Since the early 1960s, Morgan has been a key radical feminist member of the American Women's Movement, and a leader in the international feminist movement. Her 1970 anthology Sisterhood Is Powerful has been widely credited with helping to start the general women's movement in the US, and was cited by the New York Public Library as "One of the 100 most influential Books of the 20th Century," along with those of Freud and Marx.[1] She has written more than 20 books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and is also known as the editor of Ms. Magazine.[2]
During the 1960s, she participated in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements; in the late 1960s she was a founding member of radical feminist organizations such as New York Radical Women and W.I.T.C.H. She founded or co-founded the Feminist Women's Health Network, the National Battered Women's Refuge Network, Media Women, the National Network of Rape Crisis Centers, the Feminist Writers' Guild, the Women's Foreign Policy Council, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Sisterhood Is Global Institute, GlobalSister.org, and Greenstone Women's Radio Network. She also co-founded the Women's Media Center with activist Gloria Steinem and actor/activist Jane Fonda.
Morgan was born on January 29, 1941 in Lake Worth, Florida. Her biological father in effect abandoned her mother and the infant. Her mother, Faith Berkeley Morgan,[3] raised her in Mount Vernon, New York.[4] Her mother and aunt started her as a child model when she was a toddler. In 1945 she had her own radio program on New York station WOR titled The Little Robin Morgan Show, which broadcast nationally. She was also a regular on the panel show Juvenile Jury.[4]
Morgan, bottom far right, playing the youngest child Dagmar in Mama
She did guest starring work during the "Golden Age of Television" on such live dramas as Omnibus, Suspense, Danger, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Robert Montgomery Presents, Tales of Tomorrow, and Kraft Theatre, and starred in such "spectaculars" as Kiss and Tell and Alice in Wonderland. She worked with directors such as Sidney Lumet, John Frankenheimer, Ralph Nelson, and writers such as Paddy Chayefsky and Rod Serling, and such actors as Boris Karloff, Rosalind Russell, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Cliff Robertson.[5]
She started her most famous acting role at the age of seven/eight when she was cast as Dagmar Hansen, the youngest sister in the TV series Mama. The show, which starred Peggy Wood, premiered nationally on CBS in 1949. She left Mama at age 14, having wanted since age 4 to write rather than act, and then fought her mother's efforts to keep her in show business.[4] She graduated from the Wetter School in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1956, and then was privately tutored from 1956 to 1959.[6] She published her earliest serious poetry in literary magazines at age 17.[5]
Adult career[]
As she entered adulthood, Morgan continued her education as a nonmatriculating student at Columbia University. She began working as a secretary at Curtis Brown Literary Agency. Famed poet W. H. Auden was among the writers she met there in the early 1960s, and around that time she also began publishing her own poetry (later collected in her 1972 debut book of poems, Monster). Throughout the next decades, along with political activism and lecturing at colleges and universities on feminism, she continued to write and publish prose and poetry.[5]
In 1962 she married poet Kenneth Pitchford.[4] Her son, Blake Morgan, was born in 1969. She worked as an editor at Grove Press and was involved in the attempt to unionize the publishing industry; Grove summarily fired her and other union sympathizers. She led a seizure and occupation of Grove Press offices in the spring of 1970, protesting the union-busting as well as dishonest accounting of royalties to Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow. She and 8 other women were arrested.[5]
In the mid 1970s, she became a Contributing Editor to Ms. Magazine, continuing there as a part- or fulltime editor for the next 2 decades, and serving as editor-in-chief from 1989 to 1994. In 1990 she relaunched the magazine as an international ad-free bimonthly publication, leading to a series of awards.[6][7]
She has been a Guest Professor or Scholar in Residence at a variety of academic institutions. In 1973 she was a Guest Chair for Feminist Studies at New College of Florida, and The Center for Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture at Rutgers University hosted her as a visiting professor in 1987. She was a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Residence, Literary and Cultural Studies at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand in 1989. She later was a visiting professor in residence at the University of Denver, Colorado, in 1996. In 2000, she then became a visiting professor at the University of Bologna in Italy, at their Center for Documentation on Women.[6]
Activism[]
By 1962 she started to become extremely active in the anti-war Left, and contributed articles and poetry to Left-wing and counter-culture journals such as Liberation, Rat, Win, and The Guardian (US).[5]
In the late 1960s Morgan became increasingly involved in American justice movement groups. In 1967 she became active in the Youth International Party (known in the media as the "Yippies") with Abbie Hoffman and Paul Krassner. However, tensions over sexism within YIP (and the New Left in general) came to a head while Morgan was becoming more involved in Women's Liberation activism and contemporary feminism.[5]
She became a founding member of the short-lived New York Radical Women group in fall of 1967, and a key organizer of their September 1968 inaugural protest of the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.[3] Also in 1968 she helped to create W.I.T.C.H., a radical feminist group that used public street theater (called "hexes" or "zaps") to call attention to sexism. Morgan designed the universal symbol of the women’s movement, the woman’s symbol centered with a raised fist. She also coined the term “herstory.”[8][9]
With the royalties from her anthology Sisterhood Is Powerful (1970), Morgan founded the first feminist fund in the US, The Sisterhood Is Powerful Fund, which provided seed money grants to many early women's groups throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Like many radical feminists, Morgan made a decisive break from what they described as the "male Left."[10] She led the women's takeover of the underground newspaper Rat in 1970,[11] and put the reasons for her break in the first women's issue of the paper, in an essay titled "Goodbye to All That." The essay gained notoriety in the press for naming supposedly sexist leftist men and institutions. During the Democratic primaries for the presidential race in 2008, Morgan wrote a fiery "Goodbye To All That #2" in defense of Hillary Rodham Clinton.[5] The article quickly became viral on the internet for lambasting sexist rhetoric directed towards Clinton by the media.[11]
To interview women for her writing and to bring attention to cross-cultural sexism, she has traveled to meet with rebel fighters in the Philippines, Brazilian women activists in the slumbs/favelas of Rio, women in the townships of South Africa, and post-revolutionary Iranian women.[3] In 1986 and 1989 she also spent some months in the Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, West Bank, and Gaza, where she reported on the conditions for women. She has also lectured and spoke at universities and institutions in countries across Europe, Australia, Brazil, the Caribbean, Central America, China, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, Pacific Island nations, the Philippines, and South Africa.[6]
The Feminist Majority Foundation named her "Woman of the Year" in 1990. In 1992 she was given the Warrior Woman Award for Promoting Racial Understanding from Asian American Women's National Organization. She was also given a Lifetime Achievement in Human Rights from Equality Now in 2002. In 2003 The Feminist Press gave her a "Femmy" Award for "service to literature,"[6] and she received the Humanist Heroine Award from The American Humanist Association in 2007.[12]
Limbaugh FCC incident
In March 2012 Morgan, along with her Women's Media Center co-founders Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem, wrote an open letter asking listeners to request that the FCC investigate the Rush Limbaugh - Sandra Fluke controversy,[13] where Limbaugh referred to Sandra Fluke as a "slut" and "prostitute" after she advocated for free contraception.[14] They asked that stations licensed for public airwaves carrying Limbaugh be held accountable for contravening public interest as a continual promoter of hate speech against various minority and disempowered groups.[15]
In 1970, she edited the first anthology of feminist writings, Sisterhood Is Powerful. The compilation included classic feminist essays by activists such as Naomi Weisstein, Kate Millett, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Flo Kennedy, Frances Beale, Jo Freeman and Mary Daly, as well as historical documents including the N.O.W. Bill of Rights, excerpts from the SCUM Manifesto, the Redstockings Manifesto, and historical documents from W.I.T.C.H.. The varied topics included female orgasm, the lives of radical lesbians, the difficulties of being female and black, and the nature of prostitution.[3] The anthology has been widely credited with helping to start the general Women's Movement in the US. It was cited by the New York Public Library as "One of the 100 most influential Books of the 20th Century".[1]
Her followup volume in 1984, Sisterhood Is Global, compiled articles about women in over seventy countries. That same year she founded the Sisterhood Is Global Institute, notable for being the first international feminist think tank. Repeatedly refusing the post of president, she was elected secretary of the organization from 1989 to 1993, was VP from 1993 to 1997, and after serving on the advisory board, finally agreed to become president in 2004.[16] A third volume, Sisterhood Is Forever in 2003, was a collection of articles by well-known feminists, both young and "vintage," in a retrospective on and future blueprint for the feminist movement.[3]
Journalism[]
Morgan's articles, essays, reviews, profiles, interviews, political analyses, and investigative journalism have appeared widely in publications such as Amazon Quarterly, The Atlantic, Broadsheet, Chrysalis, Essence, Equal Times, Everywoman, Feminist Art Journal, The Guardian (US), The Guardian (UK), Hudson Review, The Los Angeles Times, Ms., The New Republic, The New York Times, Off Our Backs, Pacific Ways, The Second Wave]], Sojourner, The Village Voice, The Voice of Women, various United Nations' periodicals, etc. Articles and essays have also appeared in reprint in international media, in English across the
Commonwealth, and in translation in 13 languages in Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Asia.[17]
Morgan has written for online audiences and blogged frequently. Among her best known articles are "Letters from Ground Zero" (written and posted after 9/11 -- which went viral), "Goodbye To All That #2", "Women of the Arab Spring," "When Bad News is Good News: Notes of a Feminist News Junkie,” “Manhood and Moral Waivers,” and "Faith Healing: A Modest Proposal on Religious Fundamentalism." The last 5 and other examples of her online work are hosted in the archives of The Women's Media Center.
Since the 1970s Morgan has continued in her writing, editing, publishing, and feminist organizing.[4] Her writing has been translated into 13 languages.
Private life[]
Morgan lives in Manhattan.[6] Her son (with former husband Kenneth Pitchford) is musician and recording artist Blake Morgan. She has been open about having romantic relationships with both men and women since the 1960s. While she has identified her religion as both atheist and Wiccan, she is "deeply opposed to all patriarchal religions.”[3]
Writing[]
Poetry[]
According to a 1972 review of her debut book of poems Monster in The Washington Post, "[These poems] establish Morgan as a poet of considerable means. There is a savage elegance, a richness of vocabulary, a thrust and steely polish. . . . A powerful, challenging book."[18]
A review of her 1991 book Upstairs in the Garden noted “As a vindication and celebration of the female experience, these inventive poems successfully wed feminist rhetoric with vivid imagery and sensitivity to the music of language.” [19] Two books of poems, Lady of the Beasts and Depth Perception, earned a review in Poetry Magazine by Jay Parini, stating "Robin Morgan will soon be regarded as one of our first-ranking poets."[20]
Fiction[]
Her 1987 novel Dry Your Smile was somewhat autobiographical, following the life of fictional feminist Julian Travis. Like Morgan, Travis is a former child actor who escapes into a bohemian marriage with a gay man and later falls in love with a woman.[21]
She published a historical novel, The Burning Time in 2006. It follows a woman fighting the Inquisition, and is drawn from court records of the 1st witchcraft trial in Ireland, involving Lady Alyce Kyteler of Kilkenny. The novel was placed on the Recommended Quality Fiction List of 2007 by the American Library Association.[22] Her most recent non-fiction book is Fighting Words: A Tool Kit for Combating the Religious Right.[17]
Quotations[]
"The personal is political."
Sisterhood Is Powerful, Introduction
"Only she who attempts the absurd can achieve the impossible."
Sisterhood Is Global, Introduction
"There's something contagious about demanding freedom."
"We are the women men warned us about."
"If I had to characterize one quality as the genius of patriarchal thought, it would be compartmentalization. If I had to characterize one quality as the genius of feminist thought, culture, and action, it would be connectivity."
"Pornography is the theory, and rape is the practice. And what a practice. The violation of an individual woman is the metaphor for man's forcing himself on whole nations [...], on nonhuman creatures [...], and on the planet itself [...]."
"Theory and Practice: Pornography and Rape", 1974 in Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist
"I am an artist and a political being as well. My aim has been to forge these two concerns into an integrity which affirms language, art, craft, form, beauty, tragedy, and audacity with the needs and vision of women, as part of an emerging new culture which could enrich us all."[23]
Recognition[]
In 1991, she was awarded for Editorial Excellence by Utne Reader, and also was given the Exceptional Merit in Journalism Award by the National Women's Political Caucus.[6]
From 1979 to 1980 the National Endowment for the Arts awarded her a Literature Grant in Poetry. She then held a writing residency at Yaddo in 1980. A year later she was given the Front Page Award for Distinguished Journalism for her cover story in Ms. Magazine titled "The First Feminist Exiles from the USSR."[6] She was awarded Ford Foundation Grants in 1982, 1983, and 1984 to help fund work on Sisterhood Is Global.[6]
The Mer-Child: A New Legend for Children and Other Adults (illustrated by Jessica Spicer-Zerner). New York: The Feminist Press, 1991. ISBN 978-1-55861-054-5
The Burning Time: A novel. Hoboken, NJ: Melville House, 2006. ISBN 1-933633-00-X
Nonfiction[]
Goodbye to All That. Pittsburgh, PA: Know Inc., [1971?]
Lesbianism and Feminism: Synonyms or contradictions?. Pittsburgh, PA: Know Inc., 1973.
Sisterhood Is Forever: The women's anthology for a new millennium. New York: Washington Square Press, 2003. ISBN 0-7434-6627-6
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[24]
Plays[]
"In Another Country" (debut performance, Ascension Drama Series, New York, 1960)
"The Duel." A verse play, published as "A Masque" in her book Depth Perception (debut perf. Joseph Papp's New Shakespeare Festival Public Theater, New York, 1979)
Audio / video[]
Film[]
1940s
Citizen Saint: The Life of Mother Cabrini (playing Francesca S. Cabrini as a child)
The Little Robin Morgan Show as herself (WOR radio show)
Juvenile Jury as herself
1950s
Mama as Dagmar Hansen
Alice in Wonderland (as Alice)
Mr. I-Magination (as self)
Tales of Tomorrow (starring as Lily)
Kiss and Tell TV Special (starring as Corliss Archer, 1956)
Other videos and kinescopes in the Robin Morgan Collection at the Paley Center for Media, NYC
Other
Not A Love Story: A film About pornography [Feature length Documentary] (as herself) (1981)
1968 TV Documentary with Tom Brokaw (as herself) (2007)
The American Experience TV Documentary (as herself) (2002)
United States
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