Ellen Feldman appeared on “To The Best of Our Knowledge” shortly after Terrible Virtue was released.  I think you will enjoy listening to the show in anticipation of our conference call with Ellen on Sunday, January 22nd.

In the interview, Ellen talks about what drew her to writing a novel about Margaret Sanger,

Ever since I was a kid, I geuss, I thought she was the most amazing woman who wrought an amazing revolution….

…I think the history of what this country was like before she started her work.  Contraception was illegal in this country. It could only be prescribed by doctors and only to men and only to prevent disease.  And [Margaret] fought long and hard and went to jail repeatedly to make birth control legal and to improve women’s lives and children’s lives….She really changed the landscape of our country, the sexual landscape, the political landscape and the social landscape certainly.”

The interview runs about 11 minutes and is a far ranging conversation about Margaret’s controversiality, her relationship to the African American community, her history with eugenics, and her radical political roots in socialism and anarchism.