Redlands Professor Pens New Biography Detailing Pickford’s Plight

REDLANDS >> She was the first “America’s Sweetheart” and a classic “rags-to-riches” tale, but there is more to the story of Mary Pickford. In fact, while writing “Mary Pickford: Hollywood and the New Woman,” author Kathleen Feeley was surprised, she said, to learn of the depth and range of Pickford’s accomplishments. “Pickford was an “actress, producer, screenwriter, studio executive, philanthropist, newspaper columnist, board member, suffragist, and film preservationist. Most people think her career and life effectively ended in 1933 when she retired from acting, but nothing could be further from the truth. She married for a third time and adopted two children. And she continued to work in these roles until the final decade and half of her life,” Feeley said. The Pickford biography is one in the “Lives of American Women” series. “Meant for use in the undergraduate classroom, the books in the series allow instructors to incorporate American women of all backgrounds into the historical narrative,” said Feeley, associate professor and chair of the Department of History at the University of Redlands. “From First Lady Dolley Madison to civil rights activist and intellectual Angela Davis, these brief biographies use their individual subjects to illuminate the larger social, cultural, political, and economic landscape.” Feeley co-edited “When Private Talk Goes Public: Gossip in United States History” in 2014 and is currently at work on, “The Mightiest Publicity Powers on Earth: The Rise of the Hollywood Press Corps in Mid-Twentieth-Century America.” She teaches courses in history, media, and culture at the University of Redlands and holds a Ph.D. in U.S. History and Women's Studies from The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.