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  • The Baby on the Fire Escape

  • Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem
  • By: Julie Phillips
  • Narrated by: Marnye Young
  • Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (7 ratings)
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The Baby on the Fire Escape cover art

The Baby on the Fire Escape

By: Julie Phillips
Narrated by: Marnye Young
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Summary

An insightful and provocative exploration of the relationship between motherhood and art through the lives of women artists and writers.

What does it mean to create, not in "a room of one's own," but in a domestic space? Do children and genius rule each other out? In The Baby on the Fire Escape, award-winning biographer Julie Phillips traverses the shifting terrain where motherhood and creativity converge.

With fierce empathy and vivid prose, Phillips evokes the intimate struggles of brilliant artists and writers, including Doris Lessing, who had to choose between her motherhood and herself; Ursula K. Le Guin, who found productive stability in family life; Audre Lorde, whose queer, polyamorous union allowed her to raise children on her own terms; and Alice Neel, who once, to finish a painting, was said to have left her baby on the fire escape of her New York apartment. A meditation on maternal identity and artistic greatness, The Baby on the Fire Escape illuminates some of the most pressing conflicts in contemporary women's lives.
©2022 Julie Phillips (P)2022 Tantor
Literary History & Criticism Authors Gender Studies
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What listeners say about The Baby on the Fire Escape

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Such a great book for creative mothers

Love the book, so much information and great to tie themes together with such different creatives lives. hate the readers voice!

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Interesting insight into the creative process

It is fascinating to hear how so many important writers and artists negotiated creativity and motherhood. I will listen again.

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