[Womanbooks] Reading, Writing, and Rhythm Vol. 1, No. 5

New York: Womanbooks, 1982. Offset. Saddle-stapled in wraps. 11 pp. 5 ½ x 8 ½ in Several spots of bracketing, otherwise very good. Item #10350

Bookseller’s catalog from Womanbooks, an early feminist bookstore in New York known for its academic focus.

The store’s book catalogs began in October 1981 and continued through this issue with free distribution; later issues were available with a subscription fee, as described in the catalog. Founded by Eleanor Batchelder, Karyn London, and Fabi Romero-Oak in 1975, Womanbooks is widely considered the second feminist bookstore in New York City, after Labyris Books.

Womanbooks was first located in a superintendent’s apartment in a SRO on West 92nd Street. In 1976, the bookstore moved to a larger and more visible corner location on the ground floor of an apartment building on Amsterdam Avenue and West 92nd street, a few doors down from Joan Nestle’s apartment–the original site of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Womanbooks, reaching a wider audience than its lesbian separatist predecessor, Labyris, was known as a feminist meeting place, and a destination for visiting feminist intellectuals. The store had a wideranging selection of titles, including books on lesbian history and women’s sexuality, women of color history, women’s sports, spirituality, sexual assault, abortion, reproductive health, children’s books, and more. Womanbooks was  instrumental in shaping early Women’s Studies discourse. Store founder Eleanor Betchelder explained that “[a]ll the women’s studies women would come in, and they would all make this pilgrimage up to 92nd Street to basically spend their book budget. They’d spend hundreds of dollars each at the store.”

A scarce catalog from this important feminist bookstore, representing a wide range of feminist viewpoints. OCLC locates no physical holdings of any issues as of October 2024.

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