"Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities." Gloria Steinem
Introduction
Stories are written everyday. These life stories are the simplest form of biography. No one writer can describe the life of another completely, that is where imagination fills the white space.
Imagination is an important part of biography for both the writer and reader. Even when we write about our own lives we leave out events and interactions we do not feel are significant for our audience. Good writers leave enough to the reader's imagination so the reader is drawn in and wants to know more. Much autobiography is "just the good stuff." Writers do not often tell the intimate details of their hopes and fears in an account of their own life. Marginally famous people often use autobiography to glorify their own life. In either case, a story is told.
Why is Gloria Steinem not commonplace? 1
A good biographer tells an interesting story of a person in a particular time and place. By making the reader aware of what happens to the central character and how this person is affected by and impacts the world around them, the reader can learn history. Textbooks often limit their coverage of history to the winners and forget the common man or woman who also plays an important role in shaping their surroundings. This investigation of a life by a biographer may yield more history than journals, letters and other artifacts. Gloria Steinem has been linked to feminism for the past forty years. Her story is one of a poor girl who was able to fulfill her dreams (and those of her mother) through journalism. It was through her writing assignments that Steinem was able to see the oppression of American women and begin her fight for equality. One can view her biography as a portrait with many layers of paint hiding the fears of a little girl from Toledo who looked to a bright future in a big city. This forward-looking mentality kept Steinem from living in the present but gave her the drive necessary to become one of the most prominent women in America today. She recently won the Medal of Freedom, there is an HBO documentary about her life and yet she has become a forgotten feminist.
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