AMERICAN ADVICE FOR AUSTRALIAN WOMEN INCLUDED IN IMPRESSIVE LIST

 Words for Women, the  above circa l973 publication is  just one of many  extraordinary  offerings  in  the latest list from Douglas Stewart Fine Books, Melbourne , covering   Australian  women  from  the   l830s-l990s. 

The text at  the head of  the  introduction says :

‘The following is a paper passed in November 1972 by the Chicago Women’s Liberation Union. We have omitted sections which we feel might not be useful to us in Australia. We are reproducing this material as a contribution to the developing discussion about socialist feminism, not as an answer to all our problems, but as an example of how some women with ideas, questions and struggles very similar to ours have taken the initiative in building a socialist feminist women’s movement.’ 

It  seems the 16 page Chicago advice was   snapped up almost as soon as  the list  came out . 

The list covers art , literature, film, theatre, feminism, sexual politics and private worlds.  

In 1880 , the  Queensland German Glee  Club, an amateur singing society , staged a masquerade  ball, nobody admitted  without a  mask before   12. The above  admission tickets , $120, shows  that  one  for a  lady  cost  2/6, half that  for  a  gentleman , thought  to ensure  there  were  lots  of  frauleins  present . Signed by  secretary J. Bauman.  

Included in the Douglas Stewart  list , for $220, is the rare  above handbill for the Wimmin Patriarchy  and Future Forum, held April 17-20  1981 at the Princes Hill  High School, Carlton , Melbourne , which featured a performance by  the  Melbourne  feminist post-rock band Toxic Shock. 

The handbill came from the estate of  feminist, artist, writer , editor and curator  Virginia Fraser (1947-2021 ).

Just a   small  sample of  some of the  other outstanding  items in the list are a  Sturt's Desert Pea woodcut by  Margaret Preston,$22,000 ;  The Australian Ladies' Annual, 1878, Melbourne , a rare  gathering of  colonial women ,$925; a 1936 , Bulletin published first edition , signed copy of All That Swagger by  Miles  Franklin ,$1100.

(Women. Australia. America.)

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