"Banner has intertwined not only the lives of Mead and Benedict,
but all the assumptions about women and sex in the first half of
the twentieth century. The history of anthropology has never been
so plainly set forth. An amazing, invaluable, unprecedented book--a
delight to read."

--Carolyn Heilbrun, author of Writing A Woman's Life



A most amazing, magnificent, and very moving chronicle of Lesbian
brilliance. Lois Banner continues to break down bigoted barriers
and write text-decoration: underline;">real history."

--Larry Kramer, author of The Normal Heart


Intertwined Lives is a luscious detective story in which
Banner ingenuously finds the clues and breaks the codes critical to
understanding these two giants of American intellectual life and
the bond between them. Banner has written a rich and incisive
biography of their relationship, but she has also written a book
that helps us make sense of that pivotal cultural shift as the
Victorian sexual system gives way to the modern. How did people
born into the Victorian world, but coming of age in the modern,
negotiate this transition? Here, Banner allows us to see Mead and
Benedict up close as they grapple with, even as they help shape, a
new order that holds both pleasures and terrors for hem. A canny
book and a must-read for anyone interested in the history of
sexuality and gender."

--Alice Echols, author of Scars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and
Times of Janis Joplin


"Margaret Mead and Ruth Benedict loved anthropology, and
they loved each other. They concealed that second love during their
lifetimes, but left ample clues for a bold and sensitive biographer
to recreate the richness of their shared personal and professional
lives. Lois Banner is that biographer."

-- Susan Ware, editor of Notable American Women


Intertwined Lives is an enticing and gorgeous adventure
story about two brilliant divas, whose intellectual travels also
involved extraordinary experiments in friendship and sexual love.
Banner's approach to these amazing women is both erudite and
wonderfully imaginative."

--Christine Stansell, author of American Moderns


"An engrossing narrative....bringing Mead and Benedict to
life and placing

then with their circle of friends in a lovely mosaic."

-- Christopher Carbone, Washington Post Book World


"A brilliant introduction to two women who stood in the
vanguard of a new America."

--Jamie Spencer, St. Louis Post-Dispatch


"A major work, impressive in its depth and
breadth."

-- Joan Gartland, Library Journal


From the Hardcover edition.