SCUM Manifesto - Publication History

Publication History

Solanas began drafting the SCUM Manifesto as early as 1959 or 1960. In 1967, she self-published the first edition by making two thousand mimeographed copies and selling them on the streets of Greenwich Village in New York City. Solanas charged women one dollar and men two dollars each. By the following spring, about 400 copies had been sold.

The first commercial edition of the Manifesto was published by Olympia Press in New York in 1968. It includes a preface by Maurice Girodias and an essay titled "Wonder Waif Meets Super Neuter" by Paul Krassner. According to Sharon Jansen, there are subtle differences between the 1968 Olympia Press edition and Solanas' original mimeographed version. In an interview with The Village Voice, Solanas commented on the Olympia Press edition, complaining that "none of the corrections ... wanted made were included and that many other changes in wording were made—all for the worse—and that there were many 'typographical errors': words and even extended parts of sentences left out, rendering the passages they should've been in incoherent." In 1977, Solanas self-published a "correct" edition which was closer to the original version and included an introduction written by herself.

The SCUM Manifesto has been reprinted at least ten times in English and translated into Croatian, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Danish. It has also been excerpted in several feminist anthologies, including Sisterhood Is Powerful, a collection of radical feminist writing edited by Robin Morgan. Verso Books published an edition in 2004 with an introduction by feminist philosopher Avital Ronell. Jon Purkis and James Bowen describe the SCUM Manifesto as a "pamphlet which has become one of the longest surviving perennials of anarchist publishing".

Solanas's sister, Judith A. Solanas Martinez, is the reported copyright holder of the SCUM Manifesto by 1997 renewal.

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