I spent last week writing about Eslanda Goode Robeson. Wow. There is so much written about her as she was Paul Robeson's wife. That is the good news. The bad news is that everything conflicts with everything else. It is as if everyone has his or her own interpretation of her life. I guess I am writing another interpretation but some things should be facts and should agree. At least that is what I think as a scientific researcher, but that does not seem to be so. The one fact that I am talking about is when she graduated from Columbia University and when she entered for that matter. Some say she spent two years at the University of Illinois and then went to Columbia and some say she left the U of Illinois in her senior years. I have seen graduation dates from Colombia that range for 1914 to 1920! I have seen a graduation photo of her wearing an academic gown that looks like that of a PhD and not a BS, but maybe they wore those types of gowns early in the 20th Century at Columbia. She does have a PhD in Anthropology from Hartford Seminary.
Therefore, I guess I will try to solve this problem by checking with the Columbia University archives and yearbooks if they have this information. My Oxford University editors might ask me these questions so I might as well get the answers now.
Also photos. So far, there is only one photo that I will have to pay for from a newspaper. I hope to get permission to use other photos for little or no money. I am doing this as I go along so I do not have to do it at the last minutes. I may have more photos then will be printed in the book but I can use them for website that will be an addition to the book. I think I am writing for the website as what I write is long but it will be up to the editors to shorten the writing for the book.
I have been asked to do a short version of one of my women for church. I think I will write about Eslanda Robeson because of her connection to the United Church of Christ via her grandfather and there is the New Jersey connection with her husband. This will be my Black History month speech at church.
You should see my office now. Since there is so much written about Essie Robeson I have papers and books strewn around everywhere. I sit the middle of this mess and either type or ponder which version to use.
There is a budding Writers group here in the Hillsborough Library. I went out to the meeting last Thursday. Only three of us showed up and the organizer of the group did not show. So the three of us introduced ourselves. One woman writes romance novels and has published many; the other woman is a science writer for Pharma for a living and wants to start writing poetry. She brought a poem for us to review. We do not know yet what this group is going to do because the leader did not show up, but it was nice meeting those two women. My monthly lunch with the Princeton Research Forum people was canceled due to the snowstorm. That was to be Thursday also.
Well that is where I am now.
No one has answered my Black History Month quiz yet. Did I stump you?
Jeannette
