Interview with Sallie Bingham, October 23, 1987

Interview Summary

The interview starts with Bingham's observation that she was born during the 1937 Kentucky flood, with the advantages of power and wealth. Attracted to the mysteriousness of words and their power to hide and reveal truth, Bingham wanted to be a writer from childhood. Bingham attended Harvard, where she studied writing without role models, since all of her professors were men. Bingham discusses at length the ways women are constrained by society and specifically the publishing world. Bingham feels that the credibility of women writers is attacked because they are crossing gender lines. Bingham discusses starting the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which provides grants for feminism in the arts. Bingham is finding her voice as a feminist.

Interview Keyword

Sallie Bingham Louisville (Ky.) Reading aloud Victorian heroines Novelists Wealth Inheritance Grants Feminist literary magazines Women editors Gender identity Diaries Women Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Women fiction characters Feminism

Interview LC Subject

Authors, American--Kentucky Intellectual life Literature Bingham, Sallie Louisville (Ky.) Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-1863 Creative writing Harvard University Fisher, M. F. K. (Mary Frances Kennedy), 1908-1992 Piercy, Marge Social classes Women's roles Kentucky Foundation for Women Feminist literature Harlequin Romance United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865 Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)

Interview Rights

All rights to the interviews, including but not restricted to legal title, copyrights and literary property rights, have been transferred to the University of Kentucky Libraries.

Interview Usage

Interviews may be reproduced with permission from Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, Special Collections, University of Kentucky Libraries.