See Elizabeth Kleinhenz in conversation with Chris Wallace on Elizabeth's new book Germaine. The Life of Germaine Greer, arguably the most influential Australian woman of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century.
Kleinhenz's revealing book is based on extensive research in Greer's immense (487 boxes) archive, which the University of Melbourne bought it from Germaine in 2013 for $3 million, and conversations with a number of Germaine's friends, colleagues, acquaintances and rivals. Germaine Greer has made it clear, however, that she does not endorse the book, and her correspondence with Elizabeth is detailed in the book's introduction.
Kleinhenz weaves her way through an extraordinary range of issues from Byron and Shakespeare to second-wave feminism to menopause and rainforest conservation
Her book includes Germaine Greer's previously unpublished thoughts on starting to write The Female Eunuch, as well as correspondence with luminaries such as Clive James, Helen Garner and Federico Fellini and her relationships with stars such as Frank Zappa, Warren Beatty and Robert Plant.
Dr Elizabeth Kleinhenz, who recently retired from the position of Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research, is the author of A Brimming Cup: The Life of Kathleen Fitzpatrick. Elizabeth is a clear-eyed witness to Germaine's life -- a woman and scholar of Germaine's generation who feels indebted to her for her early work, but refuses to let her off the hook for her more recent transgressions. Germaine is a wonderful exploration of a truly iconic life.