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{{Short description|Second-wave feminist publication}}
{{Short description|Second-wave feminist publication}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Italic title}}

'''''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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The New Woman’s Survival Catalog {{!}} Primary Information |url=https://primaryinformation.org/product/the-new-womans-survival-catalog/ |access-date=2022-09-10 |website=primaryinformation.org}}</ref> It was assembled in five months by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie.<ref name=":0" /> The book was promoted as a "feminist ''[[Whole Earth Catalog]]''", referring to [[Stewart Brand]]'s famous 1968–1972 counterculture magazine.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Meg |date=2018-08-16 |title=Behind the Making of the "Feminist Whole Earth Catalog" |url=https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/behind-the-making-of-the-feminist-whole-earth-catalog/ |url-status=live |access-date=2022-09-10 |website=AIGA Eye on Design}}</ref> The book was reissued by art book publisher Primary Information in September 2019.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|last=Miller|first=Meg|title=The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Second-Wave Feminism|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/style/new-womans-survival-catalog.html|date=3 June 2020|work=[[New York Times]]|accessdate=20 October 2022}}</ref>
'''''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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The New Woman’s Survival Catalog {{!}} Primary Information |url=https://primaryinformation.org/product/the-new-womans-survival-catalog/ |access-date=2022-09-10 |website=primaryinformation.org}}</ref> It was assembled in five months by Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie.<ref name=":0" /> The book was promoted as a "feminist ''[[Whole Earth Catalog]]''", referring to [[Stewart Brand]]'s famous 1968–1972 counterculture magazine.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Meg |date=2018-08-16 |title=Behind the Making of the "Feminist Whole Earth Catalog" |url=https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/behind-the-making-of-the-feminist-whole-earth-catalog/ |url-status=live |access-date=2022-09-10 |website=AIGA Eye on Design}}</ref> The book was reissued by art book publisher Primary Information in September 2019.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|last=Miller|first=Meg|title=The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Second-Wave Feminism|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/03/style/new-womans-survival-catalog.html|date=3 June 2020|work=[[New York Times]]|accessdate=20 October 2022}}</ref>


Revision as of 22:46, 20 October 2022

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]

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, Tteatre 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. "IV 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 that 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 generated a nation wide 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 Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie set out for a two month roadtrip, covering 12,000 miles across the country, to directly speak with groups and get information on site. On July 13th Kirsten and Susan returned and began with sorting the material. In the following August, the production of the book began. Fanette Pollack and Ruth Bayard Smith helped the authors with copywriting and page layouts. MS Marks St. Giles was responsible for the typesetting, which she did on an IBM Selectric Composer.[2]

On September 15th the paste up began with help of Peggy Lyons and Leslie Korda Krims. On October 3rd 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]. "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].

References

  1. ^ a b c "The New Woman's Survival Catalog | Primary Information". primaryinformation.org. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Miller, Meg (2018-08-16). "Behind the Making of the "Feminist Whole Earth Catalog"". AIGA Eye on Design. Retrieved 2022-09-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ Miller, Meg (3 June 2020). "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Second-Wave Feminism". New York Times. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  4. ^ "BOMB Magazine | Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie's The New Woman's…". 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b c 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ a b "Second Life: Chrysalis Magazine". East of Borneo. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
  8. ^ "The Joyful Road Trip that Created the New Woman's Survival Catalog, a Survey of 1970s Feminist Activism". www.vice.com. Retrieved 2022-09-10.
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