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2014.0056 [PUBLICATIONS BY, CONTRIBUTED TO, OR ABOUT GERMAINE GREER]
Date Range of Records: 1970-2014
Creator(s):
- Greer, Professor Germaine [29 January 1939-]
This series comprises 13 boxes holding publications written, co-written, edited or with contributions by Germaine Greer. The series also contains books which include content about Greer, including autobiographies and social histories. The physical collection consists of 124 individual volumes, comprising 58 paperback books, 62 hardcover books and 4 journals, with publication dates from 1970 to 2014.
Bibliographic metadata has been recorded for each item, including: document type; author; date; publishing location; publisher; physical description; and ISBN, if available using bibliographic listings on OCLC WorldCat (https://www.worldcat.org/). Works can also be searched for using the consistent subject headings tagged to each item. Greer’s specific contributions to volumes (e.g. titles of articles, chapters) have been listed in the item descriptions. Germaine Greer’s detailed curriculum vitae, contained in this series as the final item (2014.0056.00125), is also a source of information on Greer’s publications.
The series contains 24 titles written, co-written or edited by Germaine Greer, comprising 31 items, including some duplicates and various editions, and including the five volumes of women’s poetry published by Greer’s publishing imprint, Stump Cross Books. Titles by Greer held in this series are The Female Eunuch (first UK and USA editions (1970), French, German and Arabic translations); The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work (1979); Sex and Destiny: The Politics of Human Fertility (1984); The Mad Woman's Underclothes (1986 hardback and 1987 paperback editions); Shakespeare (Past Masters series) (1986); Kissing the Rod: An Anthology of Seventeenth-Century Women’s Verse (1988); The Uncollected Verse of Aphra Benn (1989); Daddy, We Hardly Knew You (1989, 2 copies, one signed by Greer); The Collected Works of Katherine Philips: The Matchless Orinda. Volumes 1, 2, 3 (1990, 1992, 1993); The Change: Women, Ageing and the Menopause (1991); Slip-Shod Sibyls: Recognition, Rejection and the Woman Poet (1995); The Surviving Works of Anne Wharton (1997); The Whole Woman (1999); John Wilmot: Earl of Rochester (2000); 101 Poems by 101 Women (2001); Poems for Gardeners (2003); The Boy (2003); Quarterly Essay: Whitefella Jump Up: The Shortest Way to Nationhood (2003); Shakespeare’s Wife (2007); On Rage (2008); Lysistrata - the Sex Strike: After Aristophanes (2011, 2 copies); White Beech: The Rainforest Years (2014 edition). One copy only of each title is held, unless noted above. The Revolting Garden (1979), written under Greer’s nom de plume, Rose Blight, is not held in this series but can be found in Series 2014.0045: Major Works, Item number 2014.0045.00027.
The majority of items in this series (84, including duplicates of 3 volumes) contain contributions by Greer, including chapters and essays, introductions and forewords, reviews, interviews, articles and extracts from her books reprinted in anthologies. Most volumes contained a thin strip of paper marking Greer’s entry which has been retained within the volumes.
The subjects are diverse and encompass Greer’s scholarly work, political and social commentary, humour and perspectives on popular culture. Some of the many topics include Shakespeare, English literature and language, French literature, women artists, feminism, climate change, gardening, travel, theatre, Cuba, English politics. Selected items which indicate the range of contributions are Greer’s introduction to a bijou edition of Christina Rossetti’s The Goblin Market illustrated by Laurence Housman (1975); entries for A Dictionary of British and American Women Writers 1660-1800 (1984), written by Greer with her students from the University of Tulsa Center for the Study of Women's Literature; Greer extracts in anthologies, including British Feminist Thought: A Reader (1990);The Best Australian Essays 1999; Writers on Artists (2001); her introduction to Poems by Gay Clifford (1990); writing on poets including John Donne, Sappho, Shelley, Byron, Aphra Benn and artists Martin Creed, Tacita Dean, Paula Rego and Jane Bown; a chapter in Perspectives on Federico Fellini (1993); foreword to The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman, (on Alexandra Kollontai); reprints of ‘Stump Cross Roundabout’ columns from The Oldie. Light hearted items include her contribution to First Kisses (1990); a review of an RSC production of King Lear in The Best Australian Humorous Writing (2008); summaries of her 1988 selection for BBC Radio’s Desert Island Discs and her appearances on BBC TV’s Grumpy Old Women; her recipe for Spaghetti alla checca from the University of Tulsa’s Erudite Professors' Cookbook (1982).
The series contains a small number of items (8) which include mention of Greer, or her milieu. These comprise Let’s Hear It for the Long-Legged Women (1973 and 1974 editions), the autobiography of Paul du Feu, who was briefly married to Greer in 1968, memoirs by David Plante (2 books), Richard Neville and Mick Farren, and an extensively annotated copy of Anne Coombs’ Sex and Anarchy: The Life and Death of the Sydney Push (1996). A humorous crime novel by Ann Cornelisen, Any Four Women Could Rob the Bank of Italy (1984), is set in Tuscany and includes the expatriate "Hermione Hendricks"..."bona fide celebrity... “ author of "Put That in your Jock Strap and...", a character based on Greer? A Life magazine article on Germaine Greer: ‘Germaine Greer: An outspoken feminist who likes - and is liked by – men’ Vol. 70 (17), 7 May 1971 is located in the Annotated Reference Publications Series (2016.0137.00042).
The Transformations of Allegory (1974) by Gay Clifford, Greer’s colleague at the University of Warwick and close friend, is also located in this series (2014.056.00025). It does not contain any identified contribution by Greer but is inscribed to Greer by the author.
Of the 124 volumes, 27 have been noted as containing marginalia, annotations, underlining, inscriptions, and/or interleaved items, such as compliments slips or notes to Greer by the publication authors(s). There are 7 items in languages other than English (French, German, Arabic, Dutch, and Italian). While the majority of Greer’s works have been translated, this series holds only 3 translations, of The Female Eunuch in French, German and Arabic (this a 'bootleg' unauthorised translation); no other translated works have been located in the Archive. Series 2014.0052: Correspondence with Publishers can be consulted for records related to translations of Greer’s works.
The publications are generally in good physical condition. Some items are fragile and have been rehoused into acid free bags to aid preservation. Volumes have mainly been left in the original order in which they were boxed, with some minimal rearrangement to improve their physical storage.
14 Units (2.27m)
Collection Category: Culture and the Arts, individuals
Access Conditions: Access: Restricted
Finding Aids: Yes listed ONLINE
Online ListingGREER, Professor Germaine - Publications By, Contributed To or About Germaine Greer 2014~0056
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