Ellen Goodman,
Author & Massachusetts Resident

Ellen Goodman has been with the Boston Globe, where she is an associate editor as well as a columnist, since 1967. She was graduated from Radcliffe College in 1963 and spent a year at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow.

In 1980, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Commentary.

Goodmanís columns have earned her numerous awards, including the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award. The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights awarded her the Hubert H. Humphrey Award for dedicated to equality. She also received the Presidentís Award from the National Womenís Political Caucus and the International Matrix Award from Women in Communication.

Ellen now lives with her husband in Brookline, Massachusetts.

"You might say we've been writing this book for twenty-six years. Maybe it's the logical outcome for two writing friends. It amazes us now to look back and see what we've been building: the story of our friendship is the story of our divorces, our children, careers, loves, losses, remarriages. We rarely made a move without each other's opinion or listening ear...We moved from youth through middle-age with the requisite accumulation of both wisdom and caution that--when shared--made each of us stronger than we would have been alone."

Drawing on interviews with numerous women from all stages of life--teenagers, young mothers, elderly women, women in politic and business, sports and media celebrities--the authors reach beyond their own experiences, providing an intimate look at friendships that begin everywhere from kindergarten to nursing homes. They tell the touching, funny, and sometimes painful stories of women who don't shy away from confronting the problems and demands of friendship.

"When we asked women how they defined what a close friend is, they leaped past such qualifiers to describe the impact: being known and accepted, understood to the core; trust and loyalty you can count on, having someone on your side. Having someone to share worries and secrets as well as the good stuff of life. Someone who needs you in return."

The authors explore the problems of famous friends--how do you stay close when your best friend is one of the richest and most powerful women in the world? They write about friendships that have endured through hardship and misfortune, survived the problems of competing with each other. Looking through history and Hollywood, real life and fiction, they get to the heart of relationships between women.

"Somewhere in the meaning of the word 'trust' is the assumption that a friend has your best interest at heart. Friends can be the collaborators, the instigators who make change possible. They are often the ones who urge us to take a leap, who jump with us or help us scramble back up the other side."

Throughout the book, there is an ongoing dialogue between Goodman and O'Brien that is sure to resonate with every woman who cherishes her female friends.