Description:
The Virago Story provides a comprehensive history of classic feminist publisher Virago, along with an up-to-date analysis of the four waves of feminism, new strands of feminist analysis and praxis, and publishing trends.
Brief description:
Catherine Riley received her doctorate from Birkbeck College. Her research focuses on trends in gender theory and praxis, particularly as it applies to publishing and social change.
Review Quotes:
"Riley gives excellent detail of the difficulties Virago faced in being at once a radical, political committed feminist enterprise and a successful commercial publisher...Riley's book serves as a valuable addition to a growing scholarship of this period of British feminism and will provoke some sentimental recognition in any reader who has a treasured pile of green spines on their shelves." - Cercles
"Riley's book does a terrific job of laying out the context in which Virago first appeared and its transformations over time. Not only does it evocatively capture a historical moment, but it also serves as an important case study in business history, provides a critical intellectual history of feminism, and even alters our understanding of the book itself." - Jennifer Scanlon, Bowdoin College
"Scholars in the fields of book history, publishing studies, and gender studies will welcome the arrival of this book-an important and long overdue study charting how one of the world's most established feminist presses not only survived but also found ways to adapt and thrive in a radically restructured political and publishing landscape." - Kate Eichhorn, The New School