Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor
American historian
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Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor (born Elizabeth Anne Pryor;[a] April 25, 1967) is an American historian. She is a professor of history at Smith College.[2] Pryor is the author of Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War (2016), a history of travel by African-Americans prior to the American Civil War, and Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me (2026), a mix of memoir and historical reflection on the use of a racial slur that she refers to as the "N-word" or "n***er".[3]
April 25, 1967
- Richard Pryor
- Maxine Silverman
Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elizabeth Anne Pryor April 25, 1967 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Spouse | Jerry Stordeur |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Rain Pryor (half-sister) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | History |
| Institutions | Smith College |
| Website | https://www.pryorhistories.com |
Reception
Colored Travelers was reviewed in multiple academic journals, including The American Historical Review,[4] the American Journal of Legal History,[5] The Journal of American History,[6] The Journal of the Civil War Era,[7] The Journal of Southern History,[8] The Journal of Transport History,[9] The New England Quarterly,[10] Pennsylvania History,[11] Studies in Travel Writing,[12] and Technology and Culture.[13]
Something We Said was reviewed by The Forward,[14] Kirkus Reviews,[15] The New York Times,[16] and syndicated book reviewer Terri Schlichenmeyer.[17]
Personal life
Pryor was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, on April 25, 1967.[18][19] She is the daughter of Maxine Silverman and comedian Richard Pryor.[20] She is Jewish through her mother.[21] Her parents separated shortly after her birth and she was raised primarily by her mother.[22] She first met her father in 1974 in a hotel room in Newark, New Jersey.[14]
Pryor attended the Westlake School for Girls.[23] After graduating from Tufts University in 1989, she received a Master of Arts from Cornell and a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara.[2] She is married to Jerry Stordeur, whom she met while she was attending Cornell;[24] they have two children.[25]
Selected works
- "The Etymology of Nigger: Resistance, Language, and the Politics of Freedom in the Antebellum North". Journal of the Early Republic. 36 (2): 203–245. Summer 2016. doi:10.1353/jer.2016.0028
- Colored Travelers: Mobility and the Fight for Citizenship before the Civil War. University of North Carolina Press. 2016. ISBN 978-1-4696-2857-8.
- "Why It's So Hard to Talk about the N-word". TEDx. December 2019.
- Something We Said: Richard Pryor, a Notorious Word, and Me. 37 INK. 2016. ISBN 978-1-9821-5450-9.