Author Kim Bancroft discusses her new book, Writing Themselves into History: Emily and Matilda Bancroft in Letters and Journals, and presents her work on two ancestors, the first and second wives of historian and collector extraordinaire Hubert Howe Bancroft.

Author Kim Bancroft discusses her new book with fellow author Frances Dinkelspiel (Towers of Gold and Tangled Vines). Additionally, both authors talk about researching and writing family histories.

Learn about Kim Bancroft’s new book Writing Themselves Into History: Emily and Matilda Bancroft in Journals and Letters, a window into the world of nineteenth-century California, from two women who experienced it firsthand.

The great-great granddaughter of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Kim Bancroft introduces us to a man of great complexity and wit in her book Literary Industries.

In 2012, Kim's former classmate contacted her about joining a reunion for their 1973 class at Greenwich Country Day School (GCDS) David "Moochie" Waddell had been one of the first two Black students to graduate from the private school that year. In that joyful reunion phone call and subsequent conversations, Kim and Moochie revealed to each other aspects of their lives they never knew about each other across the race and class divides in that town.

In their shared enthusiasm for what these conversations revealed, they decided to write a book over the next ten years, now called Same School, Different Class: A Dual Memoir of School Integration. While awaiting for a publisher to grab it up, they have begun publishing excerpts. One excerpt in the GCDS news magazine in 2022 led to the article about the champion role of David Waddell's mother and grandmother in the Civil Rights movement in Greenwich, which contributed to their insuring David and his siblings would get a prime education at GCDS.

“Thank you for a great talk this morning. You have a good ‘eye’ for picking out some of the most interesting tidbits to share in your ancestors’ histories. You keep everyone’s attention and you were charming.

Someone who was at the talk this morning just called me to tell that he had come to the talk not expecting it to be particularly compelling and went away thinking you were one of the best speakers ever. You can’t get higher praise than that!

For me personally, I think what comes across when you talk is your fascination and genuine joy in discovering the lives of HH’s two wives (esp because, if it hadn’t been for you, their stories would not be known). What also comes across is your contagious feeling of goodwill toward the world and toward people – that sets the tone for the room and the audience. Your Victorian dress is the icing on the cake! Well done!”

“This is a thrilling book. Kim Bancroft delves into the lives of her ancestors – Hubert Howe Bancroft, the renowned historian of the American West, and his two (consecutive) wives, Emily and Matilda – providing a vivid, nuanced portrait of post-Gold Rush California while detailing the contributions made by the two women to their husband’s groundbreaking work…An indispensable account for anyone interested in the American west and the important, if frequently unacknowledged role played by women chroniclers of the time.”