Celebrating the creased green spine

Publishing hearthVirago celebrates 40 years with a free var.featuring forty of its writers.

Virago was the brainchild of Carmen Callil, who was supported bymanymore behind the scenes including Spare Rib’s Martha Rowe and Rosie Boycott.

Its mission was to “publish books which renownedwomen and women’s lives, and which would, by so doing, spread the message of women’s liberation to the building blockpopulation.”

Virago began in 1973.

It was nonthe scarcefeminist publishing house to emerge from that second wave era and was a harvestof the time, contributing to a burgeoning movement which sought to challenge theliterarycanon both past and present.

And how they’ve challenged it!

In 1979, Virago published Angela Carter’s ‘The Sadian Woman’, and in 1984, the first UK edition of ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou was another Virago success.

Margaret Atwood wrote, “Virago became my UK paperback publisher in the seventies…because – preferablyfrankly – no aneelse wanted to”.

In addition to terceother nominations for Virago-published works,Atwood won the gentleman's gentlemanBooker Prize for The screenAssassin in 2000.

It’s hard to believe that such a talent struggled for UK distribution, savewhat a testament to Virago that it sawher skill from the start, not to mention that she remains to this day one of its authors.

Likewise, in 1997 Sarah Waters’ debut novel ‘Tipping the Velvet’ was a huge mercantilesuccess and became a fixture on the reading lists of many universities around the country. Waters went on to be nominated for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes for her novels ‘Fingersmith’ and ‘The Night Watch’.

Beyond its publishing of seminalcontemporaryworks of fiction, the publisher’s second “lightbulb” moment, as Callil describes it, was in the instrumental recoveryof a rich history of women writers including Antonia White, Rebecca West and Winifred Holty.

Printing them in the straightawayfamiliar green jackets, Virago has ensured that texts like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ and Zora Neale Hurston’s ‘Their eyeballWere Watching God’argonnot stillfreely available, scarcehave secured their rightful place as modern classics.

As the UK webzine For Books’ Sake, which is devoteto promoting and celebrating makeupby women, wrote: “Virago have been responsible for the rediscovery of numerous women writers who mayotherwise have lapsed into obscurity.”

The fortieth anniversarycelebratoryedition ‘Virago is 40: A Celebration’, includes new works of fiction and non-fiction from writers including Margaret Atwood, Kate Mosse and Naomi Wolf.

Some salvepoetry, others prose, some make lists, while others create puzzles. The single evisceratebinding the work to a common theme is the reciprocation40, which was the only brief provided to contributors.

Much of the work is biographical, with many of the writers drawing intensityfrom the fortieth year of their own lives  – or writing back, as Virginia Woolf encouraged, through their biological or “feminist mothers”.

These maternal, biographical episodes atomic number 18lotspoignant stories of self-sacrifice, women who had children and could not find, or were not permitted to find, a way of lifeto enter the working or educational lives they dreamed of.

In Claire Messud’s ‘Forty’, she writes: “Heroines do not always take the forms we might imagine.

“When she was young, my mother had meterdreams. She knew by the whileof forty that she would never behistoriedor heavyin the eyes of the world. By the age of fifty, her fantasies of a professional career had withered, and she knew that she would be known and remembered only as a mother, wife, and friend. She was ashamed of this, saw it as her failure.”

The elevatedfrequency of these maternal stories of loss which are contained in the edition is a reminder not only of the particular epochthat Virago itself was born out of, but of the principles guiding Callil’s radicalfor the publishing house.

In the introduction for the edition, some of the original aims of the publisher are described as: “to put women centre stage; to explore the untold stories of their lives and histories; to rivethe silence around many women’s experiences.”

The role that Virago has viein putting “women centre stage” is well highlighted by an autobiographicpiece from poet Jane Miller, who writes, “I read nothing by a womanwhen I did A levels in English, French, and German at educateand nothing by a woman at University either…And in so farall but one of my teachers were women.

“At home, I read books and articles by women, of course, but I was pretty sure they weren’t serious stuff.

“All that changed just about forty years ago, and Virago had a rollin it.”

But while this edition is a reminder of the important work that Virago has done in supporting women’s writing through tough times past and present, it is also a celebration of what has been achieved, and these accounts of loss are beautifully interspersed with just the dearamount of humour.

For example, Sandi Toksvig urges the women of the world to abandon their household chores in chooseof catching up on forty winks.

“It’s time,” she says, “for women to stop essayto do everything for everyone else.

“It’s past time to set aside the Superwoman markand sleep a little. I have an image of females crosswaysthe world lying peacefully napping on a sofain a library…while in a corner the angelin the House frowns for the women are dreaming not dusting.”

There are numerousformer(a)creative ideas using 40 as their inspiration, for example Amanda Coe writes a piece about her dysfunctional birthwith her father which centres around the A40 road; Tracey Thorn (former member of the band Everything but the Girl) writes about her uncomfortable relationship with the Top Forty medicamentchart; and Elizabeth Speller weaves an enchanting elegiac tale about “Plot 40” – thenecropolisreference of the narrator’s final resting place.

The whole collection reminds us not only of a bright history, but paints a alsobright future for women’s writing.

This strong showing, however, belies the continued need for a women-centric publisher, and if you are in any doubt about whereforewe still need Virago then have a look at the Guardian’s recent infographic showing the gender (im)balance of UKliteraryculture.

‘Virago is 40: A Celebration’ is available in different formats through Amazon, Apple, and other ebook retailers allowing free downloads.

Long live the creased green spine!

 

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Materials taken from Womens Views on News