I have just learned from my publisher that my first book is now officially out of print and will not be republished. The book has had an amazing life – almost 33 years of being continuously in print – and I want to celebrate this. But of course I am sad that it has now passed onto wherever books go to die. Yes, it is still in libraries and many people have it on their bookshelves at home, but now that it is officially “out of print” it belongs to the past. In its thirty three years, it went through many three separate editions: the original 1975 one which was reprinted many, many times; the 1992 revised edition, which included the now infamous “Letter to the Next Generation” and the 2002 edition which included the entire original edition, the new 1992 material and a new research tool, the Time Line of Women’s Achievements.
I have many extraordinary memories of the book. Of writing it. Of it being published (the excitement of having your first book published is beyond description – although of course nothing should be beyond description for a writer!). Of having people over more than 30 years tell me what the book has meant to them. The book sold well over 100,000 copies over the past three decades and of course many more people than that read it, either borrowing it from friends or from a library. I have no way of knowing how many read it, but I do know that it is still included in university courses and that it is still borrowed from libraries. It is very gratifying to know that.
Let me share a few of these moments:
- a woman who came up to me at a conference in Perth a few years ago and told me that Damned Whores was the first book she ever read in English, a language she struggled to learn after arriving in Australia as a migrant
- Shane Gould, the swimmer, telling me once that when she had a big clean up of her bookshelves in the late 1990s, she found she could not bring herself to throw out her battered copy of Damned Whores.
- Countless women have told me over the years that the book opened their eyes to so many things about Australia, and changed many aspects of their lives.
- In recent years, young people – mostly, but not always, women – tell me their mothers had the book on her shelves and then they were required to read it at university.
- I always get a thrill when I see the phrase “damned whores and god’s police” used in print, not quoting my book as such, but using a phrase that has now gone into the language
Writing the book is still the thing in my life of which I am most proud. If you want to tell me anything about your experience of reading the book, or of its impact on you or someone you know, please leave a comment.
And if you want to be reminded of what the various editions of the book look(ed) like, go to my website http://www.annesummers.com.au/dwagp.htm.
1 April 2008 …. could this be an April Fools’ Day hoax?
While you’re celebrating, somebody just left this comment on John Quiggin’s blog – in a discussion about Howard and Keating:
The Right really started to hate Keating when he became PM. He defeated their champion John Hewson against all odds; he legislated for Native Title; he made the famous speech at Redfern Park; he employed Anne Summers – the very embodiment of 70s feminism (read: dismemberment of the Traditional Family) – on his staff; and he courted the arts crowd. These were the acts that stoked the hatred that still burns today.
Wow, I did not realise I was that powerful! No longer the case, of course. I did not get invited to the 2020 Summit
And now God’s Police have made a spectacular comeback at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery!!!
And the National Gallery of Australia and several regional galleries. Where do the police get off visiting art galleries and demanding to inspect works in case they are “obscene”? This is fascism.