The New Woman's Survival Catalog

Last updated
The New Women's Survival Catalog
CategoriesCatalog
PublisherPublished by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc./Berkley Publishing Corporation
FounderKirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie
First issue1973;50 years ago (1973)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The New Women's Survival Catalog is a 1973 book, the collective outcome of an influential survey of second-wave feminist network activities across the United States. [1] It was assembled in five months by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie. [1] The book was promoted as a "feminist Whole Earth Catalog ", referring to Stewart Brand's famous 1968–1972 counterculture magazine. [2] The book was reissued by art book publisher Primary Information in September 2019. [3]

Contents

Content

The New Woman's Survival Catalog, styled as a typical sales catalog, contains listings, close descriptions, articles, and contact information for feminist organizations and resources in North America. Another section details the publication's research and production process. [1] [4]

The publication's content focusses on nine subjects, each marking its own chapter.

The book opens with "I Communications", listing, amongst others, feminist presses, radios and publications. "II Art" marks the second subject, summarizing galleries, collectives, theatre and other feminist artistic approaches. "III Self-Health" and "IV Children" follow with information about the body, medical care, single parents and liberating literature examples. The fifth chapter is called "V Learning" summarizing liberation schools, feminist studies and women in history. "VI Self Defense" and "VII Work and Money" mark the next subjects, giving self help advice and contacts on both issues. The last two chapters "VIII Getting Justice" and "IX Building the Movement" state information about discrimination, legal sources, women's rights, women's organizations and centers, and are more focussed on the active fight for women's rights in terms of the second wave feminist movement and politically contextualizing the before mentioned subjects. [5]

Making the book

The New Woman's Survival Catalog originally started as a women's studies bibliography from the Barnard College Women's Center. Kirsten Grimstad was an alumna of Barnard at that time and had the task to put it together. She thought "the bibliography needed to have an activist dimension to it, otherwise it wouldn't be feminist". [2] Together with Susann Rennie, who was at the board of the Women's Center, they conducted a nationwide survey to gather information and sold the concept as "the woman's Whole Earth Catalog" to the publisher, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. [2]

During summer 1973 Grimstad and Rennie set out on a two-month roadtrip, covering 12,000 miles across the country, to speak directly with groups and get information on site. On July 13, Grimstad and Rennie returned and began sorting the material. The following August, production of the book began. Fanette Pollack and Ruth Bayard Smith helped the authors with copywriting and page layouts. Mark St. Giles was responsible for the typesetting, which she did on an IBM Selectric Composer. [2]

On September 15 the paste up began with help from Peggy Lyons and Leslie Korda Krims. On October 3 the camera-ready copy was delivered to print. [6]

The whole catalog was put together in five months, two of which Rennie and Grimstad spent on the road. [2] According to the editors reflection in the last section of the book "The book was therefore made under terrific pressure," [6] [ according to whom? ] which is one factor for the catalog appearing with an aesthetic between DIY culture and a commercial sales catalog. [2] Reasons for working so fast were, amongst others, the fast aging character that is implicit to the kind of information that is presented, as well as seasonal commercial timing. [6]

Resulting works and projects

Chrysalis

Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women's Culture was an influential feminist publication. It was collectively produced by artists and writers from the Los Angeles feminist movement and published from 1977 to 1980 by Susan Rennie and Kirsten Grimstad. [7] Continuing the DIY feminist publishing culture, they got together with Sheila Levrant de Bretteville who did the magazins Graphic Design [2]

Chrysalis was placed in the Woman's Building, a radical arts community that existed in a spacious building near downtown L.A. [8] Throughout the 1970s, self-publication was critical to the success and maintenance of feminist communities. Highlighting itself from other similar publications of the time Like Heresies , Chrysalis reached and engaged a broader audience with more progressive issues. With its collaged articles on women's health, movement politics, as well as commissioning new fiction, poetry, and art portfolios, the Chrysalis magazine covered not only art world politics but rather brought up issues that affected the whole women's community.

The Chrysalis bureaucracy was based on consensus, editorial decisions were outcome of a collective process.

Intended as a quarterly publication, the collective produced only ten issues, before they had to resign in 1980, due to lack of funding. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Whole Earth Catalog</i> American counterculture publication

The Whole Earth Catalog (WEC) was an American counterculture magazine and product catalog published by Stewart Brand several times a year between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. The magazine featured essays and articles, but was primarily focused on product reviews. The editorial focus was on self-sufficiency, ecology, alternative education, "do it yourself" (DIY), and holism, and featured the slogan "access to tools". While WEC listed and reviewed a wide range of products, it did not sell any of the products directly. Instead, the vendor's contact information was listed alongside the item and its review. This is why, while not a regularly published periodical, numerous editions and updates were required to keep price and availability information up to date.

Ruth Shick Montgomery was a journalist with a long and distinguished career as a reporter, correspondent, and syndicated columnist in Washington, DC.

<i>Ms.</i> (magazine) American liberal feminist magazine

Ms. is an American feminist magazine co-founded in 1971 by journalist and social/political activist Gloria Steinem. It was the first national American feminist magazine. The original editors were Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Mary Thom, Patricia Carbine, Joanne Edgar, Nina Finkelstein, Mary Peacock, Margaret Sloan-Hunter, and Gloria Steinem. Beginning as a one-off insert in New York magazine in 1971, the first stand-alone issue of Ms. appeared in January 1972, with funding from New York editor Clay Felker. It was intended to appeal to a wide audience and featured articles about a variety of issues related to women and feminism. From July 1972 until 1987, it was published on a monthly basis. It now publishes quarterly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goddess movement</span> Modern revival of divine feminine or female-centered spirituality

The Goddess movement includes spiritual beliefs or practices that emerged predominantly in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in the 1970s. The movement grew as a reaction to Abrahamic religions, which have only gods with whom are referred by male pronouns, and it uses goddess worship and may include a focus on women or on one or more understandings of gender or femininity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanda Gág</span> American artist and childrens writer (1893–1946)

Wanda Hazel Gág was an American artist, author, translator, and illustrator. She is best known for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print. Gág was also a noted print-maker, receiving international recognition and awards. Growing Pains, a book of excerpts from the diaries of her teen and young adult years, received widespread critical acclaim. Two of her books were awarded Newbery Honors and two received Caldecott Honors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">G. P. Putnam's Sons</span> US book publisher, under this name from 1872

G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Hellmut Kirst</span> German novelist

Hans Hellmut Kirst was a German novelist and the author of 46 books, many of which were translated into English. Kirst is best remembered as the creator of the "Gunner Asch" series which detailed the ongoing struggle of an honest individual to maintain his identity and humanity amidst the criminality and corruption of Nazi Germany.

<i>Christopher Street</i> (magazine) Gay-oriented magazine published in New York City

Christopher Street was an American gay-oriented magazine published in New York City, New York, by Charles Ortleb. It was founded in 1976 by Ortleb and Michael Denneny, an openly gay editor in book publishing. Two years later, the magazine had a circulation of 20,000 and annual revenues of $250,000. Known both for its serious discussion of issues within the gay community and its satire of anti-gay criticism, it was one of the two most widely read gay-issues publications in the United States. Christopher Street covered politics and culture and its aim was to become a gay equivalent of The New Yorker.

Celeste De Blasis (1946–2001) was a successful American author of historical romance novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist art movement in the United States</span> Promoting the study, creation, understanding, and promotion of womens art, began in 1970s

The feminist art movement in the United States began in the early 1970s and sought to promote the study, creation, understanding and promotion of women's art. First-generation feminist artists include Judy Chicago, Miriam Schapiro, Suzanne Lacy, Judith Bernstein, Sheila de Bretteville, Mary Beth Edelson, Carolee Schneeman, Rachel Rosenthal, and many other women. They were part of the Feminist art movement in the United States in the early 1970s to develop feminist writing and art. The movement spread quickly through museum protests in both New York and Los Angeles, via an early network called W.E.B. that disseminated news of feminist art activities from 1971 to 1973 in a nationally circulated newsletter, and at conferences such as the West Coast Women's Artists Conference held at California Institute of the Arts and the Conference of Women in the Visual Arts, at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrey Avinoff</span> Russian-American artist and painter, lepidopterist, entomologist, and museum director (1884–1949)

Andrey Avinoff ; was an internationally-known artist, lepidopterist, museum director, professor, bibliophile and iconographer, who served as the director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh from 1926 to 1945.

<i>Common Lives/Lesbian Lives</i> U.S. publication

Common Lives/Lesbian Lives (CL/LL) was a collectively produced lesbian quarterly which published out of Iowa City, Iowa, from 1981 to 1996. The magazine had a stated commitment to reflect the diversity of lesbians by actively soliciting and printing in each issue the work and ideas of lesbians of color, Jewish lesbians, fat lesbians, lesbians over fifty and under twenty years old, disabled lesbians, poor and working-class lesbians, and lesbians of varying cultural backgrounds. Common Lives/Lesbian Lives was a cultural milestone in the lesbian publishing world, as it was one of the first lesbian journal or magazine published from outside the urban/coastal New York/Los Angeles/Berkeley scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. B. Colby</span> American writer

Carroll Burleigh Colby was an American writer, primarily of nonfiction children's books. He wrote more than 100 books that were widely circulated in public and school libraries in the United States. He is best known for Strangely Enough! (1959).

<i>Chrysalis</i> (magazine)

Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women's Culture was a feminist publication produced from 1977 to 1980. The self-published magazine was founded by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie at the Woman's Building in downtown Los Angeles. Chrysalis grew from Grimstad and Rennie's editorial work on the self-help resource books, The New Woman's Survival Catalog and The New Woman's Survival Sourcebook. Chrysalis distinguished itself from other feminist publications through an organic integration of politics, literature, cultural studies, and art. The magazine was produced through a collective process that grew out of the feminist practice of consciousness-raising. Unusually broad in scope, Chrysalis did not substitute breadth for quality. The authors, poets, essayists, and researchers contributing to the magazine reveal a veritable who's who of towering intellects of the feminist movement: black lesbian activist Audre Lorde; the magazine's poetry editor, Robin Morgan, who later served as editor of Ms. from 1990-1993: award winning poet Adrienne Rich; novelist Marge Piercy; artist Judy Chicago; science fiction writer Joanna Russ; art critic Lucy Lippard, plus Mary Daly, Dolores Hayden, Andrea Dworkin, Marilyn Hacker, Arlene Raven, and Elizabeth Janeway. Over a three-year span, the all volunteer staff produced ten issues before they were forced to disband in 1981 due to financial difficulties.

Feminist businesses are companies established by activists involved in the feminist movement. Examples include feminist bookstores, feminist credit unions, feminist presses, feminist mail-order catalogs, and feminist restaurants. These businesses flourished as part of the second and third-waves of feminism in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Feminist entrepreneurs established organizations such as the Feminist Economic Alliance to advance their cause. Feminist entrepreneurs sought three primary goals: to disseminate their ideology through their businesses, to create public spaces for women and feminists, and to create jobs for women so that they did not have to depend on men financially. While they still exist today, the number of some feminist businesses, particularly women's bookstores, has declined precipitously since 2000.

<i>Going to Iran</i> 1982 book by Kate Millett

Going to Iran is the sixth book by American feminist writer and activist Kate Millett. It was published in 1982 by Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. It documents the experience of Millett and her partner Sophie Keir when they traveled to Iran's first International Women's Day in 1979.

Éditions des Femmes is a French feminist publishing house that was launched in 1972, mainly by women of the collective Psychoanalysis and Politics led by Antoinette Fouque, with other activists of the MLF, and funded by the patron Sylvina Boissonnas. They offer works written by women, women focused issues related to human rights and women's empowerment, women's creativity and reflection, and also produce audio books.

Persephone Press was a publishing company and communications network run by a lesbian-feminist collective in Watertown, Massachusetts. The company published fourteen books between 1976 and 1983, when the organization was sold to Beacon Press.

Diana Press Publications was an American feminist publishing house. Founded and established in January 1972 by Coletta Reid and Casey Czarnik, the company was primarily run by a diverse collective of women. It was commercially successful and published radical and feminist literature. Some of their publications included works by Rita Mae Brown, Judy Grahn, and Jeannette Foster. The company was based in Baltimore, Maryland until it relocated to Oakland, California in 1977. Diana Press closed down in 1979.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The New Woman's Survival Catalog | Primary Information". primaryinformation.org. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miller, Meg (2018-08-16). "Behind the Making of the "Feminist Whole Earth Catalog"". AIGA Eye on Design. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  3. Miller, Meg (3 June 2020). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Second-Wave Feminism". New York Times . Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  4. Hermo, Carmen (December 16, 2019). "Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie's The New Woman's Survival Catalog: A Woman-made Book". BOMB Magazine. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  5. Grimstad, Rennie, Kirsten, Susan (1973). The New Woman's Survival Catalog (1st ed.). New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc./ Berkley Publishing Corporation.
  6. 1 2 3 Grimstad, Rennie, Kirsten, Susan (1973). The New Woman's Survival Catalog (1st ed.). New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, Inc./ Berkley Publishing Corporation. pp. 216–219.
  7. 1 2 Sorkin, Jenni (October 31, 2011). "Second Life: Chrysalis Magazine". East of Borneo. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  8. Merlan, Anna (January 9, 2020). "Feminist Zines Have Have Been Around Longer Than You Thought—Here's Where One Began". Vice. Retrieved 2022-09-10.