Vera Glaser
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Gossip & the Women’s Pages
The book When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in American History is now up on Amazon. My chapter is: “Gossip in the Women’s Pages: Examining and Legitimizing the Work of Female Journalists in the 1950s and 1960s.” In it, I examine the role gossip played in the coverage of society news, brides and politics in the women’s pages. The book comes out in August.
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Women’s History Month: Vera Glaser
Day 30 of Women’s History month features Vera Glaser – a Washington, DC-based wire services reporter whose work typically ran in the women’s pages in the 1960s. She made a significant difference in the coverage of the women’s liberation movement. Vera Glaser was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She was interested in journalism in high school. On the weekends she would visit the newsrooms of the local newspapers, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and St. Louis Globe-Democrat. She graduated from high school first in her class. That position typically meant a scholarship to Washington University. Instead, the honor went to a male who had only been at the school…
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Letitia Baldrige Dies
This morning I found this obituary for Letitia Baldrige who was known for being the social secretary to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. This was interesting as just last week I was writing about Baldrige in my chapter on women’s page editors and gossip. In the chapter I describe the work of Vera Glaser who covered politics (and gossip) for the women’s pages. It was in her column that she scooped everyone else in learning what was in Baldrige’s tell-all book about her experiences in the White House. According to her obituary: “As Jacqueline Kennedy’s social secretary, Ms. Baldrige oversaw the glamorous social gatherings and state dinners for which the administration…
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Women of the Washington Press
This new book about women journalists in Washington by Maurine Beasley is in a word – amazing. (Dr. Beasley was my dissertation adviser and introduced me to the women’s pages.) It is rich storytelling – with strong anecdotes – grounded in significant research. Washington D.C. with its mix of politics and society has been a special place for women reporters. Dr. Beasley tells their stories well. Two of the women I write about are mentioned in the book – Vera Glaser and Eleni Epstein. The work of both women ran in the women’s pages. Vera Glaser was the longtime political columnist for a national wire service. Her work often ran…
- A Simple Matter of Justice, Barbara Hackman Franklin, Catherine East, Jean Sharley Taylor, Vera Glaser
A Matter of Simple Justice
I have been re-reading this wonderful book, A Matter of Simple Justice. Here is a link to a website for the book. The book is about Barbara Hackman Franklin and her pioneering work in the Nixon Administration, along with several other government women. It is a good read and the research from primary sources is outstanding. I hope to track down some of the clips listed in the notes. My favorite parts of the book are about journalist Vera Glaser – whose work often ran in the women’s pages – and longtime government employee Catherine East – who often worked behind the scenes to sneak news to women’s page editors.…
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Book chapter about women and gossip
I learned on Friday that my proposal for a book chapter about women and gossip had been accepted – the CFP was on H-Net. This was the call for proposed chapters. I am looking at the concept through the role of gossip both in the political columns and the advice columns that ran in women’s pages. While both kinds of columns have been discounted because either they contained “women’s news” or were in the “women’s sections,” these columns played important roles. One of the most significant political columnists was Vera Glaser – she is pictured above. Lance and I went through her papers several years ago at the University of…
