Gloria Steinem Her Passions, Politics, and Mystique

Gloria Steinem: Her Passions, Politics and Mystique

By the time she discovered feminism in 1969 at the age of thirty-five, Gloria Steinem had graduated cum laude from Smith College; traveled in India; worked for a CIA-front organization; gone undercover as a Playboy Bunny to write an expose; helped found New York magazine, for which she wrote a political column; and worked for other leftist causes.  Besides founding Ms. magazine and leading as a spokeswoman, leader and strategist, Steinem worked tirelessly behind the scenes as an effective and selfless organizer.

For the first fully revelatory account of Gloria Steinem’s life, Stern spent fifty hours interviewing Steinem, in addition to interviewing over two hundred friends, lovers, and associates from both her past and present.  


“a richly detailed, highly favorable portrait of the famous feminist that bares just enough of Steinem’s dark side…” Washington Post

“sympathetic but critical…Stern’s account seeks to reconcile contradictory words and actions to display an attractive, intelligent woman whose insecurities drove her toward social action.”  New York Times

“In biography, stick with the dead.”

-Sydney reflects on her first experience as a biographer.