The Silent Feminists [Paperback]

Anthony Slide (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0810830531 | ISBN-13: 978-0810830530 | Edition: Subsequent

American women who contributed their talent to the silent film industry are still largely unrecognized today. In The Silent Feminists, Anthony Slide shows how "[d]uring the first three decades of its existence, the American film industry was, in many ways, a woman's world." His work documents the lives and careers of America's first women directors and provides an introduction to the subject of women in the American silent-film industry. He highlights a number of female pioneers, including Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber, Margery Wilson, Mrs. Wallace Reid, Frances Marion, and Dorothy Arzner. With this book he continues to unveil the history of the women who, with little recognition, helped pave the way for females in the film business today.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Slide's history of women directors in American silent film is a companion to the eponymous video (LJ 10/15/94) and a follow-up to its forerunner, Early Women Directors (1977). With the exception of two new chapters, the outline follows the earlier edition verbatim. Slide's biographical approach, while heartfelt, is outmoded. Critical insight is confined to contemporaneous reviews. Inadequately broached are the reasons why the silent period was such a fruitful one for women; sociocultural ramifications are dully suggested. The author's rubric for a feminist director is ill defined, and his use of the term is problematical: Was Dorothy Arzner more of feminist than the socially aware Lois Weber merely because she featured women in dominant roles? Reprinted selections by Alice Guy Blanche and Ida May Park are interesting, if incidental, padding. Foibles aside, the publication of this derivative work says more about the dearth of scholarship than it does about its egregiously neglected subject. Only for film history collections lacking any material on the subject.?Jayne Kate Plymale-Jackson, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Slide gives voice to, contextualizes, and documents the lives and accomplishments of these no-longer-silent feminists. (Feminist Collections )

...expertly marshals historical data to offer a persuasive perspective on the active and dynamic roles that women performed in the evolution of the art of film. This tight, succinct, cogent volume shines a deserved light on talented but neglected auteurs...and by so doing reveals priceless treasures of the silver screen. (Choice )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Scarecrow Press; Subsequent edition (June 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810830531
• ISBN-13: 978-0810830530
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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