Fleischner, Jennifer 1956-

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Fleischner, Jennifer 1956-

Personal

Born January 16, 1956, in New York, NY; daughter of Irwin (a high school principal) and Ruth Mintz Goodman Holman (co-director of a children's summer camp) Fleischner. Education: Williams College, B.A. (cum laude), 1977; Columbia University, M.A. (with highest honors), 1980, M.Phil. (with distinction), 1983, Ph.D., 1988; Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, postdoctoral study, 1992-94; attended Training Institute of the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, 1990-92.

Addresses

Home—New York, NY. Office—Department of English, Humanities Building, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

Career

Educator and writer. Dover Publications, New York, NY, publicity director, 1977-78; State University of New York at Albany, lecturer, 1986-88, assistant professor, 1988-96, associate professor of English, 1996-2002, director of undergraduate studies, 1996-2000, director of honors program, 1997-99; Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, professor of English and chair of department, beginning 2002. Affiliated faculty member in women's studies, 1988—, Diversity Lecturer, 1995. College of Mount St. Vincent, visiting assistant professor, 1989-90; Hartwick College, Babcock Lecturer, 1992; Harvard University, Andrew W. Mellon faculty fellow in Afro-American studies, 1993-94; Columbia University, visiting scholar in English, 1994-95. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., managing editor of "Reading Theme" book series, 1993. Manhattan Reading Club, founder and director of book groups, 1992-93.

Awards, Honors

Faculty research awards, State University of New York at Albany, 1987, 1990, 1992, 1996; Andrew W. Mellon faculty fellowship, Harvard University, 1993-94; Nuala McGann Drescher Award, United University Professors, 1994-95.

Writings

FOR YOUNG READERS

The Apaches: People of the Southwest, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT), 1994.

The Inuit: People of the Arctic, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT), 1995.

The Dred Scott Case: Testing the Right to Live Free, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT), 1996.

"I Was Born a Slave": The Life of Harriet Jacobs as Told in Her Own Words, illustrated by Melanie K. Reim, Millbrook Press (Brookfield, CT), 1997.

Nobody's Boy, University of Missouri Press (St. Louis, MO), 2006.

Contributing editor to books, including The American Experience, Prentice-Hall (Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 1990; and Scholastic Encyclopedia of American Presidents, Agincourt (New York, NY), 1994.

FOR ADULTS

(Editor with Susan Ostrov Weisser, and contributor) Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds, Feminism and the Problem of Sisterhood, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1994.

Book Group Guide to the Work of Barbara Kingsolver, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1994.

Book Group Guide to the Work of Louise Erdrich, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

Book Group Guide to the Work of Doris Lessing, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1995.

Mastering Slavery: Memory, Family, and Identity in Women's Slave Narratives, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship between a First Lady and a Former Slave, Broadway Books (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to books, including Recasting Intellectual History: African American Cultural Studies, edited by Walter Jackson, Oxford University Press, 1996. Contributor of articles and reviews to magazines, including American Imago, American Literature, Journal of the History of Sexuality, Studies in the Novel, Nineteenth-Century Literature, and Scottish Literary Journal.

Sidelights

Jennifer Fleischner is an educator, writer, and historian whose books for children and adults focus on the role of African Americans during the nineteenth century. In "I Was Born a Slave": The Life of Harriet Jacobs as Told in Her Own Words, for example, Fleischner retells a well-known slave narrative by focusing on the woman who fled mistreatment at the hands of her master and spent several years as a fugitive slave before achieving freedom.

In Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship between a First Lady and a Former Slave, Fleischner explores the provocative intersection between two lives: that of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln and a Washington, DC, dressmaker named Elizabeth Keckly. Dubbing the book "an essential read" in Library Journal, Randall M. Miller wrote that the work's "beauty comes from Fleischner's exquisite control of the narrative as she writes a dual biography of two women" and demonstrates an understanding of both "the people and the age." Played out amid the U.S. Civil War, Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly offers readers a "glimpse into a friendship that defied convention … during an age when social associations between the races were feared," according to Booklist contributor Margaret Flanagan. Fleischner's "almost conversational writing style will keep readers engrossed," concluded Peggy Bercher in School Library Journal.

Turning to fiction, Nobody's Boy again draws on the life of dressmaker Keckly, this time by telling the story of George Kirkland, Keckly's real-life son. In this middle-grade novel, George is the property of an attorney working on the Dred Scott case. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his hard-working dressmaker mother. After Mrs. Keckly purchases her family's freedom, the light-skinned George helps a darker friend escape and ultimately makes it to the free state of Illinois. When the Civil War breaks out, George has become a student at Wilberforce University. He leaves school to join the First Missouri Volunteers, a decision that is both noble and ultimately tragic. "Skillfully and sensitively written," Nobody's Boy tells a story that "should appeal to all younger teens," predicted Kliatt reviewer Patricia Moore.

Fleischner once told SATA: "As a child I was a passionate reader. I loved books, and some of my fondest memories are of sitting somewhere private and alone, reading a book. There were four children in my family, and it seemed like you could never be alone. Reading a book was like having a secret life that no one could touch. Now when I think about being a writer, I can hardly believe it. It's what I always wanted to do."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, July-August, 2003, Angela P. Dodson, review of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship between a First Lady and a Former Slave, p. 59.

Booklist, December 15, 1994, p. 94; September 15, 1997, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of "I Was Born a Slave": The Life of Harriet Jacobs as Told in Her Own Words, p. 225; March 1, 2003, Margaret Flanagan, review of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly, p. 1139; February 1, 2007, Hazel Rochman, review of Nobody's Boy, p. 57.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, December, 1997, review of "I Was Born a Slave," p. 124.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2003, review of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly, p. 203; December 1, 2006, review of Nobody's Boy, p. 1219.

Kliatt, July, 2007, Patricia Moore, review of Nobody's Boy, p. 24.

Library Journal, February 15, 2002, Randall M. Miller, review of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly, p. 149.

Publishers Weekly, January 20, 2003, review of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly, p. 64.

School Library Journal, January, 1998, Debbie Feulner, review of "I Was Born a Slave," p. 123; December, 2003, Peggy Bercher, review of Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly, p. 177.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1998, review of "I Was Born a Slave," p. 177.

Washington Post Book World, January 28, 2007, Elizabeth Ward, review of Nobody's Boy, p. 12.

Washington Times, May 25, 2003, Erin Mendell, "Was Former Slave Her True Friend?," p. B7.