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The Girls Who Went Away

The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade

Author Ann Fessler
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Paperback
$18.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
On sale Jun 26, 2007 | 368 Pages | 978-0-14-303897-9
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The astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade.

“It would take a heart of stone not to be moved by the oral histories of these women and by the courage and candor with which they express themselves.” —The Washington Post

“A remarkably well-researched and accomplished book.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A wrenching, riveting book.” —Chicago Tribune

In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the hidden social history of adoption before Roe v. Wade - and its lasting legacy. An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.
The Girls Who Went Away1. My Own Story as an Adoptee
2. Breaking the Silence
Dorothy II
Annie
3. Good Girls v. Bad Girls
Nancy I
Claudia
4. Discovery and Shame
Marge
Yvonne
5. The Family's Fears
Jeanette
Ruth
6. Going Away
Karen I
Pam
7. Birth and Surrender
Margaret
Leslie
8. The Aftermath
Susan III
Madeline
9. Search and Reunion
Susan II
Jennifer
10. Talking and Listening
Lydia
Linda I
11. Every Mother but My Own
Afterword
A Note on the Interviews
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
  • WINNER
    National Book Critics Circle Awards
Ann Fessler is professor of photography at Rhode Island School of Design and a specialist in video-installation art. She won a prestigious Radcliffe Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, for 2004, to complete her extensive research for this book. She is also the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the LEF Foundation, Boston; the Rhode Island Foundation; the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities; Art Matters, New York; and the Maryland State Arts Council. An adoptee herself, she begins and ends the book with the story of her own successful quest to find her birth mother. View titles by Ann Fessler

About

The astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade.

“It would take a heart of stone not to be moved by the oral histories of these women and by the courage and candor with which they express themselves.” —The Washington Post

“A remarkably well-researched and accomplished book.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A wrenching, riveting book.” —Chicago Tribune

In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the hidden social history of adoption before Roe v. Wade - and its lasting legacy. An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail.

Table of Contents

The Girls Who Went Away1. My Own Story as an Adoptee
2. Breaking the Silence
Dorothy II
Annie
3. Good Girls v. Bad Girls
Nancy I
Claudia
4. Discovery and Shame
Marge
Yvonne
5. The Family's Fears
Jeanette
Ruth
6. Going Away
Karen I
Pam
7. Birth and Surrender
Margaret
Leslie
8. The Aftermath
Susan III
Madeline
9. Search and Reunion
Susan II
Jennifer
10. Talking and Listening
Lydia
Linda I
11. Every Mother but My Own
Afterword
A Note on the Interviews
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

Awards

  • WINNER
    National Book Critics Circle Awards

Author

Ann Fessler is professor of photography at Rhode Island School of Design and a specialist in video-installation art. She won a prestigious Radcliffe Fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, for 2004, to complete her extensive research for this book. She is also the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the LEF Foundation, Boston; the Rhode Island Foundation; the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities; Art Matters, New York; and the Maryland State Arts Council. An adoptee herself, she begins and ends the book with the story of her own successful quest to find her birth mother. View titles by Ann Fessler

Additional formats

  • The Girls Who Went Away
    The Girls Who Went Away
    The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade
    Ann Fessler
    978-1-101-64429-4
    Ebook
    Penguin Books
    Jun 26, 2007
  • The Girls Who Went Away
    The Girls Who Went Away
    The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade
    Ann Fessler
    978-1-101-64429-4
    Ebook
    Penguin Books
    Jun 26, 2007
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