It's time for Books from the Backlog, hosted by
Carole's Random Life in Books. It's a fun way to feature some of those neglected books sitting on your
bookshelf unread. If you are anything like me, you might be surprised
by some of the unread books hiding in your stacks . . . or on your eReader.
This week's neglected book is . . .
Release Date: March 22, 2016
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
From Goodreads:
In the spirit of The Paris Wife and Loving Frank,
the provocative and compelling story of one of the most fascinating and
influential figures of the twentieth century: Margaret Sanger, the
founder of Planned Parenthood—an indomitable woman who, more than any
other, and at great personal cost, shaped the sexual landscape we
inhabit today.
The daughter of a hard-drinking, smooth-tongued
free thinker and a mother worn down by thirteen children, Margaret
Sanger vowed her life would be different. Trained as a nurse, she fought
for social justice beside labor organizers, anarchists, socialists, and
other progressives, eventually channeling her energy to one singular
cause: legalizing contraception. It was a battle that would pit her
against puritanical, patriarchal lawmakers, send her to prison again and
again, force her to flee to England, and ultimately change the lives of
women across the country and around the world.
This complex
enigmatic revolutionary was at once vain and charismatic, generous and
ruthless, sexually impulsive and coolly calculating—a competitive,
self-centered woman who championed all women, a conflicted mother who
suffered the worst tragedy a parent can experience. From opening the
first illegal birth control clinic in America in 1916 through the
founding of Planned Parenthood to the arrival of the Pill in the 1960s,
Margaret Sanger sacrificed two husbands, three children, and scores of
lovers in her fight for sexual equality and freedom.
With cameos
by such legendary figures as Emma Goldman, John Reed, Big Bill Haywood,
H. G. Wells, and the love of Margaret’s life, Havelock Ellis, this
richly imagined portrait of a larger-than-life woman is at once
sympathetic to her suffering and unsparing of her faults. Deeply
insightful, Terrible Virtue is Margaret Sanger’s story as she herself might have told it.
Why I selected it: I enjoy historical fiction about famous characters, and as a native New Yorker, I view Margaret Sanger and her clinic in Greenwich Village as legendary elements in the City's efforts toward progressiveness and social justice. When the book was first published, I heard the author speak about Sanger and her passions, and the research undertaken to write this fictional account of a woman who championed women's rights at great personal cost. The copy on my shelf is on extended loan from a friend.
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