Out of the Archives and into a Narrative With Kim Bancroft
April 20, 2023 | 12:00 pm
Kim Bancroft’s new book, Writing Themselves into History, is an immersive look at the first and second wives of esteemed historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, founder of The Bancroft Library and the author’s great-great-grandfather. Bancroft will discuss the process of creating Writing Themselves into History: Emily and Matilda Bancroft in Journals and Letters, from her research in the archives of The Bancroft Library and beyond, to transcribing an abundance of letters and journals, to sorting topics and themes. She will explain how she moved beyond the chronological structure of the letters and journals she worked with to discover narratives for her chapters, and invites other writers to share their insights from working with archival materials.
Register HereAbout the Speaker
Kim Bancroft
Longtime teacher turned editor and writer, Kim Bancroft earned a B.A. in English from Stanford, an M.A. in English and a teaching credential from San Francisco State University, and a doctorate in education from UC Berkeley. She has taught at high schools and community colleges in the Bay Area, at the Universidad de Guanajuato in Mexico, and at Sacramento State. In 2014 Kim edited H.H.B.'s 1890 autobiography, Literary Industries, published by Heyday Books. She also wrote a biography of the founder of Heyday Books, called The Heyday of Malcolm Margolin: The Damn Good Times of a Fiercely Independent Publisher. Of many other memoirs that Kim has recently helped create, she has edited two of Native friends in the Willits area where she now lives in a cabin in the woods. Kim is also seeking to publish a book she wrote with a former classmate, David Waddell, called Same School, Different Class: A Dual Memoir of School Integration.
