Virago Story

Catherine Riley received her doctorate from Birkbeck College. Her research focuses on trends in gender theory and praxis, particularly as it applies to publishing and social change.

“Riley gives excellent detail of the difficulties Virago faced in being at once a radical, political committed feminist enterprise and a successful commercial publisher…Riley’s book serves as a valuable addition to a growing scholarship of this period of British feminism and will provoke some sentimental recognition in any reader who has a treasured pile of green spines on their shelves.” • Cercles“Riley's book does a terrific job of laying out the context in which Virago first appeared and its transformations over time. Not only does it evocatively capture a historical moment, but it also serves as an important case study in business history, provides a critical intellectual history of feminism, and even alters our understanding of the book itself.” • Jennifer Scanlon, Bowdoin College“Scholars in the fields of book history, publishing studies, and gender studies will welcome the arrival of this book—an important and long overdue study charting how one of the world’s most established feminist presses not only survived but also found ways to adapt and thrive in a radically restructured political and publishing landscape.” • Kate Eichhorn, The New School

• AcknowledgementsIntroductionPART I: 1973-1983Chapter 1. Virago’s Hands-on Brand of FeminismChapter 2. Changing the Literary LandscapePART II: 1983-1994Chapter 3. ‘Alternative, Autonomous, and Viable’: Feminist Publishing and the MainstreamChapter 4. Fragmenting Feminism and Diversifying Women’s WritingPART III: 1994-2004Chapter 5. Working Women and the Changing Face(s) of the Book IndustryChapter 6. Third Waves and DisconnectionsPART IV: 2004-2017Chapter 7. Virago’s Place in the New Millennium’s Literary MarketplaceChapter 8. Twenty-First Century Feminism(s) and Virago’s Role for Women’s WritingConclusionBibliographyIndex