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Call No.: 2008-M50; T-439
Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: Persephone Press
Title: Records, 1974-1983
Quantity: 8 cartons, 1 folio+ box, 1 oversize box, 1 folio photograph folder
Abstract: Records of Persephone Press, an independent publishing company specializing in lesbian and feminist literature.

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HISTORY

Persephone Press was founded in 1976 in Watertown, Massachusetts, by a lesbian-feminist collective called Pomegranate Productions. Its first publication, The Feminist Tarot, helped subsidize the first National Women's Spirituality Conference, Through the Looking Glass, held in Boston in April 1976. The goal of Persephone Press was to produce innovative material to foster lesbian sensibility and to effect social change by building a successful publishing company and communications network. Two of its three founders, Gloria Z. Greenfield and Pat McGloin, served as financial administrator and director of marketing respectively. Persephone Press was sold to Beacon Press in 1983.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

Collection includes correspondence and other office files; publication lists; articles, reviews, promotional material; financial records; correspondence, flyers, etc., from the 1976 Through the Looking Glass Conference; tee-shirts; audiotapes; slides; etc.

Unprocessed records may contain documents with dates earlier or later than those noted in this record. Records are left as received from donor.

INVENTORY

• Carton 1. Incoming correspondence (bound photocopies), 1976 - June 1982; scrapbook

• Carton 2. Incoming correspondence (bound photocopies), July 1982-1983; outgoing correspondence (bound photocopies), 1976 - Aug. 1981

• Carton 3. Outgoing correspondence (bound photocopies), Sept. 1981-1983; incoming correspondence (originals), A-K

• Carton 4. Incoming correspondence (originals), L-Z; publication history; articles re: Persephone Press; Persephone Press promotional material (includes reviews, interviews, etc.), 1980-1983

• Carton 5. Promotional material: readings, conferences, reviews, etc.; contracts, copyright registrations, ISBN forms; Snow litigation files

• Carton 6. Snow litigation files; purchase of PP by Beacon Press, 1983; meeting notes, 1979-1982; special reports, 1979-1983; in-house memorandum, 1979-82; articles of incorporation and other legal files; tax and financial records; embosser

• Carton 7. Pomegranate Productions events, including Through the Looking Glass, 1976; photographs; tee-shirts, banner

• Carton 8. Audiovisual material (audiocassettes unless otherwise noted):
  • Olivia interview with Gloria Z. Greenfield, Los Angeles, CA, July 14, 1977 (1)
  • Holly Near/Amy Horowitz with GZG, Los Angeles, CA, July 15, 1977 (1)
  • Amy Horowitz/GZG, July 19, 1977 (1)
  • Maxine Feldman with GZG, Boston, MA, Nov. 6, 1977 (1)
  • Alix Dobkin/Liza Cowan with GZG, Sept. 10, 1978, Watertown, MA (1)
  • Alice Bloch, Cambridge, Oct. 18, 1981 (1)
  • Irena Kleptisz with GZG, Nov. 20, 1982 (1)
    • Side 1. Listen to audio file.
    • Side 2. Listen to audio file.
  • Irena Kleptisz introduced by Adrienne Rich, Nov. 21, 1982 (1)
    • Side 1. Listen to audio file.
    • Side 2. Listen to audio file.
  • Pat Parker, Cherrie Moraga, Jan Clausen, Michelle Cliff, Judy Grahn (1)
    • Side 1. Listen to audio file.
    • Side 2. Listen to audio file.
  • M.F. Hershman, Adrienne Rich, Paula Gunn Allen (1)
    • Side 1. Listen to audio file.
  • Barbara Smith, Elly Bulkin, Joan Larkin, Audre Lorde, Robin Becker (1)
    • Side 1. Listen to audio file.
    • Side 2. Listen to audio file.
  • Tel Aviv Women's Center (2)
  • 1 reel-to-reel audiotape: Robin Morgan's poetry reading, Rochester, NY, 1974
  • 2 reel-to-reel audiotapes: Matriarch (WBUR, Boston, MA, 3/8/76)
  • Arise: script, 1 reel-to-reel audiotape, 3 slide carousels (c.325 slides)

• Folio + Box 9. Persephone Press ledger, 1979-1983

• Oversize Box 10. Promotional boards for PP publications

Additional catalog entries