The Life and Letters of Kate Gleason

Susan B. Anthony called her the ideal business woman of whom she had dreamed fifty years earlier. Playwright Eugene O’Neill saw her as the symbol of greed and emasculating ambition. Kate Gleason, groundbreaking nineteenth-century industrialist, mechanical engineer, and real estate developer, was her own best invention. The truth of her dynamic life, in all of its complexity, is revealed in Janis Gleason’s biography of this legendary American woman.

Over the course of two decades, Jan Gleason’s extensive research pertaining to the life of Kate Gleason has taken her from New York, to California, to South Carolina and over to France. She currently serves as Vice President of the Gleason Family Foundation and is a past Board President for the Rochester-based Writers and Books. Jan has received numerous awards for her contributions to the literary arts and civic organizations. A former student of the University of Arizona, Mrs. Gleason is married to James S. Gleason, the grand-nephew of Kate Gleason and Chairman of Gleason Corporation. The Gleasons reside in Greenbrae, California, and Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and have two daughters.