#Old Westbury N.Y 11568

[stonecreationslongisland]

New Driveway and Stone Veneer, Old Bethpage, NY 11735

[televinita]

I was trying to find some detail on the clearly small/feminist press that published Meanwhile Farm, Les Femmes, and finally I found a tidbit at the end of an NYT book review column from 1977 about current trends in publishing, but the whole last section is so fascinating I want to preserve it here:

Feminists. The success of Rita Mae Brown's “Rubyfruit Jungle” has focused new attention on the feminist tresses that have grown out of the women's movement over the last five years. An autobiographical novel that might do for lesbians what “A Catcher in the Rye” did for adolescence, “Rubyfruit” was first published in 1973 by Daughters Inc., a New York‐based company. The book went on to sell 70,000 copies without mass‐market distribution or major media attention, and then the paperback rights were sold to Bantam Books for $750,000. That sale makes Daughters one of the successful feminist presses; three others stopped publishing this year, leaving about 10 all over the country, some of which limit their activity to one or two poetry books a year. The tendency of feminist presses to adhere to a separatist ideology means that most will only employ feminist printers and distributors (one of the latter, Women in Distribution [WIND1] in Washington, D. C., is beginning to penetrate the mass‐market paperback stores). Some of the presses have only just begun to employ fulltime sales representatives. It is a struggle then, but here is a rundown of the main feminist presses, along with addresses where interested readers may write for lists of their books. Daughters Inc. was founded in 1973 by Parke Bowman and June Arnold, who were interested primarily in feminist fiction. It has published novels by Selma Lagerlhf, Blance Boyd, Pat Burch, June Arnold, Bertha Harris, Monique Wittig, (22 Charles St., New York, N.Y.) Diana Press is the first women's press to own its own paperback binding equipment, and when the purchase of a web press goes through next year it will he capable of printing mass market paperbacks hooks. It emphasizes elaborately prociticeu paperbacks, including its biggest success, Rita Mae Brown's “Songs to Handsome Woman,” a poetry collection that no one else would publish. “We have always tried to produce work by women who found it hardest to get accepted by publishers, among them Third World and lesbian women,” says Co'etta Reid, a founder. Diana later merged with Women's Press Collective, the first women's press. (4400 Market St., Oakland, Calif. 94608.) Feminist Press started publishing out‐of‐print titles by women authors and now operates on the State University of New York campus at Old Westbury, where it receives free space in return for providing women's study courses and a women's history library. Because of its tax‐exempt status, Feminist Press's list resembles a university press, with titles like “Witches, Midwifes and Nurses,” a history of women in medicine. (Box 334, Old Westbury, N. Y. 11568.) Les Femmes is a subsidiary of Celestial Arts, a male‐run general trade paperback house, and is looked down on by feminists as an opportunistic latecomer. The two‐year‐old house does, however, have several titles of practical interest for women. (231 Adrian Road, Millbrae Calif. 94030.)

Did I howl at the "Fake Feminist" accusations thrown at the last one? I sure did. ("who could be more Women than us. That's LITERALLY our name." / "Yeah I have some questions about that actually.")