The Secret History Of Wonder Woman

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Commanding a vast and wildly passionate following, Wonder Woman has never been out of print in seven decades. She appeared in 1941, a liberated and powerful female superhero at a time when women’s role models were stiflingly conservative. Her creator was American psychologist William Moulton Marston, who was inspired by legends of the warrior princesses of the Amazon and by early feminists, starting with the famous suffragist Emmeline Pankhurst. Marston was also influenced by the women in his own life, including Sadie Holloway, the spirited young British girl who would later become his wife. Through extensive research, New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore paints a compelling portrait of Marston, revealing him to have been talented and charismatic, but also deeply conflicted. He wrote a column celebrating conventional family life — but practised extraordinary sexual nonconformity, with his wife and mistress under the same roof. The inventor of the lie detector, he lived a life of secrets — which he then spilled on the pages of the Wonder Woman comics he wrote. In this gripping work of pop culture history, Lepore argues that Wonder Woman is the missing link in understanding the struggle for women’s rights. The Secret History of Wonder Women is not only a compelling revisionist history, it’s a rollicking good read and is packed with stunning archival illustrations and photos.