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Julie Dobrow on Love and Loss After Wounded Knee
Why did Julie Dobrow spend decades researching the tragic love story at the center of her dual biography, Love and Loss After Wounded Knee? In this episode of Why Authors Write, Julie reveals her obsession with the forgotten life of New England writer Elaine Goodale, who turned her back on fame as a teen poet, moved west, and married Lakota-born Charles Eastman right after the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. Dobrow acknowledges the challenge of understanding the dynamics of a failed interracial marriage that endured relentless public scrutiny, and what it cost Elaine to pour her talent into her husband’s literary legacy instead of her own.
Julie begins by taking us back to her own origin story as a biographer. As a 21‑year‑old college student working a summer job at Smith College she helped to process the Goodale–Eastman–Dayton family papers. Among the crumbling letters, curling photographs, and yellowed clippings, one narrative “leapt off the pages and grabbed” her: the improbable, cross‑cultural love story of Goodale and Eastman.
Throughout, Julie reflects honestly on the difficulty writing about such complex and controversial characters: falling in and out of love with one’s subjects, and grappling with archival gaps—including the fact that Elaine deliberately destroyed most of the documentation of her marriage. Julie also shares how her long journey to get inside the motivations and marriage of Elaine and Charles transformed her own understanding of the limits of historical research in bringing a gripping story of love, loss, and bitter disillusionment to life on the page.
Don't miss this episode if you have ever wondered what motivates biographers to devote years to researching their subjects, and what it takes to do justice to complicated, imperfect love stories in the full context of American history.
Chapters
00:00 The Power of Love in History
07:34 Elaine Goodale: A Trailblazer's Journey
13:18 Love and Loss: The Impact of Wounded Knee
19:41 The Struggles of a Writer and Mother
24:58 Reflections on Legacy and Identity
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By Mary J CroninWhy did Julie Dobrow spend decades researching the tragic love story at the center of her dual biography, Love and Loss After Wounded Knee? In this episode of Why Authors Write, Julie reveals her obsession with the forgotten life of New England writer Elaine Goodale, who turned her back on fame as a teen poet, moved west, and married Lakota-born Charles Eastman right after the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. Dobrow acknowledges the challenge of understanding the dynamics of a failed interracial marriage that endured relentless public scrutiny, and what it cost Elaine to pour her talent into her husband’s literary legacy instead of her own.
Julie begins by taking us back to her own origin story as a biographer. As a 21‑year‑old college student working a summer job at Smith College she helped to process the Goodale–Eastman–Dayton family papers. Among the crumbling letters, curling photographs, and yellowed clippings, one narrative “leapt off the pages and grabbed” her: the improbable, cross‑cultural love story of Goodale and Eastman.
Throughout, Julie reflects honestly on the difficulty writing about such complex and controversial characters: falling in and out of love with one’s subjects, and grappling with archival gaps—including the fact that Elaine deliberately destroyed most of the documentation of her marriage. Julie also shares how her long journey to get inside the motivations and marriage of Elaine and Charles transformed her own understanding of the limits of historical research in bringing a gripping story of love, loss, and bitter disillusionment to life on the page.
Don't miss this episode if you have ever wondered what motivates biographers to devote years to researching their subjects, and what it takes to do justice to complicated, imperfect love stories in the full context of American history.
Chapters
00:00 The Power of Love in History
07:34 Elaine Goodale: A Trailblazer's Journey
13:18 Love and Loss: The Impact of Wounded Knee
19:41 The Struggles of a Writer and Mother
24:58 Reflections on Legacy and Identity