Elizabeth Warren’s book ‘Persist’ to come out in April
Persist.
Henry Holt and Company announced recently that Persist, which the publisher calls “a deeply personal book and a powerful call to action”, will be released April 20. Persist will refer to Warren’s recent bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, won by Joe Biden, but is not a campaign memoir.
“I wrote Persist because I remain as committed as ever to fighting for an America that works for everyone,” Warren, whose previous books include A Fighting Chance and This Fight is Our Fight, said in a statement.
“I’ve written a dozen books, but this one is especially personal: I bring the pieces of who I am to the fight for real change, and I passionately believe that we are in a moment when extraordinary changes are possible.”
Financial terms for the deal were not disclosed. Warren was represented by
Robert Barnett and Daniel Martin of Williams & Connolly, where clients have ranged from former President Bill Clinton to a political rival of Warren’s, Sen Mitch Mcconnell. A portion of author proceeds from Perisist will be donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the Worcester County Food Bank, and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.
Warren became associated with the word Persist after a 2017 confrontation with
Mcconnell, the Kentucky Republican and Senate majority leader. Warren was giving a speech on the Senate floor, denouncing then-attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, when Republicans invoked an obscure rule to silence her.
“Sen Warren was giving a lengthy speech,” Mcconnell said. “She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea Clinton, has collaborated with illustrator Alexandra
Boiger on a handful of picture books that use Mcconnell’s expression, including She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World and She Persisted in Sports: American Olympians Who Changed the Game.
the story. But details do mirror Jackson’s domestic life. Stanley Edgar Hyman was a compulsive newspaper reader, and images of indifferent and sedentary husbands appear in cartoons she drew.
“I wouldn’t assume that the couple in the story are an exact replica of Jackson and Hyman, but there do seem to be similarities,” Franklin said. “She often depicts Hyman as removed and distant, even oblivious; in one of the cartoons, she sneaks up behind him with a hatchet as he relaxes behind a newspaper.”
Laurence Hyman called Jackson’s work “a personal view of the female experience in the 1940s and 1950s, when women were expected to be housewives, and happy to be. But Shirley’s stories and novels — and drawings — cut through that veneer to expose the uncomfortable truths about a woman’s oppressed role in the culture of that era”.