Kate Moore is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Radium Girls, which won the 2017 Goodreads Choice Award for Best History, was voted U.S. librarians’ favorite nonfiction book of 2017, and was named a Notable Nonfiction Book of 2018 by the American Library Association. A British writer based in London, Kate writes across a variety of genres and has had multiple titles on the Sunday Times bestseller list. She is passionate about politics, storytelling, and resurrecting forgotten heroes. Her new book is The Woman They Could Not Silence and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.
How did you first learn about Elizabeth Packard and what happened to her? What drew you to tell her story in The Woman They Could Not Silence?
My journey with Elizabeth began in the fall of 2017 when the world was set ablaze by the fire of the #MeToo movement. Everywhere, women’s voices were raised and, more remarkably, heard. It got me thinking: Why hadn’t women been listened to—and believed—before?
Too often, it seemed to me, women had been silenced and discredited with the claim that we were crazy. For centuries, whenever we women had used our voices, our mental health had been wielded as a weapon against us, used to undermine and control us. Our words and actions, our passions and our politics, even our very personalities had too often and too easily been manipulated through a lens of madness, which fell into focus whenever we acted in a way that challenged the powers-that-be. It still happens to this day—remember Trump’s tweet about an assertive Nancy Pelosi? “There’s something wrong with her upstairs.”
I wanted to write about these issues, but I didn’t want to write a polemic—because above all else I am a storyteller. Instead, I hoped to find one woman’s true story to write about, through which I could shine a light on these injustices, which still resonate today. And so I actively went looking for Elizabeth—a sane woman accused of being crazy because she stood up for herself—though at that time I did not know her name or even the period of history in which she lived.
On January 15, 2018, a rabbit warren of internet searches led me to a University of Wisconsin essay, in which there was a brief mention of Elizabeth’s case. As soon as I read a little more about her, I knew she was The One: the woman I wanted to write about next. Because what a woman she is. And what an incredible, shocking, horrifying, yet ultimately inspiring story she has.
How long did it take you to do the necessary research and then write The Woman They Could Not Silence?
I delivered my first draft of the manuscript on 4 March 2020, so from the first moment of reading her name to delivery of the book was a little over two years. Most of that time was spent on research, including a five-week research trip to the U.S., because I’m the type of writer who does all my research first, and then the writing itself (hopefully!) flows in an irresistible river over a relatively short period of time. I should add that I completely over-delivered on word count in that first draft, so the next few months were then spent honing and pruning the text into the version of the book that you see today.
What was the most interesting, surprising, or shocking thing that you learned about Elizabeth Packard during your research?
What interests and inspires me most about Elizabeth Packard is the extraordinary journey she goes on in the book, as she transforms from obedient housewife to historically significant heroine: a powerful woman in her own right. The book is about a sane woman being sent to an asylum, and it is about the sinister medicalisation of female behaviour, but above all, it’s about Elizabeth’s fight for freedom—both physical and spiritual—and her journey to find her unsilenceable voice. I found that journey so compelling, as Elizabeth became a resistance writer—keeping a secret, forbidden journal while in the asylum—and then used that voice to stand up for others. One of my favourite quotes in the book comes from Elizabeth at a key part of her journey: “The worst that my enemies can do, they have done, and I fear them no more. I am now free to be true and honest. No opposition can overcome me.” From that moment on, she was unstoppable.
Was there something interesting or unexpected you discovered about someone else?
One of the things that really drew me to this topic and to Elizabeth’s story is that it would allow me to research historic asylums and treatments for madness, things by which I’ve long been fascinated. I think the most unexpected, shocking thing I discovered were some of the historic “cures” for female insanity. They were even worse than I had thought. The very worst, in my view: Doctors of the time believed that women’s sexual organs caused their madness, so one treatment I read about was clitoridectomy—cutting off a woman’s clitoris.
Yet as horrifying as the practice itself were the doctors’ accounts of the patients’ symptoms that had supposedly warranted this extreme act. For example, it was carried out on women who simply liked to indulge in “serious reading” (because a woman who read was unfeminine, therefore unnatural, therefore diseased) and on women who expressed “distaste for the society of her husband” (because women were supposed to be naturally amenable, obedient and there to absorb the male gaze—female madness was literally defined as when “her love is changed into hate”). All these things were shocking to me and I think readers are going to be stunned to read some of the things I’ve uncovered for the book.
In the Postscript, you reference several fairly recent (as late as 2019) occurrences of women being labeled as mentally unstable to minimize their credibility. Since you completed The Woman They Could Not Silence and it entered the publication/production process, have there been any notable instances of someone’s mental health being weaponized against them that you troubled/concerned you?
In the summer of 2020 Kamala Harris was labeled a “madwoman” by Donald Trump. Specifically, he used that word because of what he termed the “angry” way she’d questioned Brett Kavanaugh in the Senate—because angry women are supposedly unnatural and therefore sick. But given Kavanaugh’s questioning had taken place two years before, the attack was perhaps prompted more because Harris had just been named by Biden as his running mate in the U.S. presidential election and she was on course to become the most powerful woman in U.S. political history. For me, it was yet another example of how men try to silence and discredit women when we use our voices and our power.
If you had the chance to ask or tell Elizabeth Packard something, what would it be?
I’d want her take on how we can achieve equality today and how she’d go about it. Because 160 years on, we’re still fighting the same battles she did. She was a practical, pragmatic campaigner who achieved change in her lifetime. I’d love to know what she’d do in our world and the tips she’d have for us, and what she’d prioritize in the continuing battle for equality.
What’s currently on your nightstand?
I’ve been sent an early copy of Marie Benedict’s next book, Her Hidden Genius, which is out next year. I can’t wait to start reading.
Can you name your top five favorite or most influential authors?
That’s hard! I love:
Jodi Picoult
J. K. Rowling
Caitlin Moran
Abbott Kahler
Ian McEwan
And many more besides!
What was your favorite book when you were a child?
Ooh, I loved so many books as a child! The Fog, The Snow, The Fire trilogy by Caroline B. Cooney, The Animals of Farthing Wood series by Colin Dann, Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence...I could go on!
Was there a book you felt you needed to hide from your parents?
Not that I remember! I was lucky enough to grow up in a house full of books and I had carte blanche to read whatever I liked.
Is there a book you’ve faked reading?
No. I even spent the summer I did my A-Levels reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace, so that I could genuinely say I’d read it!
Can you name a book you've bought for the cover?
Hmm, not sure I can. When I first saw the question an image of Sadie Jones’s The Outcast popped into my head, but that also had amazing reviews and a huge buzz about it so I can’t genuinely say I chose it solely for the cover!
Is there a book that changed your life?
As an editorial director at Penguin Random House UK, my former career before I became a full-time writer, I published a very special book called What the **** is Normal?! by Francesca Martinez. There was a line in that book about how we cannot choose what happens to us in life, but we can choose how we respond to it. I found it such a helpful, inspiring philosophy and have applied it countless times in my own life when facing difficulties, in order to remind myself that no matter the struggle, I can choose to respond positively and proactively. It’s a great book that I thoroughly recommend.
Can you name a book for which you are an evangelist (and you think everyone should read)?
Other than Francesca’s book, I would always urge people to read Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Abbott Kahler’s The Ghosts of Eden Park (the latter of which really inspired me when I was writing The Woman They Could Not Silence).
Is there a book you would most want to read again for the first time?
Maybe the Harry Potter series? I’m always jealous to think people have all that joy of undiscovered reading ahead of them if they haven’t yet read the books!
What is the last piece of art (music, movies, tv, more traditional art forms) that you've experienced or that has impacted you?
Another tricky question! Answers that popped into my mind: the musical Hamilton, because as well as loving the music and the staging, I found the way Lin-Manuel Miranda picked the highlights of Hamilton’s life and wove *only* them into his story inspirational for my own work. Taylor Swift’s Folklore, in admiration for her talent and use of lockdown. And the late Helen McCrory’s performance at the National Theatre in The Deep Blue Sea. It was a few years back now, but it has really stayed with me. She was astonishing.
What is your idea of THE perfect day (where you could go anywhere/meet with anyone)?
Well, it would start with a long lie-in. And also involve delicious food, maybe a walk in the countryside, and conclude with a snuggle on the sofa. And I’d be hand in hand with my husband throughout. (I realise I’ve basically just described the lockdown activities of the past year so perhaps I’ve lost the capacity to imagine more!) An absolutely perfect day would also involve a performance of some kind - either me acting or doing a book talk, or going to the theatre to see an incredible show. I miss live events so much!
What is the question that you’re always hoping you’ll be asked, but never have been? What is your answer?
Do you have an author newsletter? / Yes, I’ve just set one up! Visit www.Kate-Moore.com to sign up!
What are you working on now?
I’m working on finding/deciding on the topic for my next book. Right now I have no idea what it will be about, which is both liberating and terrifying in equal measure. But I know above all else it will have at its heart a compelling true story...Stay tuned for more info in due course!
