A beautiful book - An important addition to women's history | Women Who Write

full of beautiful photos, drawings and images of women writers | Women Who Write | Stefan Bollman

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	• Women Who Write Stefan Bollman Merrell, 2007 - 152 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand and even Toni Morrison

Francine Prose's WOMEN WHO WRITE gathers images and profiles of many important women writers from the Middle Ages to modern times. These are some of the major figures in women's literature: Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand and even Toni Morrison - all of whom created ground-breaking works that affected genres. Biography and literary criticism blend with black and white and color images throughout which range from photos of each author to reproductions of covers and illustrative artwork, making for a fine catalog inviting general-interest attention to a topic more commonly given too much detail and regulated to college-level collections alone.

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A beautiful book - An important addition to women's history

Since Enheduanna, a Sumerian writer and high priestess living circa 2000 bc, authored the first attributed literary effort in history--to Ida B.Wells-Barnett, who wrote about the economic roots of lynchings in the South-- women have played a remarkable role in literature and journalism. This book is a wonderful (make that mandatory!) addition to every library. The use of paintings and photographs provides a personal link between the reader and the "Women Who Write" that I hope will inspire more women to take pen in hand. From journalists, to novelists, to screenwriters...women's voices need to be heard. (Marion Gold is a past-president of the Illinois Women's Press Association, and author of "Top Cops: Profiles of Women in Command" and "Personal Publicity Planner: A Guide to Marketing YOUTop Cops: Profiles of Women in CommandPersonal Publicity Planner: A Guide to Marketing YOU.")

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full of beautiful photos, drawings and images of women writers

At first glance, Women Who Write appears to be a gorgeous coffee table book full of beautiful photos, drawings and images of women writers. However, if you begin with the compelling, thought-provoking foreward by Francine Prose, and work your way through the book in the chronological order in which it is written, you will discover that Bollmann has compiled a book that is not only beautiful in its presentation, but is intimate in the intricate details that it provides for each writer. It addresses women who have been integral to the international body of writing from the year 1098 to present day writers, and although it includes them, it does not limit its scope to the women who have been indisputable forces in literature - such as Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath - but it also includes women such as Hildegard of Bingen, Rahel Varngagen and Elsa Morante, women who are lesser known, but also indisputably integral to our literary history.

Women Who Write informs us of the major works of each woman and what is essential in either the subject or scope of the literature, but it also includes commentary on these women by other writers and notable figures. Thus it addresses the identities that these women created for themselves, as well as how their work has been perceived by their contemporaries.

In the introduction to the chapter titled "Writing as Resistance: Women of Courage," Bollmann writes, "For one can only win freedom by acting as a free person - and that is always dangerous." The validity of this quote is echoed throughout the text as one realizes that the women whom the book celebrates have persisted with their craft regardless of the restrictions that they faced. This is true for Sophie Scholl, a member of the White Rose resistance group who was arrested and persecuted at the age of twenty-two due to the anti-Nazi sentiments of her writing: "If enough people join together, then with one last mighty effort we can shake off this system."

We are reminded of the courage of these women, who were not content to stay within their prescribed roles. They often wrote with pseudonyms, hid their manuscripts from others and, in a few cases, disguised themselves as men in order to be allowed the privileges and obscurity of men during their lifetime. Of George Eliot, a pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans, Bollmann writes, "a rival who knew her as Marian from her early life later wrote that Eliot had been a woman made by her own hands, who never for a moment forgot the identity that she created for herself." Each of the women in this text created her own identity, an identity that often caused these writers great suffering in their lifetime, but their unwavering commitment to their writing and the brilliance of their words has remained essential to continued work of feminists today.

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From the author of the bestselling Reading Women comes Women Who Write, a celebration of female literary achievement. Literature has traditionally been a male-dominated field. In the past it was common for women authors to adopt a male pseudonym in order to be taken seriously, and they were often forced to make a choice between writing and leading a conventional family life. This beautifully produced book brings together a compelling collection of paintings, drawings, prints and photographs of women writers through the ages, from Mary Wollstonecraft, George Sand and Jane Austen to Dorothy Parker, Simone de Beauvoir and Toni Morrison. Engaging commentaries present brief biographies of the writers depicted, discussing the highlights of their careers and the major themes of their work. An incisive introduction explores the history of women authors, examining the challenges they have faced in pursuit of their craft.

Stunningly illustrated throughout, including beautiful reproductions of original manuscript pages
Features a diverse range of women writers from the Middle Ages to the present
An ideal gift book for lovers of literature and anyone interested in the depiction of women in photography and art

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