Category: Karen’s Letter

An evening in Epsteinworld

Less than a year before Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in 2019, I attended a dinner party hosted by Lynn Forester de Rothschild, an American who married into the de Rothschild family and is credited with introducing the then Prince Andrew to Epstein. I’ve told a bit of this story before, focusing on Henry Kissinger, the guest of honor. Now I want to turn the spotlight from Kissinger to the hostess and the other guests. This account was first published at Substack with extra links. I’ve been thinking about women connected [...]

March 17th, 2026|Karen's Letter, Writing a Woman's Life|

Love and loss this Columbus Day

Today is a US holiday Monday. Here in Massachusetts, it is Indigenous Peoples Day, but the federal holiday is still called Columbus Day. No matter the name, it always makes me think about Columbus, the ostensible discoverer of the Americas. Two men in my life were connected by Columbus, one as a member of the 1992 Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission and the other as the author of a highly critical, ecological take on the Columbian legacy. The former was William H. McNeill, world historian and author of The Rise [...]

October 14th, 2024|Karen's Letter|

Global housekeeping or home ecology?

A better world is possible. But we have to make it happen. I've hesitated for months about writing a new 2024 version of my first book, Home Ecology. As you may know, last year I started a second Substack newsletter with that title. But a newsletter is not enough. Books aren't enough either, but they are translated and serialized and quoted, and they endure. Part of my hesitation is practical - a lot of effort, unpredictable reward, and many other commitments. But it's also a hesitation to admit to a [...]

March 29th, 2024|Karen's Letter|

Dinner with Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger was looking into my eyes as he talked about AI and the future of US-China relations. I had no choice: I kept my gaze on him, ignoring my salad., and practiced the kind of vivacious listening that women through the ages have done. I He was talking to me for a simple reason: he couldn't see anyone else. The room was dim, and the dining table was crowded with flower arrangements. It would have been rude to look away, I thought, even though it was nonsensical to have [...]

December 14th, 2023|Karen's Letter|

How T S Eliot’s desk came to America

A member of the Berkshire Woodworkers Guild came to look at the T S Eliot desk a few days ago. I'd asked my neighbor Bob Norris, an avid woodworker, if he might be able to help me identify the wood the desk was made from. He said he wasn't expert enough but would find someone - and he did. T S Eliot desk in Camberwell, London. Probably Spring 1990.* I had thought for years that the desk must be made of pine - called "deal" in England - [...]

September 8th, 2023|Karen's Letter, Writing a Woman's Life|

Karen’s Letter: Finding Resilience

I’ve felt low this week and I’m not sure why. Of course I know why. The world’s in a mess, and my own country is amongst the worst of it. But I’m not sure why it struck me so hard this week. The feelings come in waves: I feel tense, angry, overwhelmed. I just want to be left alone. I don’t want to have another Zoom meeting. I want to have friends to supper. I want to sit at a bar with a martini with lots of people around me. But [...]

December 29th, 2021|Berkshire Blog Archives 2004-2023, Karen's Letter|

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