The Equivalents
A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s
(Sprache: Englisch)
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
In 1960, Harvard s sister college, Radcliffe, announced the founding of an Institute for Independent Study, a messy experiment in women s education that offered paid fellowships to those with a...
In 1960, Harvard s sister college, Radcliffe, announced the founding of an Institute for Independent Study, a messy experiment in women s education that offered paid fellowships to those with a...
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FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDIn 1960, Harvard s sister college, Radcliffe, announced the founding of an Institute for Independent Study, a messy experiment in women s education that offered paid fellowships to those with a PhD or the equivalent in artistic achievement. Five of the women who received fellowships poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin, painter Barbara Swan, sculptor Marianna Pineda, and writer Tillie Olsen quickly formed deep bonds with one another that would inspire and sustain their most ambitious work. They called themselves the Equivalents. Drawing from notebooks, letters, recordings, journals, poetry, and prose, Maggie Doherty weaves a moving narrative of friendship and ambition, art and activism, love and heartbreak, and shows how the institute spoke to the condition of women on the cusp of liberation.
Rich and powerful. . . . A love story about art and female friendship.
Harper s Magazine
Reads like a novel, and an intense one at that. . . . The Equivalents is an observant, thoughtful and energetic account.
Margaret Atwood, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
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Chapter 1Little White Picket Fences
The sun was already setting one evening late in the winter of 1957 when twenty-nine-year-old Anne Sexton, shaking with nerves and clutching a cardboard folder, walked down Commonwealth Avenue, the main thoroughfare in Boston s Back Bay. She passed Victorian brownstones, statues of local luminaries, and large, stately trees. She soon arrived at her destination, a large stone building on the boulevard s north side.
She passed through the building s imposing gray facade and walked through the opulent ballroom hidden inside. This was one of her first trips out of her home in Newton in recent memory; to accomplish it, she had requested the company of a kind neighbor named Sandy Robart. Sexton had always been a nervous woman, but these days she was something more: anxious, fearful, choked by self-doubt. Public places of any kind produced intense discomfort; most days she didn t leave her house. She had recently attempted suicide; she would make a second attempt in just a few months.
She walked through the building s foyer and wondered what she was doing there. She wasn t cowed by the signs of old money. Wealth was familiar to her. It was what the building concealed that frightened her: a small poetry workshop, run by the Boston Center for Adult Education. Sexton, who had been writing poetry seriously for only several months, who had no college degree, who had a bad history in classroom settings, had uncharacteristically decided to enroll in the course. Until that winter evening, only two people had read her poetry: Dr. Martin Orne, her psychoanalyst; and her mother, Mary Gray Harvey. The idea of showing her poems to other people other poets was terrifying. And yet here she was, in matching lipstick and heels, with flowers in her dark hair, about to enter a classroom for the first time in a decade.
She stepped into the room; heads turned. The workshop had been in session for some weeks, and
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newcomers weren t common. The instructor, John Holmes, sat at the head of a long oak table. A man with thinning hair and a long, hangdog face, he was the personification of dour New England. Holmes was a fixture in the Boston poetry scene: teaching workshops, reviewing books, and working as a professor at Tufts. Many of Holmes s students had published poems, including a thirty-one-year-old mother of three who was also present that evening. Her name was Maxine Kumin.
Sexton and Kumin regarded each other: it was a bit like looking into a mirror. Both women were thin, dark-haired, and attractive. Unlike Sexton, Kumin was not a native New Englander, though by the time the two women met, Boston had become her home. Kumin was an assimilated Jewish woman from Philadelphia whose pawn-broker father had earned enough to send his daughter first to parochial school, then to Radcliffe College. For Kumin, education had been a way of becoming an individual, someone who could escape from her mother s expectations. Sexton, by contrast, came from New England wealth. She relied on her parents for financial support and on her husband for emotional caretaking. Sexton was emotionally volatile, plagued by anxiety, depression, and suicidal urges. Kumin kept her temper in check and steered away from instability. She was immediately wary of this nervous, glamorous stranger a woman who somehow fascinated and repelled. Both were there to do some thing that felt uncertain, even untoward: to establish themselves as poets. Each had to gather her courage to attempt this, an obviously solitary effort. What did it mean for them to encounter each other in this terrifying space?
Sexton once summed up her life prior to 1957 as follows: I was trying my damnedest to lead a conventional life, for that was how I was brought up, and it was what my husband wanted of me. But on
Sexton and Kumin regarded each other: it was a bit like looking into a mirror. Both women were thin, dark-haired, and attractive. Unlike Sexton, Kumin was not a native New Englander, though by the time the two women met, Boston had become her home. Kumin was an assimilated Jewish woman from Philadelphia whose pawn-broker father had earned enough to send his daughter first to parochial school, then to Radcliffe College. For Kumin, education had been a way of becoming an individual, someone who could escape from her mother s expectations. Sexton, by contrast, came from New England wealth. She relied on her parents for financial support and on her husband for emotional caretaking. Sexton was emotionally volatile, plagued by anxiety, depression, and suicidal urges. Kumin kept her temper in check and steered away from instability. She was immediately wary of this nervous, glamorous stranger a woman who somehow fascinated and repelled. Both were there to do some thing that felt uncertain, even untoward: to establish themselves as poets. Each had to gather her courage to attempt this, an obviously solitary effort. What did it mean for them to encounter each other in this terrifying space?
Sexton once summed up her life prior to 1957 as follows: I was trying my damnedest to lead a conventional life, for that was how I was brought up, and it was what my husband wanted of me. But on
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Autoren-Porträt von Maggie Doherty
Maggie Doherty teaches writing at Harvard, where she earned her PhD in English. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the New York Times, the New York Review of Books, and the Nation, among other publications. She lives in Cambridge.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Maggie Doherty
- 2021, 400 Seiten, Maße: 13,1 x 20,3 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: VINTAGE
- ISBN-10: 0525434607
- ISBN-13: 9780525434603
- Erscheinungsdatum: 15.04.2021
Sprache:
Englisch
Pressezitat
The Equivalents is written with panache. [Maggie Doherty] adroitly weaves vivid, empathetic portraits of these talented women, focusing on their artistic accomplishments, their impact on the women s movement and its impact on them. The Wall Street Journal
This deft history charts the relationships among five of the earliest fellows. . . . Doherty relates their often fraught intimacies in detail, emphasizing how these dynamics prefigured currents in American feminism and culture. The women s shared story shows both the potential and the limitations of a room of one s own as a liberating force.
The New Yorker
Brilliant. . . . Doherty s rigorous history is an empowering reminder that to change ourselves, we must have systemic support outside ourselves institutional structures that reinforce the belief that all people are created equal, not just equivalent.
Los Angeles Times
[The Equivalents] prompts us to consider the systems of marginalization that continue to reproduce the psychic division that agonized these women. . . . It is the story of what these women needed from and gave to one another.
The Nation
The Equivalents is an important, illuminating work. Fortunately, it is also a splendidly written page-turner to read for joy.
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Elegantly composed. . . . The Equivalents also serves as something of a prehistory of second-wave feminism.
The Boston Globe
Opposites attract in Doherty s exuberant account of women artists in the 1960s and 70s that especially probes the fierce connection between poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin, a dance of sameness and separateness . . . something like a song.
O, The Oprah Magazine
Mona Lisa Smile meets Mrs.
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America. [The Equivalents] tells of the founding students in Radcliffe's Independent Study program, which helped women to receive an education and raise a family.
Entertainment Weekly
[Maggie Doherty] presents the institute as a crucial bridge between first- and second-wave feminism between, roughly, Virginia Woolf and Betty Friedan. Through examining the five Equivalents, she illustrates the institute s role in midcentury feminism and explores the ways in which both fell short. . . . A vivid, captivating, and excellently argued work.
Hyperallergic
Rich with insight into the challenges faced by midcentury women as they struggled to pursue their work. . . . Doherty sheds light on an important story, one that takes place at the fraught intersection of gender, race and class.
WBUR, The ARTery
[An] exciting debut. . . . A rich tapestry brought to life by Doherty s access to [her subjects ] personal notes, recordings, letters and works, weaving her own strong voice in with the individual women to tell stories of art, radical politics, relationships, and unfettered ambition. Though her eye is on the past, it s most certainly a story to inspire our futures.
Dazed
This phenomenal book captures the tensions, ambitions, activism, friendship and yearning for community found in this incredible place and time.
Observer
[The Equivalents], and the hundreds of women who followed them over the decades, have in Maggie Doherty a dedicated biographer. The Equivalents is a story long overdue. In this age of #MeToo and a president who brags about groping women, it s important to look at the moment when modern, talented women saw in Radcliffe an open door, and walked right in.
Air Mail
A story of neither collective liberation nor midcentury repression. . . . Doherty is a confident, perceptive critic, and her biographical sketches are expertly interwoven with well-deployed . . . readings of the poems themselves.
Bookforum
An exciting, engaging, and important book. With great psychological acumen, Maggie Doherty brings these women vividly to life. Being creative while female has never been easy, and our best hope for resolution is this variety of historical excavation, one that shows us how people have tried to resolve it before, so we may learn and keep pushing forward, newly enlightened.
Kate Bolick, author of Spinster
Maggie Doherty s revelatory history of female artists and their influential friendships stands as triumphant testament to the powerhouse first known as Radcliffe s Institute for Advanced Study. The Equivalents reminds us that generative women s work can literally light up the darkness that discourages women s voices just when we need them the most.
Jayne Anne Phillips, Bunting Institute Fellow, 1980-81, author of Black Tickets and Lark and Termite
In her thrilling book, Maggie Doherty brings to vivid life the history long hidden of a glorious American experiment that gathered creative women for a year of community in the shelter of a great university. The emotional power The Equivalents lies in its revelation of the incremental impact of community on each of these formerly isolated women, prophetic of what would happen two years later with the publication of The Feminine Mystique and the arrival of Second Wave feminism.
Honor Moore, author of Our Revolution
An elegant, novelistic history. . . . Doherty s prose dazzles, and she skillfully integrates her copious research into the narrative while toggling between biographical, creative, and political matters.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
[A] galvanizing look at a little-explored conjunction of critical feminist voices. Library Journal
Doherty s vibrant curiosity and many-faceted expertise infuse this dynamic group biography with light and warmth.
Booklist (starred review)
Superb. . . . A welcome spotlight on an overdue experiment.
Kirkus Reviews
Entertainment Weekly
[Maggie Doherty] presents the institute as a crucial bridge between first- and second-wave feminism between, roughly, Virginia Woolf and Betty Friedan. Through examining the five Equivalents, she illustrates the institute s role in midcentury feminism and explores the ways in which both fell short. . . . A vivid, captivating, and excellently argued work.
Hyperallergic
Rich with insight into the challenges faced by midcentury women as they struggled to pursue their work. . . . Doherty sheds light on an important story, one that takes place at the fraught intersection of gender, race and class.
WBUR, The ARTery
[An] exciting debut. . . . A rich tapestry brought to life by Doherty s access to [her subjects ] personal notes, recordings, letters and works, weaving her own strong voice in with the individual women to tell stories of art, radical politics, relationships, and unfettered ambition. Though her eye is on the past, it s most certainly a story to inspire our futures.
Dazed
This phenomenal book captures the tensions, ambitions, activism, friendship and yearning for community found in this incredible place and time.
Observer
[The Equivalents], and the hundreds of women who followed them over the decades, have in Maggie Doherty a dedicated biographer. The Equivalents is a story long overdue. In this age of #MeToo and a president who brags about groping women, it s important to look at the moment when modern, talented women saw in Radcliffe an open door, and walked right in.
Air Mail
A story of neither collective liberation nor midcentury repression. . . . Doherty is a confident, perceptive critic, and her biographical sketches are expertly interwoven with well-deployed . . . readings of the poems themselves.
Bookforum
An exciting, engaging, and important book. With great psychological acumen, Maggie Doherty brings these women vividly to life. Being creative while female has never been easy, and our best hope for resolution is this variety of historical excavation, one that shows us how people have tried to resolve it before, so we may learn and keep pushing forward, newly enlightened.
Kate Bolick, author of Spinster
Maggie Doherty s revelatory history of female artists and their influential friendships stands as triumphant testament to the powerhouse first known as Radcliffe s Institute for Advanced Study. The Equivalents reminds us that generative women s work can literally light up the darkness that discourages women s voices just when we need them the most.
Jayne Anne Phillips, Bunting Institute Fellow, 1980-81, author of Black Tickets and Lark and Termite
In her thrilling book, Maggie Doherty brings to vivid life the history long hidden of a glorious American experiment that gathered creative women for a year of community in the shelter of a great university. The emotional power The Equivalents lies in its revelation of the incremental impact of community on each of these formerly isolated women, prophetic of what would happen two years later with the publication of The Feminine Mystique and the arrival of Second Wave feminism.
Honor Moore, author of Our Revolution
An elegant, novelistic history. . . . Doherty s prose dazzles, and she skillfully integrates her copious research into the narrative while toggling between biographical, creative, and political matters.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
[A] galvanizing look at a little-explored conjunction of critical feminist voices. Library Journal
Doherty s vibrant curiosity and many-faceted expertise infuse this dynamic group biography with light and warmth.
Booklist (starred review)
Superb. . . . A welcome spotlight on an overdue experiment.
Kirkus Reviews
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