Book Description

"What allowed a small group of remarkable twentieth-century women to pursue, against all odds, exceptionally rich lives of both work and marriage? Inspired by her generation's experiences juggling career and home life, journalist Andrea Gabor set out to define the unique stuff of which great women are made and chart the often tangled territory in which love and ambition intersect. In intimate portraits we meet: Mileva Maric Einstein, the scientist whose marriage to Einstein began with a shared passion for physics and ended in tragedy; Lee Krasner, a gifted artist who helped cement the reputation of her husband, Jackson Pollock, before making her own mark; Maria Goeppert Mayer, who raised two children while doing landmark scientific research, but couldn't get a paying job until shortly before winning the Nobel Prize; Renowned architect and urban planner Denise Scott Brown, who has struggled for years to emerge from the shadow of her famous husband, the architect Robert Venturi; Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who describes, in a series of unprecedentedly personal interviews, her commitment to family life as she rose in politics and the judiciary."--Back cover.