The Feminine Mystique. by Friedan, Betty - 1963

New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1963. First edition of the author's classic work. Octavo, original half cloth. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "For Gus- A very gay and "untimid" program- Betty Friedan Feb. 4, 1963." The publication date of The Feminine Mystique was February 19, 1963, this copy was signed two weeks prior. Fine in an excellent dust jacket with a few small closed tears. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. The Feminine Mystique begins with an introduction describing what Friedan called "the problem that has no name"—the widespread unhappiness of women in the 1950s and early 1960s. It discusses the lives of several housewives from around the United States who were unhappy despite living in material comfort and being happily married with fine children. "[The Feminine Mystique] now feels both revolutionary and utterly contemporary. Four decades later, millions of individual transformations later, there is still so much to learn from this book. Those who think of it as solely a feminist manifesto ought to revisit its pages to get a sense of the magnitude of the research and reporting Friedan undertook" (Anna Quindlen). Named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 best and most influential non-fiction books since 1923.