Drucker, Doris 1910(?)-

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DRUCKER, Doris 1910(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1910, in Germany; immigrated to United States, 1932; daughter of a sales manager and Clara Schmitz (a homemaker); married Peter Drucker (a businessman and writer). Education: Studied law and economics at London School of Economics; studied at the Sorbonne, Paris; M.A. in physics. Hobbies and other interests: Tennis.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637.

CAREER: Patent attorney, engineer, and inventor. Founder and chief executive officer of business, 1998—.

AWARDS, HONORS: California Governor's Older Worker Award, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair Out: A Memoir, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: A refugee from Nazi Germany, an inventor and entrepreneur, and an avid tennis player well into her nineties, Doris Drucker has had a long and active life, much of it with her equally hard-driving husband, business guru Peter Drucker. In Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair Out: A Memoir she tells the story of her complex, sometimes exasperating, but often humorous relationship with the woman who first instilled this drive in her: her mother, Clara.

An agnostic Jew of Prussian ancestry, Clara ran her children's lives with a firmness and determination that bordered on the ludicrous. She picked the names of their dolls, told them what opinions they would have, and let them know when they were permitted to be hungry. This did not stop at adulthood. She told them where to go to college and what to study, regardless of their desires. The title of Drucker's book comes from a conversation in which her mother set a particularly impossible goal. Deciding that chemistry would open up great possibilities, she told Doris that she should grow up to marry a Rothschild and have the resources to become another Marie Curie. "Yes, be another Madame Curie and invent radium! You'll be famous!" she assured her daughter. When Doris responded that radium had already been discovered, her mother flew into a rage. "You are going to invent radium or I'll pull your hair. You're just being negative, like your father."

Drucker never did become a chemist. She wanted to become a doctor, but her mother decided that would hinder her marriage prospects, thinking law would be better. As a sort of compromise, she studied economics in London, where she rekindled a romance with Peter Drucker, marrying him and immigrating to the United States in 1936.

The book focuses primarily on Drucker's childhood, which was spent in a middle-class Jewish household in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition to the many stories about her formidable mother, Drucker has much to say about the common assumptions of the times. The "memoir is very class-conscious—the most enjoyable and informative thing about it," noted Spectator contributor Gabriele Annan. Growing up in a spa town with families better off than her own, Drucker was keenly aware of the subtle differences. She and her siblings might be invited to tea with other children, but her parents were never invited to dinner. During a stint as a nanny, she found herself sneering at the false gentility of her employers, such as the special hat worn by the lady of the house while pouring tea.

Interestingly, politics is very much in the background of the book, and Drucker is curiously innocent of the rise of Nazism. It is, in fact, a visiting Dutch relative who convinces her to leave the country in 1932. In the end, Invent Radium or I'll Pull Your Hair Out is a look at a childhood before tyranny and horror overwhelmed the lives of Germany's citizens. According to USA Today contributor Bruce Rosenstein, the author "has a terrific touch as a writer, making this a fast and absorbing read."