User:LauraStrait/sandbox

Wiki Article Summary

The detail on the Eleanor Arnason Wikipedia page was pretty scant when we began our work on it. The article’s information was limited to an extremely slim bio that did not really focus on Arnason as much as it did the architecturally unique house she grew up in. The bibliography was nonexistent, and we found the list of works to be lacking in quite a number of her stories, poems and essays. For us, it was most important to increase the general depth of the information gathered in one place, as most of the public info on Arnason was buried in interviews on various websites and to some degree in books. We updated (and re-organized) the list of works to the best of our ability, and created two new sections: Biography and Politics.

It was important to us to make the bio on this page actually focus on Arnason and her life, which would (presumably) influence her literary works. We sought out biographical information in various online interviews, but found a great deal of it in printed interviews. This helped us to update much of the information in her bio. We were able to add some context to the focus on her childhood home, as well as link that part of her life to her initial interest in SF. We also unearthed some details on her education, her working life, and other aspects of her adult life that influenced her work later on.

In our research, it quickly became evident that Arnason led a very political life. We found that she surrounded herself with leftist political peers from the 1960’s onwards and that, combined with the socialist and feminist teachings of her mother, chose to become involved in issues of race, gender and sexuality; all of which transpire in her works. We believe it is imperative to identify which political parties and activist groups she joined as they are an integral part of her identity as an individual and as an author.

Some of the challenges we have encountered insofar include the inability to locate a free use picture of the author to upload (despite attempts to contact Arnason herself) and the sometimes superficial and/or scant biographical information due to the fact that, as Margaret McBride pointed out in class, Arnason was often shafted by publishers and generally underrated. Nonetheless, we have introduced significant changes/growth to the wikipage where there previously was little, and sometimes erroneous, information.

Arnason retired in 2009 and is currently writing full-time.