Suspended Feminist Publication "The Second Wave," on Abortion, Prison, Childcare, and Global Women’s Struggles, 1972-1976

The Second Wave Adrienne Rich

Archive

The Second Wave issues from 1972 through 1976 bring together feminist literary publishing, movement journalism, and political argument at a moment when U.S. feminist discourse surrounding rape, abortion, battered women, childcare, prison, and international women’s struggles were of urgent and expanding concern within the women’s liberation movement. The four issues present range in contents from “Interview with 2 Vietnamese Women,” “Arab Women: The Struggle in Sudan,” a poem by Adrienne Rich, photographs by Elsa Dorfman, and “Rape, A Feminist Review of the Elections”; “Battered Lives,” “The Abortion Business,” fiction and poetry. Founded in 1971, the magazine published reviews, essays, fiction, creative writing, graphics, and political writing while opening its pages both to established writers and to women writing from within the movement’s own readership.

Archive of 4 issues of The Second Wave: A Magazine of the New Feminism. Comprised of Vol. 2, no. 2 (1972), Vol. 3, no. 3, Vol. 4, no. 2, and Vol. 4, no. 3 (1975-1976). Quarto format softcover magazines.

[1] The Second Wave. Vol. 2, no. 2. 1972.
[2] The Second Wave. Vol. 3, no. 3.
[3] The Second Wave. Vol. 4, no. 2. 1975.
[4] The Second Wave. Vol. 4, no. 3. Spring 1976.


Across these issues, the publication records the breadth of second-wave feminist print culture not as a single-theme publication but as a forum where literary writing, practical political debate, and international reporting met in the same pages. One opening letter states that “to date the women’s movement has specialized in powerlessness,” then continues, “we are learning to develop our power in responsible ways, as we must if our movement is to succeed,” a formulation that fits the archive’s recurring concerns with violence, institutional power, childrearing, prison, sexuality, and movement strategy. The magazine continued until 1983, when lack of funding ended publication, leaving issues such as these as direct evidence of how feminist readers encountered Adrienne Rich, Joan Little, Susan Saxe, abortion clinic politics, Arab and Vietnamese women’s testimony, and debates over rape and domestic violence within one small-press periodical network. Light shelfwear, toning, and rubbing to wrappers, with minor edge wear and handling creases; interiors legible with age wear and signs of handling throughout. Overall good condition. This four-issue run offers a concentrated record of feminist editorial practice in the mid-1970s, when literary culture, political organizing, and women-run print networks were being built in the same magazines.

Item #23334

Price: $485.00