The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s by Maggie Doherty
28th Summer Lecture Series
August 3, 2021
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD
“Rich and powerful. . . . A love story about art and female friendship.”
—Harper’s Magazine
“Reads like a novel, and an intense one at that. . . . The Equivalents is an observant, thoughtful and energetic account.”
—Margaret Atwood, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
In 1960, Harvard’s sister college, Radcliffe, announced the founding of an Institute for Independent Study, a “messy experiment” in women’s education that offered paid fellowships to those with a PhD or “the equivalent” in artistic achievement. Five of the women who received fellowships—poets Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin, painter Barbara Swan, sculptor Marianna Pineda, and writer Tillie Olsen—quickly formed deep bonds with one another that would inspire and sustain their most ambitious work. They called themselves “the Equivalents.” Drawing from notebooks, letters, recordings, journals, poetry, and prose, Maggie Doherty weaves a moving narrative of friendship and ambition, art and activism, love and heartbreak, and shows how the institute spoke to the condition of women on the cusp of liberation.
The Mount is a Massachusetts Cultural Council UP designated organization welcoming participants of all disabilities. Please contact The Mount at 413-551-5100 or by email, info@edithwharton.org, to discuss accommodations needed to participate fully in this event.
- Ticket sales begin on June 10.
- The lectures are held in the Kitchen Garden Tent, an open-air venue.
- We look forward to seeing you rain or shine!