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Partisan Review (Vol. 43, No. 1) — William Phillips (ed.)
William Phillips, editor · Various Contributors
Partisan Review, Inc. · New York · 1976
First Edition · First Printing · Original Publication of Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers”
The Book:
The original 1976 First Edition · First Printing of Partisan Review, Volume XLIII, Number 1, containing the original publication of Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers” on pages 17–37. Later that year, Rich revised the essay into Chapter III of Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, one of the defining feminist works of the decade. The issue also opens with William Phillips’s “Hannah Arendt and Lionel Trilling,” followed by reflections on Arendt from Hans Jonas and Frank Kermode, and includes work by Harold Brodkey, Lewis Coser, Robert Lekachman, Rosalind Krauss, Christina Stead, David Denby, Gilbert Sorrentino, and others. 160 pp. Original teal, black, and cream printed wrappers retain the $2.50 price.
Condition:
Near Fine. Original wrappers remain complete, flat, square, and firmly attached, with strong, unfaded teal and black printing. Cream portions of the front wrapper show noticeable age toning, particularly along the margins and lower central area, with light surface soiling, minor rubbing, and slight edge and corner wear. Spine remains straight, complete, and fully legible with minor extremity wear. Binding is tight and structurally sound. Interior remains notably clean and bright, with mild age toning and no significant foxing, staining, annotation, ownership marks, tears, or detached leaves observed.
Story Of The Book
Before Adrienne Rich’s argument about motherhood and patriarchy became part of one of the decade’s major feminist books, it appeared here.
In “The Kingdom of the Fathers,” Rich examines patriarchy as more than men exercising power over women. She traces a larger structure built through family, property, motherhood, economic dependence, religion, and ideas about what female power was allowed to look like.
Her question was not simply whether motherhood mattered. It was what happened when institutions took motherhood—a deeply human experience—and organized it around systems of authority and dependency.
Later in 1976, Rich published Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. “The Kingdom of the Fathers,” revised and expanded, became its third chapter.
And Rich’s essay did not appear in isolation. This issue opens with William Phillips, Hans Jonas, and Frank Kermode reflecting on Hannah Arendt, placing Rich’s developing feminist critique inside a broader conversation about power, political thought, culture, and intellectual responsibility.
This is the argument before it became the book.
Why It’s In The Collection
Partisan Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 1 belongs in Consigned to Darkness because important ideas rarely arrive fully formed. Sometimes the publication event lets us see them being built.
Rich was examining how power can operate through institutions so familiar that they seem natural: family, property, motherhood, economic dependence, and inherited expectations about women’s roles.
That makes this issue particularly valuable to the collection. It preserves the argument before later revision gave it the permanence and visibility of Of Woman Born.
The surrounding journal strengthens the object further. Partisan Review was one of the major American forums in which literature, politics, criticism, and intellectual dissent met one another, and this issue places Rich’s feminist analysis beside serious consideration of Hannah Arendt and other questions of political and cultural power.
Before the chapter, there was the essay. Before the finished book, there was the argument still taking shape.
Collection Categories: Publication-Event Object · Feminist Classics · Women’s History & Feminism · Political Movements · Political History · Anti-Authoritarianism · Graphic & Literary Periodicals · Literature
———
Authentication Evidence
Front wrapper identifies the publication as Partisan Review, issue 1, dated 1976.
Front wrapper retains the original $2.50 price.
Interior contents page explicitly identifies the issue as “PR / 1976 – VOLUME XLIII NUMBER 1.”
Contents page identifies Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers” beginning on page 17.
The essay itself begins on page 17 under the heading “The Kingdom of the Fathers / Adrienne Rich.”
Adrienne Rich’s authoritative bibliography records “The Kingdom of the Fathers,” Partisan Review 43 (1976): 17–37.
Rich’s bibliography further records that, with revisions, the essay became Chapter III of Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution.
Of Woman Born was published by W. W. Norton later in 1976, establishing this periodical appearance as preceding the book.
Boston University’s digitized copy of Partisan Review, Vol. 43, No. 1 (1976) reproduces the same issue and corresponding contents.
Issue opens with William Phillips’s “Hannah Arendt and Lionel Trilling.”
Contributions concerning Hannah Arendt by Hans Jonas and Frank Kermode follow, corresponding to independent bibliographic documentation of this issue.
Additional contributors include Harold Brodkey, Lewis Coser, Robert Lekachman, Ronald Sukenick, Rosalind Krauss, Christina Stead, David Denby, Gilbert Sorrentino, and others.
Contemporary issue structure, typography, advertisements, pagination, contributor information, and wrapper price are internally consistent throughout the object.
Independent antiquarian bibliographic records identify the issue as Partisan Review, Volume 43, Number 1 (1976).
Physical collation comprises 160 pages, matching independently documented copies.
Original teal, black, and cream printed wrappers remain present.
The present copy corresponds to the original issue preserved in Boston University’s Partisan Review archive.
No evidence of a subsequent printing, alternate impression, facsimile issue, replacement wrappers, or reconstructed components has been identified.
Observable physical and bibliographic evidence supports identification as the 1976 First Edition · First Printing · Original Publication of Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers.”
William Phillips, editor · Various Contributors
Partisan Review, Inc. · New York · 1976
First Edition · First Printing · Original Publication of Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers”
The Book:
The original 1976 First Edition · First Printing of Partisan Review, Volume XLIII, Number 1, containing the original publication of Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers” on pages 17–37. Later that year, Rich revised the essay into Chapter III of Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, one of the defining feminist works of the decade. The issue also opens with William Phillips’s “Hannah Arendt and Lionel Trilling,” followed by reflections on Arendt from Hans Jonas and Frank Kermode, and includes work by Harold Brodkey, Lewis Coser, Robert Lekachman, Rosalind Krauss, Christina Stead, David Denby, Gilbert Sorrentino, and others. 160 pp. Original teal, black, and cream printed wrappers retain the $2.50 price.
Condition:
Near Fine. Original wrappers remain complete, flat, square, and firmly attached, with strong, unfaded teal and black printing. Cream portions of the front wrapper show noticeable age toning, particularly along the margins and lower central area, with light surface soiling, minor rubbing, and slight edge and corner wear. Spine remains straight, complete, and fully legible with minor extremity wear. Binding is tight and structurally sound. Interior remains notably clean and bright, with mild age toning and no significant foxing, staining, annotation, ownership marks, tears, or detached leaves observed.
Story Of The Book
Before Adrienne Rich’s argument about motherhood and patriarchy became part of one of the decade’s major feminist books, it appeared here.
In “The Kingdom of the Fathers,” Rich examines patriarchy as more than men exercising power over women. She traces a larger structure built through family, property, motherhood, economic dependence, religion, and ideas about what female power was allowed to look like.
Her question was not simply whether motherhood mattered. It was what happened when institutions took motherhood—a deeply human experience—and organized it around systems of authority and dependency.
Later in 1976, Rich published Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution. “The Kingdom of the Fathers,” revised and expanded, became its third chapter.
And Rich’s essay did not appear in isolation. This issue opens with William Phillips, Hans Jonas, and Frank Kermode reflecting on Hannah Arendt, placing Rich’s developing feminist critique inside a broader conversation about power, political thought, culture, and intellectual responsibility.
This is the argument before it became the book.
Why It’s In The Collection
Partisan Review, Vol. XLIII, No. 1 belongs in Consigned to Darkness because important ideas rarely arrive fully formed. Sometimes the publication event lets us see them being built.
Rich was examining how power can operate through institutions so familiar that they seem natural: family, property, motherhood, economic dependence, and inherited expectations about women’s roles.
That makes this issue particularly valuable to the collection. It preserves the argument before later revision gave it the permanence and visibility of Of Woman Born.
The surrounding journal strengthens the object further. Partisan Review was one of the major American forums in which literature, politics, criticism, and intellectual dissent met one another, and this issue places Rich’s feminist analysis beside serious consideration of Hannah Arendt and other questions of political and cultural power.
Before the chapter, there was the essay. Before the finished book, there was the argument still taking shape.
Collection Categories: Publication-Event Object · Feminist Classics · Women’s History & Feminism · Political Movements · Political History · Anti-Authoritarianism · Graphic & Literary Periodicals · Literature
———
Authentication Evidence
Front wrapper identifies the publication as Partisan Review, issue 1, dated 1976.
Front wrapper retains the original $2.50 price.
Interior contents page explicitly identifies the issue as “PR / 1976 – VOLUME XLIII NUMBER 1.”
Contents page identifies Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers” beginning on page 17.
The essay itself begins on page 17 under the heading “The Kingdom of the Fathers / Adrienne Rich.”
Adrienne Rich’s authoritative bibliography records “The Kingdom of the Fathers,” Partisan Review 43 (1976): 17–37.
Rich’s bibliography further records that, with revisions, the essay became Chapter III of Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution.
Of Woman Born was published by W. W. Norton later in 1976, establishing this periodical appearance as preceding the book.
Boston University’s digitized copy of Partisan Review, Vol. 43, No. 1 (1976) reproduces the same issue and corresponding contents.
Issue opens with William Phillips’s “Hannah Arendt and Lionel Trilling.”
Contributions concerning Hannah Arendt by Hans Jonas and Frank Kermode follow, corresponding to independent bibliographic documentation of this issue.
Additional contributors include Harold Brodkey, Lewis Coser, Robert Lekachman, Ronald Sukenick, Rosalind Krauss, Christina Stead, David Denby, Gilbert Sorrentino, and others.
Contemporary issue structure, typography, advertisements, pagination, contributor information, and wrapper price are internally consistent throughout the object.
Independent antiquarian bibliographic records identify the issue as Partisan Review, Volume 43, Number 1 (1976).
Physical collation comprises 160 pages, matching independently documented copies.
Original teal, black, and cream printed wrappers remain present.
The present copy corresponds to the original issue preserved in Boston University’s Partisan Review archive.
No evidence of a subsequent printing, alternate impression, facsimile issue, replacement wrappers, or reconstructed components has been identified.
Observable physical and bibliographic evidence supports identification as the 1976 First Edition · First Printing · Original Publication of Adrienne Rich’s “The Kingdom of the Fathers.”