S.C.U.M.: Society for Cutting Up Men Manifesto

New York: Olympia Press, 1968. First edition. Softcover. Good. Rare. First trade edition (there was a virtually impossible to find mimeographed self-printing). Illustrated softcovers featuring a portrait of Solanas on the front cover and the June 4, 1968 New York Post cover "Andy Warhol Fights For Life". 105 pp. plus six pages publisher's ads at rear. Front cover as some modest creasing while the rear cover has heavier ceasing. The text block has the ususal embrowning. Valerie Solanas, who had acted in one of his underground films ("I, A Man") shot Andy Warhol in his studio on June 3, 1968 (he was seriously injured but survived). The previous year, Solanus had written a radical separatist feminist "manifesto" that advocated the elimination of all men. After the attack she was arrested and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and served three years including a stay in a psychiatric hospital. Maurice Girodias of Olympia Press, having signed a contract with the author the year previously, published the book in1968; over the years, some has expressed the opinion that the Manifesto was satirical, a parody on patriarchy but Solanus maintained her intent was serious. For the rest of her life (she would die in 1988), she continued to promote the SCUM Manifesto.