Career
Cosby has avoided public life. She acted as manager for her husband and has been depicted as a "shrewd businesswoman". During an interview with Ebony, Bill Cosby stated: "People would rather deal with me than with Camille. She's rough to deal with when it comes to my business." She also "help[ed] in the development of her husband's material", including suggestions for The Cosby Show, such as suggesting the Huxtable family be middle- rather than working-class. The character of Clair Huxtable from The Cosby Show was based on her.
Cosby supports African-American literature, and has written forewords for several books: in 1993, for Thelma Williams' Our Family Table: Recipes and Food Memories from African-American Life Models; in 2009, for Dear Success Seeker: Wisdom from Outstanding Women by Michele R. Wright; and in 2014, for The Man from Essence: Creating a Magazine for Black Women, a book by Edward Lewis of Essence.
In 1994, Cosby released Television's Imageable Influences: The Self-Perception of Young African-Americans, a book that "dramatically charts the damaging impact of derogatory images of African Americans produced in our media establishments". The book was originally intended to be the subject of her thesis for her doctoral degree.
Cosby worked with David C. Driskell on his book The Other Side of Color: African American Art in the Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby Jr., which focused on the Cosbys' art collection in 2001. Together, Cosby and Renee Poussaint edited A Wealth of Wisdom: Legendary African American Elders Speak in 2004.
In 2001, Cosby was a co-founder of the National Visionary Leadership Project, a group whose mission is to "develop the next generation of leaders by recording, preserving, and sharing the stories of extraordinary African American elders".
Cosby was co-producer for the Broadway play Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, based on the 1993 book of the same name by Sarah "Sadie" L. Delany and A. Elizabeth "Bessie" Delany with Amy Hill Hearth. Following the success of the play, Cosby acquired the film, stage and television rights to the story and later acted as executive producer for the 1999 television movie of the same name.
