Sallie Bingham

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Taken by the Shawnee

“This is an amazing book, and I couldn’t stop reading it.”
— Joan Silber, PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Secrets of Happiness and Improvement

 

“Sallie Bingham has imagined her ancestor’s history so graphically, so passionately, that every page of this astounding story electrifies.”
— Joan Frank, author of Juniper Street: a Novel and Late Work

 
Taken by the Shawnee cover

Now Available from Turtle Point Press

In a most unusual portrait of early America, a young mother’s years in captivity with the Shawnee prove to be the best years of her life.

It’s 1779 and a young white woman named Margaret Erskine is venturing west from Virginia, on horseback, with her baby daughter and the rest of her family. She has no experience of Indians, and has absorbed most of the prejudices of her time, but she is open-minded, hardy, and mentally strong, a trait common to most of her female descendants–Sallie Bingham’s ancestors...

This is the seldom told story of the making of this country in the years of the Revolution, what it cost in lives and suffering, and how one woman among many not only survived extreme hardship, but flourished.


“Bingham recounts this fascinating story of capture, survival, progress, healing, and return with lush descriptions and respect for all involved with Margaret’s complicated story. She is a smart and empathetic writer, and has created an awesome account of female survival at a horrific time.”— Booklist

 

“The novel paints a compelling portrait of womanhood in this era. Crucially, the author depicts the violence of the period as integral to the colonial project, dismissing any propagandistic delusions of one-sided "savagery" and instead depicting each culture without romance or bias.”— Kirkus Reviews

 
 

Recent Short Story Awards


“What I Learned from Fat Annie”
Recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize for 2023.
Forthcoming in How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (Fall 2025).


“How Daddy Lost His Ear”
Second prize in the 2023 Sean O'Faolain Short Story Competition.
Forthcoming in How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (Fall 2025).


“July Fourth”
Honorable Mention in the 2024 Stories That Need to Be Told Contest.
Forthcoming in How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (Fall 2025).

 
 

The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke

“Men who inherit great wealth are respected, but women who do the same are ridiculed. In The Silver Swan, Sallie Bingham rescues Doris Duke from this gendered prison and shows us just how brave, rebellious, and creative this unique woman really was, and how her generosity benefits us to this day.”— Gloria Steinem

 

“In her fascinating book about tobacco heiress Doris Duke, whose net worth had ballooned to $1.2 billion by her death in 1993, Bingham gets at how inherited wealth liberates women but also burdens them.”— The National Book Review, "5 HOT BOOKS"

 

“In this illuminating biography, Bingham (The Blue Box) chronicles the life of philanthropist and tobacco heiress Doris Duke (1912–1993)... Bingham is a generous biographer in this exacting, measured work.”— Publishers Weekly

 

“Bingham adds a trove of new material to the Duke oeuvre, including revealing quotations from letters and details of daily life on Duke’s many estates. ”— The New York Times

 

Prefer text? Read the transcript.

Sallie Bingham is a writer, teacher, feminist activist, and philanthropist.

Sallie’s first novel was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1961; she has since published six additional novels and the well-known family memoir, Passion and Prejudice (Knopf, 1989). Her latest book, The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke, is now available from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

She is founder of the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which published The American Voice, and the Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture at Duke University.

 

Sallie's Latest

Book cover for Made In Louisville
Kentucky

Before It All Went Away

  • May 21st, 2025
  • Louisville
This is our future. It is a future that depends on the hard work of women and African Americans; women certainly played no role in early manufacturing, and African Americans would have been limited to the lowest-paid jobs.
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Photo of antique friendship quilt
My Family Kentucky

My Friendship Quilt (2025)

  • May 18th, 2025
  • Friends
On the question of continuity.
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T-Shirt that reads I Read Banned Books
Politics Kentucky

High Five

  • May 15th, 2025
  • Louisville
My shopping cart was half full when I rolled it past a tall, handsome African American wearing a blue suit.
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Official portrait photo of Donald Trump
Politics

Carrying On vs. Carrying On

  • May 11th, 2025
  • Feminism, Donald Trump
We are in danger of overreacting. Every day the front pages of newspapers and the news shows scream. Every day friends use more and more exaggerated terms...
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Photo of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning
Writing

Can Writing Be Taught?

  • May 4th, 2025
  • Taken by the Shawnee, Carnegie Center Lexington
I face this crucial question whenever I am about to begin teaching another workshop, always now in memoir writing, which over the last twenty years has become a crucial form of self-expression for many women and some men who aspire to shape, refine and share their stories.
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Cover image for She Who Rides Horses
Women

Staring the Devil in the Eye Every Morning

  • April 30th, 2025
It's too late to roll back the advances of the last 80 years, the changes in laws and behavior and expectation that have been and are the work of thousands of nameless women.
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Photo of a mallard duck in flight
Religion

Ordinary Miracles

  • April 27th, 2025
  • Mary Oliver, Birds, Pope Francis
It seemed to me so beautiful, such a miracle, that I wondered why we were not all dancing and shouting jubilee.
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Photo of Pope Francis
Religion

The Heavens Shed a Tear

  • April 23rd, 2025
  • Pope Francis
The death of the people's pope brings universal sadness but also for me a sense of great gratitude for what he was and what he stood for in spite of mighty resistance.
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Statue of Quan Yin
Writing

The Spirit of Easter

  • April 20th, 2025
  • Easter, Good Friday
To me, Good Friday now means that we are about to experience She Is Risen: spring, the yellow tulips in my garden, and the statue of the goddess Quan Yin.
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Photo of a common raven flying above a pine tree
New Mexico

My Friends the Ravens

  • April 13th, 2025
  • Birds
I keep waiting grumpily for a spell of warm, settled weather. But not my friends the ravens. This is the weather they adore.
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Taken by the Shawnee
(Turtle Point Press, 2024)

Photo of the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning
Writing

Can Writing Be Taught?

  • May 4th, 2025
  • Taken by the Shawnee, Carnegie Center Lexington
I face this crucial question whenever I am about to begin teaching another workshop, always now in memoir writing, which over the last twenty years has become a crucial form of self-expression for many women and some men who aspire to shape, refine and share their stories.
  
Book cover of Taken by the Shawnee
Writing

Moving Along Into 2025

  • January 8th, 2025
  • Taken by the Shawnee, How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories
Perhaps this great success of Shawnee is what all writers finally achieve—this is my sixteenth published book—but I doubt if it's that alone.
  
Book cover of Taken by the Shawnee
Writing

Moving On

  • November 27th, 2024
  • Margaret Erskine, Taken by the Shawnee, How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories
So many possible scenarios! So much fascinating reading!
  
Black and white photo of Etowah Cliffs mansion
My Family Writing

My Next Book After My Next Book

  • September 18th, 2024
  • The Blue Box, Taken by the Shawnee, How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories
How fortunate I am to have access to this incredibly rich trove of letters! Now that letter writing is at an end, there will be no more such collections.
  
Hand-painted watercolor of a bouquet of flowers
My Family

Clifford

  • September 11th, 2024
  • Rose Caperton, The Blue Box, Taken by the Shawnee, Caroline Clifford Nephew
Writing to "My Dear Mary"—her niece and my mother—in 1954, Rose Caperton explained that the three leather-bound books she was sending had belonged to Mary's great-great-great grandmother.
  
Photo of Sallie Bingham from the 1990s book Upstate
Writing Kentucky

À la recherche

  • August 18th, 2024
  • Kentucky, Writing, Taken by the Shawnee
I was single and at that time and in that place, single women seemed slightly suspect; when I called the local ballet company to order one ticket, I was told they were only sold in pairs.
  
Photo of three figures leaping over a bull
Women Writing Religion

Can  a Heathen Woman Be a Christian?

  • August 14th, 2024
  • Taken by the Shawnee, Religion
Perhaps a healthy dose of heathenism would restore us to the churches (or other forms of organized spirituality) so vital to healthy communities.
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Image of Tecumseh statue by Alan Cottrill
Writing

The Shawnee Have Their Own Park in Ohio

  • June 16th, 2024
  • Margaret Erskine, Taken by the Shawnee
Margaret, if she were alive, would smile secretly, shielding her pleasure from her censorious Virginia relatives.
  
Illustration of a girl cleaning a gun
Writing

Weaving the Threads of Historical Fiction: Ingenuity, Research, Integrity

  • June 5th, 2024
  • The Blue Box, Margaret Erskine, Taken by the Shawnee
Margaret could watch, she could listen, and she could learn—and I learned along with her through research, thought, and writing and rewriting her story.
  
Book cover of Taken by the Shawnee
Writing

Book Banning Begins at Home

  • May 29th, 2024
  • Santa Fe, Margaret Erskine, Taken by the Shawnee, 12 Favorites of 2024
I'm hoping that the individuals who object to my book may in some form or another communicate with me.
  

Doris Duke
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)

Black and white photo of Margaret Sanger in 1879
Women Politics

The Zombie Law

  • June 26th, 2024
  • Doris Duke, Margaret Sanger
Michelle Goldberg's column in The New York Times describes the 1935 Federal Comstock Act as a threat that Americans have not taken seriously.
  
Photo of Margaret Erskine
Women Writing

Margaret in the Wilderness

  • April 2nd, 2023
  • Doris Duke, The Silver Swan, Margaret Erskine, Taken by the Shawnee, Ukraine
Surrounded by disasters of every kind, we are seeing the great strengths of our extraordinary adaptability, valued and valuable as it has never been before.
  
Photo of Kristen Costa and Sallie Bingham
Writing

Doris Farewell

  • April 10th, 2022
  • Rough Point, 20 Favorites of 2022, Doris Duke, The Silver Swan
Thursday night I was privileged to present a conversation about my book and Doris Duke in one of the huge gilded rooms at Rough Point...
  
Poster for the play Confederates
Writing Theater

Doris Redux

  • April 6th, 2022
  • Doris Duke, The Silver Swan
I'm about to leave New York City in its grey rain for Newport and Rough Point, the big house on Ocean Avenue Doris inherited from her father and that seems to have been closely associated, for her, with her mother.
  
Photo of Margaret Erskine
Women Writing

Margaret in the Wilderness

  • March 17th, 2022
  • Margaret Erskine, Taken by the Shawnee, Ukraine, Doris Duke, The Silver Swan
Surrounded by disasters of every kind, we are seeing the great strengths of our extraordinary adaptability, valued and valuable as it has never been before.
  
The Silver Swan book cover
Writing

The Silver Swan Sails Again

  • December 15th, 2021
  • Doris Duke, The Silver Swan, Duke Farms, Rough Point, Shangri La, 21 Favorites of 2021
Due to the generosity of a store here in Santa Fe called Travel Bug, I was able to give a reading from the biography a few days ago to a large and appreciative crowd.
  
Photo of Margaret Erskine
Women Writing

Two Women: Margaret and Doris

  • September 24th, 2021
  • Taken by the Shawnee, 21 Favorites of 2021, Doris Duke, The Silver Swan, Margaret Erskine
I've come to believe over the years that there is a core similarity that connects the lives of all women. I think it is our ability to adapt.
  
Still image from my Zoom talk, Doris Duke: A Lifetime Search for Faith
Writing Religion

Doris Duke: A Lifetime Search for Faith

  • March 17th, 2021
  • Doris Duke, The Silver Swan
On Tuesday, March 9, 2021 I presented a talk to The Library Committee of The Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico entitled "Doris Duke: A Lifetime Search for Faith."
  
Doris Duke - Rubenstein Library
Writing New Mexico

Vindication

  • February 17th, 2021
  • 21 Favorites of 2021, Doris Duke, The Silver Swan
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's grant of 1.6 million dollars to pay for the digitalization of thousands of tape-recorded oral histories of indigenous people has a special meaning for me.
  
Time magazine cover
Women Philanthropy

And Now, Margaret Sanger

  • July 22nd, 2020
  • Margaret Sanger, Doris Duke, The Silver Swan, 20 Favorites of 2020
Yesterday, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York removed the name of Margaret Sanger, "founder of the organization," from its Manhattan clinic because of her "harmful connection to the eugenics movement."
  

Little Brother
(Sarabande Books, 2022)

Photo of Jonathan Worth Bingham
Writing

The Personal Is Political

  • August 28th, 2022
  • Little Brother: A Memoir
We may all be susceptible to thinking our “personal” stories are nothing more than personal, forgetting over and over again that, as Gloria Steinem said, “The personal is political.”
  
Photo of Pip, the dog
Writing

These Small Blessings

  • July 20th, 2022
  • Santa Fe, gratitude, Little Brother: A Memoir, Will's Things
Actually not so small.
  
Charlie Russell painting of a cow circled by wolves
Kentucky

Montana Was Made for the Wild Man: Women and Bad Boys

  • June 22nd, 2022
  • Bill Hearne, Little Brother: A Memoir
We need to feel a connection to the heroic, so often defined as inherently male.
  
Photo of daylily flowers
New Mexico

Leaving

  • June 19th, 2022
  • Santa Fe, Carmichael's Bookstore, Little Brother: A Memoir, 20 Favorites of 2022
Whether I'm leaving on a short trip like this one or a long trip like the one next month, I feel the same mixture of nostalgia and apprehension...
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Photo of The Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos
New Mexico Politics

First We Burn

  • May 11th, 2022
  • Little Brother: A Memoir, Wildfires, Los Alamos
32.5kviews {views}The national news, which almost never recognizes that New Mexico is a state—after all we have only five Congressional delegates—has been pricked into awareness by our five fires, one   
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Cover of the book Little Brother
Writing

Escaping the Labyrinth of Nostalgia

  • May 8th, 2022
  • Wildfires, Little Brother: A Memoir, 20 Favorites of 2022
As the first copies of my memoir, Little Brother, begin to circulate, I’m struck by the way some friends have responded to the photograph of Jonathan on the cover.
  
Photo of spring waterfall with snow
Writing

Getting to YES

  • March 24th, 2022
  • Little Brother: A Memoir, Taken by the Shawnee, The Silver Swan
Out of the sour ground of NO spring many hopeful sprigs, especially the generous responses to so many of my posts from you.
  
Still from the video Dylan Winter and the Starling Murmurations
Writing New Mexico

How Wonderful Is That

  • January 30th, 2022
  • Farmers Market, Little Brother: A Memoir, 20 Favorites of 2022
In the midst of so much bad news, this astonishing performance of starlings, those little birds many of us have learned to hate, is a reminder of our ability to communicate and cooperate
  
Photo of Lawrence Olivier
Women

Making Heroines

  • December 12th, 2021
  • The Silver Swan, Little Brother: A Memoir
Where are our heroines?
  
Cover of the book Little Brother
My Family Writing

Little Brother Comes Home

  • November 23rd, 2021
  • 21 Favorites of 2021, Jonathan Worth Bingham, Little Brother: A Memoir
Jonathan will be back in the place he loved best, and the only place he ever felt he really belonged.
  
 

Latest Comments

  • Martha White on High Five: ““Language Is Power When Repurposing Twain”” May 17th, 10:29 am
  • Doug Conwell on High Five: “Add my high five to this as well Sallie!” May 15th, 2:30 pm
  • Michael Harford on High Five: “I share your sentiment. And I’m adopting U.S.ers as a descriptor.” May 15th, 9:07 am
  • James Ozyvort Maland on High Five: “High five for your sharing this!” May 15th, 8:30 am
  • Martha White on Staring the Devil in the Eye Every Morning: ““…if we each have a torch there is a lot more light”” May 1st, 3:16 pm

Watch Sallie

Visiting Linda Stein

Visiting Linda Stein

March 3rd, 2025
Back on October 28th, 2008, I visited artist Linda Stein's studio in New York City and tried on a few of her handmade suits of armor.
On Memoir and My Writing Memoir/Writing History Workshops

On Memoir and My Writing Memoir/Writing History Workshops

February 11th, 2024
I think memoir writing is a much more serious task than it's often considered to be. It's not informal, it's not casual. It really is the writing of

Listen To Sallie

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

Rebecca Reynolds & Salie Bingham at SOMOS

November 8th, 2024
This event was recorded November 1, 2024 in Taos, NM at SOMOS Salon & Bookshop by KCEI Radio, Red River/Taos and broadcast on November 8, 2024.
Taken by the Shawnee Reading

Taken by the Shawnee Reading

September 1st, 2024
This reading took place at The Church of the Holy Faith in Santa Fe, New Mexico in August of 2024.

Upcoming Events

Jul 25
July 25th - July 27th

The 9th Annual Taos Writers Conference

SOMOS Salon & Bookshop
Taos MO
Oct 23
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm EDT

How Daddy Lost His Ear – Carmichael’s Bookstore

Carmichael's Bookstore - Frankfort
Louisville KY
View all of Sallie's events

Latest Tweets

salliebingham avatar; Sallie Bingham @salliebingham ·
22 May 1925631028783149323

I look on the eighteen short stories in my forthcoming book How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories as a miracle I will never entirely understand—or need to, but here's a stab at it. "It's Coming!": https://buff.ly/4jXDyEX @turtleppress

Image for the Tweet beginning: I look on the eighteen Twitter feed image.
salliebingham avatar; Sallie Bingham @salliebingham ·
21 May 1925167258013192461

One of the rants we hear a good deal lately from a certain quarter has to do with the death of manufacturing in the U.S. and unhinged speculation about bringing it back... but what was this industry? When and where did it flourish? https://buff.ly/j5Tj6a0 #LouisvilleKY #madeinKY

Image for the Tweet beginning: One of the rants we Twitter feed image.
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Recent Press

Sallie Bingham's latest is a captivating account of ancestor's ordeal
Pasatiempo, The Santa Fe New Mexican

“I felt she was with me” during the process of writing the book, Bingham says. “I felt I wasn’t writing anything that would have seemed to her false or unreal.”

Copyright © 2025 Sallie Bingham. All Rights Reserved.

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