The first biography of Greer for nearly 20 years, Germaine by Elizabeth Kleinhenz draws on unprecedented access to her personal archives, opened at Melbourne University in 2016.
Tracing Greer’s personal and political history, to write the book Kleinhenz interrogated Greer's files and spoke to people who have known her from her school days onwards, resulting in a rich, detailed portrait of a woman both legendary and notorious.
Beginning with Greer’s troubled early life in 1940s Melbourne, it traces her career, relationships with men and women, her travels, and her home life, and examines Greer’s work and ideas from The Female Eunuch to the #MeToo movement. It reveals how her public persona has shifted with time from sixties trailblazer to present-day rabble-rouser, and why she endures as a subject of fascination.
UK and North American rights were acquired by Scribe UK’s Sarah Braybrooke, who says ‘Even today, decades after she first shot to fame, Greer’s impact is everywhere – from the recent BBC documentary about her to the Wooster Group play The Town Hall Affair, staged at the Barbican last month. But despite her frequent, provocative media appearances and vast body of work, the woman herself defies definition. In Germaine, Kleinhenz has succeeded in penning a biography which is fascinating in its subject matter but also balanced and thoughtful in the writing.’
Rights were acquired from Rachel Clements at Abner Stein, acting on behalf of the Drummond Agency. Penguin Random House Australia will publish the book on October 29. Germaine will be published by Scribe in the UK on October 29, and in North America in April 2019
