Dr. Evelyn Fox Keller published Making Sense of My Life in Science: A Memoir with Modern Memoirs in February 2023. Sadly, Keller passed away in September that year, but not before celebrating the book’s arrival with two launch parties, one for residents of the hospice-care facility in which she was staying, and one for family and friends. Dr. Gail Twersky Reimer, one of Keller’s closest friends, initiated the publication process with Modern Memoirs and shepherded it through its completion. Fast-tracked because of Keller’s declining health, print editions of the Assisted Memoir were available two and a half months after Reimer initiated the project, and an eBook followed one week later. We asked Reimer to reflect on her relationship with Keller, and what she feels it meant to Keller to share her books with others.
Introduction
Keller earned her doctorate in physics from Harvard University in 1965. As described on the Jewish Women’s Archive website, “Evelyn Fox Keller was a scientist working in theoretical physics and mathematical biology until the rise of feminism in the 1970s prompted her to turn her scientific analysis to the ways gender ideology shapes scientific inquiry and concepts.” She taught, lectured, and wrote multiple articles and books, including:
A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock (1983)
Reflections on Gender and Science (1985)
Refiguring Life: Metaphors of Twentieth-Century Biology (1996)
The Century of the Gene (2000)
Making Sense of Life: Explaining Biological Development with Models, Metaphors, and Machines (2002)
She also received several awards and honors, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992.
Reimer received her doctorate in English and American Literature from Rutgers University. She was a faculty member of Wellesley College, associate director of the Massachusetts Foundation of the Humanities, and was the founding director of the Jewish Women’s Archive.
1. In Making Sense of My Life in Science, you and Diane Paul are singled out by Keller as friends, who, along with her family, “have been there for me whenever I needed help.” When and how did you meet Keller? What drew you to her as a friend and solidified your relationship?
Gail Reimer: As she was completing her memoir, Evelyn needed quite a bit of help. But when she and I first met in 1984, I was the one in need of help. I was coming off of three difficult and demeaning years in which my senior colleagues regularly belittled my intellectual interests and disparaged my style of teaching. Drawing on how she had come to understand her own painful experiences as a graduate student, Evelyn took it as her mission to fortify my understanding that the assault on my interests was not about me and to mentor me as I planned how best to pursue my interests going forward. Several years later we both found ourselves under attack at about the same time—Evelyn by the “defenders of science,” and I by Lynn Cheney and the defenders of “traditional history.” The support we offered one another as we combatted the misrepresentations of our respective work, along with mutual respect and eventually deep love solidified our relationship and our commitment to being there for each other in good times and bad.
2. Keller mentions you again as a member of the “Mothers’ Group,” which she and her friend Marianne Hirsch organized in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the mid-1980s “as an attempt to restore the maternal voice to feminist theory.” Describe this group and its work. What energy and insights did Keller bring to it?
Gail Reimer: The mothers’ group was a hybrid consciousness raising/discussion group. It developed from a conversation over coffee at Café Algiers in which Marianne Hirsch identified a problem she was struggling with—the mother’s voice was always theorized from the point of view of the daughter—and Evelyn, who was rarely daunted by a problem, said, “If there is no theory, let’s bring together some smart women and make one.” A small group of women, all mothers and scholars whose work touched on mothering in one way or another, met regularly in Evelyn’s apartment. Over wine and cheese, we struggled to give voice to our maternal experience “without,” as Hirsch has written, “being naïve about what the notion means or facile about its discursive character.” In her memoir Evelyn recalls our discussions as “invariably intense, provocative and stimulating.” What she leaves out is the frequency with which she was the one asking the toughest questions.
“The memoir allows readers to see behind the success, into her dreams and disappointments, her internal struggles, her loneliness and vulnerability, as well as her brilliance, boldness, and astounding self-confidence.”
3. In learning how to write her books, Keller describes learning the “discipline of clarity,” which meant “demanding that the meaning I sought to convey in every sentence be crystal clear.” She said this was “in complete accord with my overriding quest, always, to be understood.” How would you say this memoir contributes to Keller’s life and work being understood by its readers?
Gail Reimer: The title of Evelyn’s memoir, which references an earlier book of hers, Making Sense of Life (2002), makes clear that the memoir is about HER “life in science”—the concerns and questions she brought to her work in science, as well as the difficulties she faced as she tried to make a life for herself in science. Given her prominence, the numerous honors and awards she received, including the MacArthur “genius” award, as well as her extensive list of influential publications, it would be easy to imagine her career as a remarkable success story. The memoir allows readers to see behind the success, into her dreams and disappointments, her internal struggles, her loneliness and vulnerability, as well as her brilliance, boldness, and astounding self-confidence.
4. When did Keller begin and finish writing her memoir? At what point did you become involved in its publication, and what can you share about your experience in helping her with the process?
Gail Reimer: Midway through her memoir, in the chapter titled “Terra Firma, A Crucial Turning Point,” Evelyn quotes a long section from a 1977 essay she wrote about her personal struggles titled “The Anomaly of a Woman in Physics. “ I would argue that by deciding to include the essay in her memoir, Evelyn was in a sense acknowledging its significance as her initial foray into memoir writing. It wasn’t till some 35 years later, after completing the book about the climate crisis that she co-authored with Phil Kitcher (The Seasons Alter: How to Save Our Planet in Six Acts), that Evelyn returned to writing about her personal experience. She continued to work on the memoir as her health declined, relying on her son and a few friends to comment, critique, and help edit the manuscript. Concerned that time was running out and knowing how important it was to Evelyn to see the memoir published, I suggested that she self-publish and avoid the time lag from manuscript to publication typical at trade publishing houses. Modern Memoirs immediately understood the necessity to fast-track the book, and I worked closely with Evelyn to respond to their timely queries and suggested edits, choose and caption photos, decide on a title and final jacket design, and more. What for some time had felt like a book that would never see the light of day became a regular source of joy as galleys, blurbs, images of the cover, and finally the book itself arrived.
5. What was Keller’s reaction to seeing the final product? Tell us about the launch parties and the responses of the people who attended.
Gail Reimer: Given how many books she had published, it was kind of surprising to experience her excitement when the first copy arrived. She was deeply moved by the blurbs, delighted by how beautifully the cover came out (and how beautiful she looked), and thrilled that she would now be able to share the book with family and friends. There were two launch parties: one for residents of Youville House, the assisted living facility where Evelyn had been in residence for several years, and one, several weeks later, for family and friends. She spoke and read from the memoir at both, though by the second party she was too weak to finish reading the section she’d chosen. Though many of the residents and staff at Youville knew her, most were surprised and fascinated by her life story and many accomplishments, and Evelyn was amused by her sudden celebrity status at Youville. The second party was more of a love fest with many people in the room eager to expand on something mentioned in the memoir or recall a story that was not included. Evelyn was especially moved by how much her sister, Frances Fox Piven, wanted to share stories of their “sisterhood” as young children. Sadly, by the time the book was done, Evelyn no longer had the energy to write long inscriptions to the friends with whom she most wanted to share her memoir. Thankfully she’d been able to acknowledge how much those friends and colleagues meant to her in the final pages of the memoir.
If you are interested in purchasing Keller’s memoir, please visit the Modern Memoirs online shop, Memory Lane Books & Gifts.
Many of Keller’s other books are available for purchase through our affiliate page on Bookshop.org.
Liz Sonnenberg is genealogist for Modern Memoirs, Inc.