When: Thursday, April 10 at 7pm
Where: Bluestockings, 172 Allen Street, NYC
Breanne Fahs in conversation with Johanna Fateman about this first ever biography of Valerie Solanas
When: Friday, April 11 at 5pm
Where: NYU, 20 Cooper Square, 4th Floor, NYC
Avital Ronell, Lisa Duggan and Karen Finley join Breanne Fahs in a discussion about feminist rage.
VALERIE SOLANAS:
The Defiant Life of the Woman Who
Wrote Scum (and Shot Andy Warhol)
Breamme Fahs
April 9, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-55861-848-0
eISBN: 978-1-55861-849-7
360 pgs + 36 b/w photos $22.95
Too drastic, too crazy, too “out there,” too early, too late, too damaged, too much—Valerie Solanas has been dismissed but never forgotten. Known for shooting Andy Warhol in 1968 and for writing the polemical diatribe SCUM Manifesto, Solanas is one of the most famous women of her era. SCUM Manifesto—which predicted ATMs, test-tube babies, the internet, and artificial insemination long before they existed—has sold more copies, and has been translated into more languages, than nearly all other feminist texts of its time.
Yet, shockingly little work has interrogated Solanas’s life. This book is the first biography about Solanas, including original interviews with family, friends (and enemies), and numerous living Warhol associates. It reveals surprising details about her life: the children nearly no one knew she had, her drive for control over her own writing and copyright, and her elusive personal and professional relationships. Valerie Solanas reframes how this era changed the world, and depicts an iconic figure whose life is at once heartbreaking and remarkable.
Breanne Fahs is the director of the Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality Group at Arizona State University, and the author of Performing Sex and The Moral Panics. To arrange an interview, order review copies, or for more information, contact Elizabeth Koke, FP Publicity, at ekoke@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-7928. For bulk discount/special sales, contact Cary Webb, FP Sales, at cwebb@gc.cuny.edu or 212-817-7918.