Dead Feminists: A Reading List

Recently, I picked up a beautiful book by Seattle printers Chandra O’Leary and Jessica Spring. Dead Feminists combines brief biographies of women who have worked for feminism and social justice with reproductions of prints they have designed for each woman. Their beautiful broadside prints highlight the words and accomplishments of women throughout the ages, from Sappho in ancient Greece to the Thea Ross, the inspiration for Tugboat Annie. Furthermore, Chandra and Jessica donate part of their proceeds from each print to charities and organizations related to the message and work of the feminist being profiled.

These are still being made, and there make a limited run of between 100 and 200 for each broadside. As of this writing, there are still seven different broadsides available on their website HERE. You can also buy postcard reproductions of each print for only a couple of dollars.

There have been 27 broadsides published so far, but not all of them were writers. Despite this, I was inspired by the breadth and depth of the women they have chosen. Below, you will find a diverse and varied list of reading and listening material that was inspired by the women profiled in this beautiful book.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton gave the keynote address at the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention in 1848. Seneca Falls was the first women’s rights convention in the United States and it is considered to be birthplace of the women’s rights movement. You can read or listen to her address HERE.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt is perhaps the most famous woman on this list, and she certainly needs no introduction, although people probably are not as aware of some of her later work, including representing the United States to the UN. She was a prolific speaker and writer, and reinvented the office of First Lady, including being the first First Lady to hold press conferences. You can find a copy of her speech to the United Nations concerning human rights, delivered in 1948 HERE. There are countless biographies of Eleanor, but if you want to read her writing, you can also get a copy of Eleanor Roosevelt, In Her Words: On Women, Politics, Leadership, and Lessons from Life.

Alice Paul

Alice Paul was a suffragette that is best known for her uncompromising campaign for the right to vote during World War I, when she and her fellow suffragettes went as far as handcuffing themselves to the gates of the White House and going on hunger strike after being imprisoned. I couldn’t find much that she wrote, but I did find the transcripts of a long oral history interview she did HERE.

Washington Suffragettes

The State of Washington gave women the vote in 1910. In 1909, four women in this movement, Emma Smith DeVoe, Dr. Cora Smith Eaton, May Arkwright Hutton, and Bernice Sapp, all came together to publish the Washington Woman’s Cookbook. With two flags on the cover, saying “Votes For Women” and “Good Things To Eat”, the cookbook was as much a guide to good food as it was a call for suffrage. This book has been reprinted, and you can buy it HERE.

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson is another women who does not need any introduction, although I have to admit that even as an environmental educator, I have still not read Silent Spring, the book that launched the modern environmental movement. Her work was groundbreaking, and her writing is beautiful. You can get a copy of the seminal work that is Silent Spring HERE.

Adina De Zavala

This is the first woman in this list who I had simply never heard of. Adina is the reason that the Alamo is still a historical site today, as she saved it from becoming a hotel by camping out inside. In addition, she was a teacher and a writer, who wrote a book about the history of The Alamo and San Antonio in 1917, which highlighted the role of women and Tejanos (Texans of Mexican descent).

Elizabeth Zimmerman

Elizabeth Zimmerman was a knitting pioneer who worked to make knitting techniques and tools were widely spread throughout the United States. Her work to make it easy for anyone to design and adapt knitting patterns to fit the people they love led to the creation of the EPS system, which is still used today. While she published many knitting books, one of the most well-known and most iconic is Knitting Without Tears.

Gwendolyn Brooks

Gwendolyn Brooks was a Black poet who wrote about issues of race, gender and class. She was the first African-American of any gender to win a Pulitzer Prize for her book Annie Allen, and yet I still have never read her work. Many of her books are out of print, but she published tons of poems as well as a two-part autobiography, which you can find at sites like thriftbooks.com or at your local used bookstore.

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf is yet another woman who needs no introduction. She and her husband started their own printing press, which is now Hogarth Press, and her groundbreaking work pioneered the stream of consciousness style. You can find her books everywhere, but I wanted to share a piece about Woolf from one of my favorite blogs, Brainpickings, about her essay “How Should One Read a Book?”

Jane Mecom

Jane Mecom was Benjamin Franklin’s sister, and over the course of his life, he wrote more letters to her than he did to anyone else, indicating that he held her in high esteem. The broadside above includes correspondence between the two where she laments her lack of education, which led to the proceeds of this print going towards equality in education. You can read more about her in The Book of Ages, a biography of her life and letters.

As of this blog being published, copies of this broadside are still available HERE

Shirley Chisholm

The first African-American elected to congress and the first African-American of any sex to be a serious presidential candidate, Shirley Chisholm was tireless in her mission to create a better life for her constituents and to further the cause of women and people of color in the political sphere. You can find a transcript of her speech advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment HERE.

Sarojini Naidu

Also known as “The Nightingale of India”, Naidu was a leading figure in the Civil Disobedience movement which, led by Ghandi, ultimately achieved independence for India. Her influence in India is so large that her birthday is celebrated as Women’s Day in India. You can find many of her poems HERE.

Imogen Cunningham

Since I have personal connection to her work, I was so excited to see Imogene Cunningham on this list. An amazing photographer who worked with photographers including Edward Curtis and Ansel Adams, her work with what are now alternative processes and double exposure championed the idea of photography as an art form. You can find a list of books about Imogene as well as an archive of her photography HERE. In addition, proceeds from this print go to a Seattle-based organization called Youth in Focus, which seeks to get young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access to photographic supplies and lessons.

As of this blog being published, copies of this broadside are still available HERE.

Rywka Lipszyc

Pronounced “Rivka Lipschitz”, this young girl was the author of a diary discovered in the Auschwitz crematorium. Passed from family member to family member for almost 70 years, it was finally translated and published in 2014. This diary details life in the Łódź ghetto in Poland, and I am really interested in reading it! Rwyka’s diary is available HERE.

Queen Lili’uokalani

Queen Liliuokalani was the first queen and the last monarch of the kingdom of Hawaii, before she was forced to abdicate the throne by the United States in 1895. She committed to nonviolence, and even after her abdication, she worked to preserve the culture of the Hawaiian Islands, including composing the song “Aloha Oe”, which you can hear below.