Letters to a Young Feminist

Phyllis Chesler

• Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781641600316
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Feminism & Feminist Theory
• Index: Social Sciences

LETTERS TO A YOUNG FEMINIST is a visionary message from a leading feminist to the next generation of feminists. Phyllis Chesler discusses basic aspects of feminism, explains feminism's relevance in a world that has taken it for granted and derided it, and helps the next generation reclaim feminism for itself. Chesler examines sisterhood, sex, families, motherhood, work, feminist heroism, and the economics of power, providing guidance to the generation to come.

Bibliography

My generation knew nothing of the rich and radical feminist literature that preceded Women and Madness by more than a century. Much of the radical feminist literature of my Second Wave generation was “lost” by the 1980s. I have included some of it here. As you read this, please remember that many of the classic feminist works with which you may be most familiar were often preceded by the most amazing and exciting speeches, pamphlets, journals, articles, and books, many of which have since been forgotten.

I have divided this bibliography into pre-twentieth century texts, pre-1962 texts, and then into seven-year periods, beginning in 1963, when Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan both published works that would have a lasting influence. I have also included some—but not all—of the early feminist literature, including Notes from the First Year and No More Fun and Games: A Journal of Female Liberation, which were published in 1968. By the early 1970s, in every major U. S. city, feminists began publishing newspapers and journals: Aphra, Amazon Quarterly, Big Mama Rag, Bread and Roses, Lesbian Ethics, Sojourner, 13th Moon, Quest, and Women: A Journal of Liberation.

Since the late 1960s, some feminist writers have written anywhere from five to fifteen books each; few have remained continuously in print. These writers are usually remembered, if at all, for one book only: either their first or their most recent book. Even in this bibliography, I have not taken the liberty of printing each writer’s entire oeuvre. I have not even included every single worthy author. That task remains. However, let me note that the following feminist writers have all written important Second Wave books—or have written many more books and articles than I’ve cited here:

Alta, Louise Armstrong, Margaret Atwood, Kathy Barry, Pauline Bart, Louise Bernikow, Charlotte Bunch, Paula Caplan, Suzy McKee Charnes, Kim Chernin, Nancy Chodorow, Blanche Weisen Cook, Claire Coss, Nancy Cott, Mary Daly, Andrea Dworkin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Ellen Frankfurt, Marilyn French, Sally Gearheart, Paula Giddings, Sandra Gilbert, Carol Gilligan, Linda Gordon, Vivian Gornick, Lois Gould, Susan Griffen, Susan Gubar, Bertha Harris, Molly Haskell, Shere Hite, Sarah Lucia Hoagland, bell hooks, Jill Johnston, Audre Lorde, Catharine MacKinnon, Joan Mellon, Kate Millett, Robin Morgan, Joan Nestle, Julia Penelope, Marge Piercy, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Arlene Raven, Janice Raymond, Adrienne Rich, Barbara Katz Rothman, Joanna Russ, Diana E.H. Russell, Barbara Seaman, Elaine Showalter, Alix Kates Shulman, Barbara Smith, Dale Spender, Kate Stimpson, Alice Walker, Barbara Walker, Lenore Walker, Monique Wittig.

The works in this bibliography are alphabetized according to author. Please note that certain lesser known books often precede a later, more visible work by anywhere from one to five years.

Pre-Twentieth Century

Behn, Alphra. Love Letters between a Nobleman and His Sister. Edited by Janet Toad. London, New York: Penguin Books, 1996. Originally published between 1684-1687.

———. Oroonoko: An Authoritative Text, Historical Backgrounds, Criticism. Edited by Joanna Lipkiny. New York: W.W. Norton, 1973. Originally published as Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave in 1688.

———. The Works. Edited by Montague Summers. New York: Phaeton Press, 1967.

Catherine II, Empress of Russia. The Memoirs of Catherine the Great. Edited by Dominique Maroger. Translated by Moura Budberg. New York: Collier Books, 1961. Originally published in 1781.

de Pisan, Christine. The Book of the City of Ladies. Translated by Earl Jeffrey Richards. New York: Persea Books, 1982. Originally published circa 1400.

Douglass, Frederick. “The Rights of Women.” 28 July 1848, North Star.

DuBois, Ellen Carol, ed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony: Correspondence, Writings, Speeches 1815-1906. New York: Schocken Books, 1981.

Gage, Matilda Joslyn. Woman, Church and State. New York: The Arno Press, 1972. Orginally published in 1893.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Women and Economics. New York: Charlton, 1898.

Herzl, Theodor. The Jewish State: An Attempt at a Modem Solution of the Jewish Question. New York: Dover, 1988. Originally published in 1896.

Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Translated by George Bull. London: Penguin Books, 1961. Originally published in 1525.

Mill, John Stuart. The Subjection of Women. Mineola, New York: Dover, 1997. Originally published in 1869.

Murasaki, Shikibu. The Tale of Genji. Translated by Arthur Waley. New York: The Modern Library, 1960. Originally published circa 998.

Paine, Thomas. “An Occasional Letter on the Female Sex.” The Complete Writings of Thomas Paine. 2 vols. Edited by Philip S. Foner. New York: Citadel, 1945. Originally published in August 1775.

Shonagon, Sei. The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon. Translated and edited by Ivan Morris. New York: Penguin Books, 1967. Originally published circa 992.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Eighty Years & More: Reminiscences 1815-1897. New York: Schocken Books, 1971. Originally published in 1898.

Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, and the Revising Committee. The Women’s Bible. Seattle, Washington: Coalition Task Force on Women and Religion, 1974. Originally published in 1895.

Truth, Sojourner. “Arn’t I a Woman?” Reissued as Narrative of Sojourner Truth. A Bondswoman of Olden Time, Emancipated by the New York Legislature in the Early Part of the Present Century, with a History of Her Labors and Correspondence Drawn from Her “Book of Life.” Edited by Margaret Washington. New York: Vintage Books, 1993. Originally published in 1850.

Tzu, Sun. The Art of War. Translated by Samuel B. Griffith. London: Oxford University Press, 1963. Originally published circa fourth century B.C.E.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. The Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1982. Originally published in 1792.

1900-1962

Beard, Mary R. Woman as a Force in History. New York: Collier Books, 1962.

Briffault, Robert. The Mothers: The Matriarchal Theory of Social Origins. Edited by Gordon Rattray Taylor. 3 vols. New York: H. Fertig, 1993. Originally published in 1931.

de Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. Originally published in 1949.

Diner, Helen. Mothers and Amazons. Edited and translated by John Philip Lundin. New York: Julian Press, 1965. Originally published in the 1930s under the pen name Sir Galahad.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman. An Autobiography. New York: Arno Press, 1972. Originally published in 1935.

Goldman, Emma. Living My Life. 2 vols. New York: Dover Publications, 1970. Originally published in 1931.

Herschberger, Ruth. Adam’s Rib. New York: Pellegrini & Cudahy, 1948.

Homey, Karen. Feminine Psychology. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1967. Originally published between 1922-1937.

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity. New York: Collier Books, 1961. Originally published in 1958.

Memmi, Albert. Portrait of a Jew. Translated by Elisabeth Abbott. New York: Viking, 1971. Originally published in 1962.

Pankhurst, Emmeline. My Own Story. London: Eveleig...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Letter One: Your Legacy
• Letter Two: Thinking Feminist
• Letter Three: My Life as a Girl in America
• Letter Four: How to Develop a Strong Self in a “Post”-Feminist Age
• Letter Five: The Canon
• Letter Six: Radical Compassion
• Letter Seven: An Opening in History
• Letter Eight: Feminist Myths about Sisterhood
• Letter Nine: Self-Love and Team-Spirit
• Letter Ten: Principles, Not Popularity
• Letter Eleven: We Need a Feminist Continent
• Letter Twelve: “Love Is Not Love Which Alters When It Alteration Finds”
• Letter Thirteen: Sex and Humanity
• Letter Fourteen: “Not the Church, Not the State, Women Must Decide Their Fate.”
• Letter Fifteen: The Joys of Motherhood
• Letter Sixteen: “Making Family” in the Modern Age
• Letter Seventeen: Marriage: A Not-So-Sacred Institution
• Letter Eighteen: Female Fugue States
• Letter Nineteen: Boundaries
• Letter Twenty: Telling
• Letter Twenty-One: Economic Independence
• Letter Twenty-Two: Letter to a Young Feminist Who Happens to Be a Man Who Happens to Be My Son
• Bibliography