"IF THERE’S A LIST OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY, FEMININE MYSTIQUE IS ON IT"

FRIEDAN, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: W.W. Norton, (1963). Octavo, original half navy cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $1200.

First edition of Friedan's electrifying and still controversial work—"widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century."

Nothing short of revolutionary, Friedan's Feminine Mystique "ignited the contemporary women's movement in 1963 and as a result permanently transformed the social fabric of the U.S. and countries around the world… With its impassioned yet clear-eyed analysis of the issues that affected women's lives in the decades after WWII—including enforced domesticity, limited career prospects and, as chronicled in later editions, the campaign for legalized abortion—Feminine Mystique is widely regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century… Friedan identifies, dissects and damningly indicts one of the most pervasive folk beliefs of postwar American life: the myth of suburban women's domestic fulfillment she came to call the feminine mystique." Her book is, in many ways, even more controversial today than when first published, in part for its exclusionary focus on middle- and upper-class white women. For perhaps other reasons, it "made one conservative magazine's exclusive roundup of the '10 most harmful books of the 19th and 20th centuries,' which if not flattering is at least a testimony to the wallop it packed… If there's a list of the most important books of the 20th century, Feminine Mystique is on it" (New York Times). First edition, first printing book with full number line; second issue dust jacket with quote by Virgilia Peterson on front panel, $5.95 on front flap. Owner inkstamps to preliminary blank and dedication page. Bookseller notation.

Book fine; light edge-wear to near-fine dust jacket.