EPISODE 705 - Jane Loeb Rubin - I run like the wind to stay ahead of my disease - living, family, writing - my refuge

In this captivating episode, author Jane Loeb Rubin shares her inspiring journey from healthcare executive to acclaimed historical fiction writer, sparked by her 2009 ovarian cancer diagnosis linked to a genetic mutation inherited from her great-grandmother Matilda. Living in Morristown, New Jersey, Rubin penned her debut essay memoir Almost a Princess before diving into a four-book series tracing Matilda's family from late-19th-century New York through World War I and into Prohibition-era 1924. Titles like Threadbare, In the Hands of Women, Over There, and the upcoming Mayhem in the Mountains blend meticulous research—three months upfront, ongoing fact-checking, and author's notes—with vivid details on Gilded Age fashion, tenement life, suffragette struggles, and medical horrors, including brutal cancer treatments misread as venereal disease.

Rubin immerses listeners in WWI innovations like frontline X-rays and blood transfusions that boosted survival rates, drawing from soldiers' letters that reveal immigrant platoons—disproportionately Italian and Jewish—forging unbreakable bonds across ethnic divides, dissolving neighborhood silos for true American assimilation. Personal family ties fuel her work: grandfathers in WWI, father and uncles in WWII, all silent on war's traumas. Her Matilda Fund has raised $83,000 for Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance, with royalties supporting trials like one at Mayo Clinic; her granddaughter's recent cupcake drive pushed it higher.

Through female-centered tales of immigration, medicine, and resilience amid bootleggers, KKK incursions in the Catskills, and women's rights battles, Rubin honors forgotten voices. Her website offers book club questions, events, and reading lists.

Key Takeaway: Historical fiction illuminates our shared humanity—fear, pain, and progress unite us across eras—urging appreciation of hard-won rights and guardrails against division.

https://www.janeloebrubin.com/

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