The New Woman’s Survival Catalog by Undergraduate Studies Co-Chair Dr. Kirsten Grimstad and co-author Susan Rennie will be published this fall (2019) in a facsimile edition by Primary Information, a publisher specializing in artist’s books.
Originally compiled and published in 1973, The New Woman’s Survival Catalog was a “woman-made” catalog modeled after the well-known Whole Earth Catalog (1968-71) and intended as a guide to second-wave feminism.
Grimstad and Rennie set out on a two-month road trip in the summer of 1973, meeting and interviewing all the featured organizations and individuals, and gathering information and further references along the way to complete the publication. From arts organizations to bookstores and independent presses, health, parenting, and rape crisis centers, and educational, legal and financial resources, this book provides crucial insight into feminist initiatives and activism nationwide during the Women’s Movement.
The collection comprises listings, organizational descriptions, articles, and extensive illustrations, as well as a “Making the Book” section, detailing the original publication’s production by Grimstad, Rennie, and their all-female team.
“This is so unexpected and really astonishing, as the content is completely out of date,” said Grimstad, “but it lives on as a document of the second wave of the women’s movement.”
Kirsten Grimstad and Susan Rennie are the co-editors of The New Woman’s Survival Catalog (Berkeley Publishing Company, 1973) and The New Woman’s Survival Sourcebook (Knopf, 1975). They went on to co-found Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women’s Culture, published out of the Woman’s Building in downtown Los Angeles from 1977-1981.