A new book focuses on a queer, Black, WWII-era translator who risked safety for love

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

About a decade ago, professor and historian Ethelene Whitmire was presenting research on the experiences of African Americans living in Denmark. At that talk, she met – by chance – a relative of Reed Peggram, one of her research subjects. That relative directed Whitmire to a trove of letters written by Peggram, a queer, Black translator who found himself in Europe on the eve of World War II. In today’s episode, Whitmire joins NPR’s Scott Simon for a conversation about her book The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram, the project that emerged from his family’s archive.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. The new nonfiction book,
0:06.5	The Remarkable Life of Reed Pagram, is a fascinating look at this man's life. He was a guy who
0:12.0	loved so hard that he risked staying in Europe during World War II as a queer black man
0:18.1	to be with the man he loved. But while Reed Pagram's life was remarkable, his story is one that could have just as easily
0:26.7	been lost to the sands of time, if not for historian and writer Ethlene Whitmire.
0:31.6	She talks to M.P.R. Scott Simon about what we can learn from Pekram's life and the
0:35.8	serendipitous meeting that led to Whitmire being able to tell
0:39.2	the full breadth of Pegram's story. That's after the break. This message comes from Wise,
0:45.4	the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive
0:50.7	in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart, get Wise. Download the Wise app
0:57.3	today or visit Wise.com. T's and C's Apply. Read Pegram was a translator who spoke many
1:04.2	languages and helped give life to a lot of literature. A new book helps us learn about what may be
1:10.3	the most extraordinary story,
1:12.8	his own life. A remarkable life of Reed Pagram is Etheline Whitmire's new account of the
1:18.6	life of a renowned Harvard scholar when went to Europe in the 1930s on a prestigious scholarship,
1:24.8	posed for famed artists, and found freedom and love there as a queer
1:30.3	black man. And so he stayed, even as World War II rolled in. Etheline Whitmire, a historian and
1:38.1	professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Madison,
1:43.5	joins us from Madison. Thanks so much for being with us.
1:46.4	Oh, thanks for having me.
1:47.7	You were giving a talk in Copenhagen in 2016, and what happened?
1:53.3	Well, I invited several of my friends to come and some of my students that I was teaching
	...

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