Author Description

In 1940, at the age of twenty-one, Bea Silverberg stepped onto a train departing Akron, Ohio. Born to an Orthodox Jewish family, she was supposed to be what girls were supposed to be: thin on brains and thirsty for a husband. Yet she was born a tomboy. Arriving starry-eyed to International House at the University of Chicago, she thought to herself "From now on, I can be anyone." She could feel the stubs of wings beginning to lift the shoulders of her brown herringbone jacket. This vivid collection of memoirs spans Bea's long life fighting the injustice and convention thrust upon women and other oppressed people, and her eyes for the often-subtle magic of life. In her Mosaic, Bea shares her adventures in a United Nations (UNRRA) mission in Yugoslavia, campaigning for peace in West Virginia mine country, co-founding a shelter for survivors of domestic violence, and the complexity of raising a large family. In her seventies, following the death of her husband-partner Lou, Bea turned to sculpture and essay writing. At the time of this book's publishing, she is living in Cleveland, ninety-eight years old. Bea continues her adventures through her artwork, reading, and the stories of her family and friends who endlessly support her.