Betty Friedan was a powerful advocate for herself. She firmly defended her vision for The Feminine Mystique while she was writing. And when it came to promotion, she took an equally active part. In this letter, written before publication, Friedan tasks her editor at Norton with collecting a blurb from a Columbia sociology professor. She also reports buying a new dress for her book tour, and her fears that coming on too strong with reporters for women’s magazines would “wear out my welcome.” Closing by wishing Beals a happy New Year, she added a footnote predicting (correctly, as it would turn out) that 1963 would be “the year ‘The Feminine Mystique’ was a bestseller.”
Friedan, Betty
Letter to Burton Beals, 1962
W.W. Norton & Co. Records
By 1968 – five years after its first publication -- Betty Freidan’s The Feminine Mystique had sold more than a million copies, had been translated into numerous languages and was recognized as a major text in the movement for women’s liberation. For international audiences, Friedan’s book seemed to offer insights that went beyond the lifestyles of American women. It was seen as a guide to American society itself. In these letters from Prague and France, international publishers correspond with editors at W.W. Norton to negotiate translation and excerpting arrangements.
Czechoslovak Theatrical and Literary Agency
Correspondence, 1968
W.W. Norton & Co. Records
Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commercial
Correspondence, 1968
W.W. Norton & Co. Records
