Why Women Cry, or Wenches with Wrenches / Elizabeth Hawes

Name/Title

Why Women Cry, or Wenches with Wrenches / Elizabeth Hawes

Entry/Object ID

2019.4.38

Description

xviii, 221 p. "Elizabeth Hawes was a fashion designer, unusual in that she was deeply involved in left-wing politics and saw design in political terms. Her first book, Fashion is Spinach, was a best selling expose of the fashion business. She was later the editor of the News for Living section of the progresive newspaper PM. There she transformed the tradition women's page into one that focused on education ,consumer issues, and affordable, but stylish living. "Realizing her need for some firsthand experience of ordinary working life, Hawes took a night-shift hob as a grinder at the Wright Aeronautical plant in Paterson, new Jersey, an experience that formed the basis of Why Women Cry, or Wenches with Wrenches (1943). Here, in one of the rare war plant diaries to rise above propaganda, Hawes laid out a 'bread and roses' platform of radical proportions."" Bettina Berch in Encyclopedia of the American Left.

Collection

Kathleen V. Roberts Collection of Decorated Publishers' Bindings

Lexicon

Search Terms

1940s

Dimensions

Height

8-1/2 in

Width

5-3/4 in

Book Details

Author

Elizabeth Hawes

Edition

First

Publisher

Reynal & Hitchcock

Date Published

1943

Binding

Binding Type

Publisher's Binding

Binding Designer

Alexey Brodovitch

Binding Notes

Bound in stiff coated paper over flexible boards with a black cloth spine. Cover title and author in raised typography. Marvelous black Picasso-inspired turquoise and white lithographed endpapers depicting heads of bulls, also designed by Brodovitch. Signed AB on endpapers.

Exhibition

Lobby Case Aug 2020 - Nov 2020