"A LIVELY AND VIVID ACCOUNT": FIRST EDITION OF SYLVIA PANKHURST'S THE SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT, 1931

PANKHURST, E. Sylvia. The Suffragette Movement: An Intimate Account of Persons and Ideals. London: Longmans, Green, 1931. Thick octavo, original black cloth. $1600.

First edition, first issue, of Pankhurst's influential history of the British Suffragette movement, a fine copy in original cloth.

Sylvia Pankhurst's "lively and vivid account" (ODNB) has long stood as "the main source of information on the militant suffrage movement" (Crawford, Women's Suffrage Movement, 525). In this important contemporary account, at once history and autobiography, she speaks of the profound influence of her parents and highlights the founding the 1903 Women's Social Political Union in 1903 with her daughter Christobel. The WPSU revitalized the movement and changed the nature of political protest by combining civil protest with a militant campaign of directed vandalism designed to arouse public awareness and to force politicians to address the issue. Mrs. Pankhurst and others were repeatedly arrested and went on hunger strikes while in prison. The escalating confrontation between protesters and government continued until the outbreak of WWI. In 1918, after the war, during which women made a substantial contribution, women over thirty received the vote, and ten years later, the year of Emmeline Pankhurst's death, all women obtained suffrage. Emmelene Pankhurst stands with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as one of the leading figures in the struggle for women's suffrage. With frontispiece portrait of Emmeline Pankhurst and 12 illustrations. Without very scarce dust jacket. 100 Most Influential Women, 203-206.

A fine copy.