Writing Red: An Anthology of American Women Writers, 1930-1940

This comprehensive collection of fiction, poetry, and reportage by revolutionary women of the 1930s lays to rest the charge that feminism disappeared after 1920. Among the thirty-six writers are Muriel Rukeyser, Margaret Walker, Josephine Herbst, Tillie Olsen, Tess Slesinger, Agnes Smedley, and Meridel Le Sueur. Other voices may be new to readers, including many working-class black and white women. The topics range from sexuality and family relationships to race, class, and patriarchy to party politics. Toni Morrison writes that the anthology is “peopled with questioning, caring, socially committed women writers.”