Writers from New York City Independent scholars 20th-century American women writers Kentucky women writers Activists from Kentucky Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Mary Wollstonecraft scholars