Eisner not only learned to play some of King\u2019s songs on the piano \u2014 she also explains their music within the pages of the book, complete with their chords.<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the terms<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cEarly on, I said to myself, \u2018How can I write about Carole King if I can\u2019t play her music?\u2019\u201d the author asked. \u201cI knew a lot about American Jews, a lot about women. Frankly, I did not know as much about music.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the songs analyzed in the book, in terms of both music and lyrics, are \u201c(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman\u201d and \u201cSo Far Away.\u201d<\/p>\n \t As Eisner points out, \u201cLyrics are only part of a song. I wanted to do something different and original. I wanted to really explore her music, not just her lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n Years ago, Eisner\u2019s husband gave her a book of King\u2019s songs as a gift. Early attempts to play them did not go as planned. More recently, when the COVID-19 pandemic made people shelter in place, Eisner signed up for piano lessons \u2014 remotely, of course \u2014 and it made a difference.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no accident that the book cover photo of a curly-haired King includes a piano. The instrument is a central element in her life \u2014 and, according to Eisner, is its own character in the book.<\/p>\n \t \u201cThis was her native instrument,\u201d Eisner said. \u201c[It\u2019s been] with her since she was four years old.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about her favorite King song, the author demurs. She couldn\u2019t stop singing \u201cWill You Love Me Tomorrow\u201d on a cross-country bus trip as a high schooler. Years later, she became similarly enthusiastic about \u201cYou Light Up My Life.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, \u201cSo Far Away\u201d puts Eisner in a reflective mood. Like King, she is a trailblazer for women. Just as King juggled marriage and motherhood while achieving early stardom in the music industry at a key point in its history, so did Eisner face similar challenges as she pursued a career in journalism, including as the first female editor of The Forward in the Jewish newspaper\u2019s 111-year history, a position she held for over a decade, from 2008 to 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of poignant,\u201d Eisner said about \u201cSo Far Away,\u201d \u201ca reminder of what it\u2019s like to be away from your family, traveling, questioning what\u2019s the right thing.\u201d Referencing the lyrics, Eisner said, \u201cShe\u2019s got a baby in one hand and a pen in the other, and I think that really distinguishes her life.\u201d<\/p>\n Golden era for Jewish artists<\/p>\n King was born Carol Klein to a Jewish family in 1942 and raised in Brooklyn. (The family had roots in Eastern Europe, including a town called Orsha in the Pale of Settlement that was devastated by a pogrom in 1905.) Her brother Richard was deaf and suffered from mental illness. According to the book, he was institutionalized at Staten Island\u2019s Willowbrook State School, which Eisner writes was notorious for \u201ccruel, disgusting, bordering on inhumane\u201d conditions. When Richard died in 2015, his sister posted a tribute on social media.<\/p>\n King grew up at a time when New York witnessed an astonishing agglomeration of Jewish American talent waiting to emerge onto the national scene. Barbra Streisand, Neil Sedaka and Paul Simon were all growing up around the same time in the Big Apple.<\/p>\n \t \u201cIt was really a very special time,\u201d Eisner said. \u201cAntisemitism in America was surging after World War II. It really abated in the \u201850s\u2026 Jews were accepted in American society. There was legal pressure to end discrimination. Connections opened up for a person like her.\u201d<\/p>\n When King attended CUNY Queens College, it was Rhymin\u2019 Simon who proved a key contact as she broke into the music biz. Even more so was another Jewish New Yorker, Gerry Goffin, King\u2019s first husband. King and Goffin became a standout songwriting duo, associated with the legendary Brill Building at 1619 Broadway \u2014 or more precisely, in a separate building nearby, on 1650 Broadway.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s only part of her life, which also spans the music industry\u2019s shift toward versatile singer-songwriters, and its cross-country relocation from New York to Laurel Canyon, California. It was in California where King, who was very much a singer-songwriter, recorded arguably her most famous album, \u201cTapestry,\u201d which won four Grammys. By that time, her marriage to Goffin had ended. Now a mother of two, she remarried to another Jew in the music industry, Charlie Larkey. She would have two more children with Larkey.<\/p>\n Although she released several more hit albums, by the 1980s she had mysteriously wound up in Idaho, marrying twice more. Eisner writes in the book that third husband Rick Evers was physically abusive to King, and that fourth husband Rick Sorenson was an elk-shooting survivalist. By 1989, King was single again.<\/p>\n \t \u201cI do think that Gerry Goffin remains her true, true love, and certainly their partnership during the marriage and songwriting is extraordinary,\u201d Eisner said.<\/p>\n Media shy \u2014 or media savvy?<\/p>\n Although the list of people interviewed for the book takes up an entire paragraph in the acknowledgements section, Eisner was unable to interview King herself.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, she does not give media interviews anymore,\u201d the author said. \u201cFrankly, she did not give a lot even when she did. I certainly asked several times for an interview.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s part of her reluctance to be thrust into the public eye, especially in ways that she can\u2019t control what is being asked of her,\u201d Eisner reflected. \u201cI think that\u2019s a very human impulse for someone who deliberately does not live on either coast, New York or California, but makes her home in Idaho.\u201d<\/p>\n \t That\u2019s not to say King has completely disassociated herself from public life. She gave her assent to \u201cBeautiful: The Carole King Musical,\u201d a Broadway treatment of her early years. She\u2019s also maintained a lifelong friendship with James Taylor, who encouraged her to perform on stage more. And she\u2019s taken public stances on behalf of left-wing politics. In September, King joined some 400 musicians who asked that their works be blocked from distribution in Israel<\/a> as part of an initiative called \u201cNo Music for Genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the book shines a light on how Judaism has played a role throughout King\u2019s life, including her connection to a rabbi named Stanley Levy, whom Eisner interviewed.<\/p>\n \u201cImportant parts of the life cycle seem to be a time when [King] gravitated toward, if not religion, then having a religious leader at a ceremony,\u201d said Eisner, adding that the rabbi \u2014 whose resume also includes achievements in law and music \u2014 officiated at the bar mitzvah of King\u2019s son Levi.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Jane-Eisner_credit-Nancy-Adler-Photography-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tFormer Forward editor Jane Eisner, author of \u2018Carole King: She Made the Earth Move.\u2019 (Nancy Adler Photography)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Eisner-jacket-300x480.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\u2018Carole King: She Made the Earth Move,\u2019 by Jane Eisner. (Nancy Adler Photography)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP040729013850-300x480.jpg\")
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\n\t\tCarole King performs during the Democratic National Convention at the FleetCenter in Boston, July 29, 2004. (AP Photo\/Charlie Neibergall)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP8404050448-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tCarole King does some campaigning in song for presidential candidate Gary Hart during a visit to the Pennsylvania State University campus in University Park, Pennsylvania, April 5, 1984. (AP Photo\/Paul Chilend)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP100626159832-640x400.jpg\")
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\n\t\tJames Taylor, left, and Carole King wave to the crowd as they take the stage to perform at the last event scheduled for Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, June 26, 2010. (AP Photo\/Keith Srakocic)<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP21336269729234-640x400.jpg\")
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