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You are here: Home / Writing / On To The Next

On To The Next

December 20th, 2011 by Sallie Bingham in Writing 5 Comments

From the series: Doris Duke

Find out more about my book, The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke, now available in paperback.

Doris Duke - Waikiki

Now that my newest book, Mending: New and Selected Short Stories is reaching its readers, I find myself in a rather delightful quandary: Sarabande Books will publish my next book, The Blue Box, a family narrative based on the letters and papers of three of my foremothers, in August, 2014—which seems a lifetime away. As I debate turning my energies in another direction (The Blue Box is virtually finished), I am intrigued by the life of Doris Duke, whose papers have just been opened to the public as part of the Rubenstein Library at Duke University.

I have always been intrigued by the life of this woman, who is usually described only in terms of her money and her real or imaginary escapades. She is emblematic of the way “rich women” are treated in this culture, with a powerful mixture of prurience and disapproval; one biography is called, simply, Too Rich, and others are scandalous potboilers. Yet anyone who listens to NPR knows at least one important use she made, through her foundation, of her inherited money, supporting conservation programs long before they became fashionable.

And I met her.

Now that my newest book, Mending: New and Selected Short Stories is reaching its readers, I find myself in a rather delightful quandary.

I was a young bride in Paris on my honeymoon, a silent guest at a formal luncheon where severe-looking French- speaking men and women ignored me. At the head of the table, a woman—DD—who seemed unbelievably old, wielded an authority that startled me. She had no consort, as far as I could tell; she did not hesitate to orchestrate her guests, turning from one to the other, asking questions, soliciting opinions. She ignored me; I had nothing at that point to offer. She frightened me, but at the same time, her unquestioned authority excited me. She unlike any woman I had ever encountered.

Many years passed. Eighteen years ago DD died, leaving her enormous foundation to continue her work.

When I visited Duke a few months ago, a small display of material from the DD archives (she is often referred to as DD at Duke) was in the library lobby. I was fascinated by old black and white footage of a young woman in a white dress, dancing with other young women in white dresses on a lawn. Grace, insouciance, pleasure in living—how do these attributes fit with, or contradict, the heavy aura of scandal?

A few weeks ago, a reporter for the New York Times wrote with relish of a dispute in Newport, where DD did much important work, restoring, salvaging, creating the Historic Newport Foundation. Now, a monument designed by Maya Lin “Splits Newport’s Old Guard”, according to the report.

The monument, in Queen Anne Square, created when DD cleared some derelict buildings, sometimes directing the bulldozer drivers herself, has caused an uproar, pitting ancient people who actually knew her against one another, some wishing a monument that points to the future, rather than the past, others decrying it as “ersatz history” they claim the “relentless pragmatic Mrs. Duke would have hated”. (The Times, titling her Mrs, seems to believe that DD was married to her own father.)

This is, for me, the opening note in what will certainly be several years of looking through an enormous archive, finding not what suits my preconceptions—and of course I will try to have no preconceptions!—but material that may show the enormous complexity of a woman who not only transformed Newport but left two other exceptional houses, one in New Jersey and one in Hawaii, and an enormous foundation, all to promote her vision.

I’m certain that DD had a vision. No woman encumbered with the prejudices of the early twentieth century could have worked in the public realm without one. For me, her vision is necessarily a mystery, like the grace and insouciance of the young woman in white dancing on the grass in a long passed and forgotten summer.

I will follow the course of my discoveries here, beginning with my first days in the archive at Duke next spring.

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In Writing The Blue Box Sarabande Books Doris Duke Rubenstein Library Duke University Too Rich

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. Spence Porter on Facebook says

    December 20th, 2011 at 2:20 pm

    What a fascinating project! Looking forward to updates!

    Reply
  2. John Hancock says

    December 21st, 2011 at 6:35 am

    Great idea!

    Reply
  3. Ruth Greenstein says

    December 21st, 2011 at 7:47 am

    No one better to mine the mysteries!

    Reply
  4. jim voyles says

    January 19th, 2012 at 7:52 am

    Sallie, I relish your take on DD. I have long been fascinated by this complex woman and yearned to understand who she really was; not the Fleet Street sensationalism of the caricatures. Your uncompromising truth-telling in your unique voice will, at last, give us the real woman, unvarnished and untarnished.

    Reply
  5. Brent Baker says

    August 4th, 2015 at 9:04 am

    A few weeks ago, a reporter for the New York Times wrote with relish of a dispute in Newport, where DD did much important work, restoring, salvaging, creating the Historic Newport Foundation. Now, a monument designed by Maya Lin “Splits Newport’s Old Guard”, according to the report.
    Sallie, funny, Maya Lin is from my hometown of Athens, OH Never knew her growing up since she was ten years younger. But, I did have her father as one of my professors at Ohio University in studio art, he was the dean of the fine art department during the 1970’s. Looking forward to your book on DD!

    Reply

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