The Accidental Feminist
The Life of One Woman through War, Motherhood, and International Photojournalism
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
This is the story of an independent woman who is a model for our time—photographer Toby Molenaar. It begins in Holland during World War II, when her country is decimated by the occupying German army and she is literally left to starve. As a little girl, she learns to be self-sufficient—survival is the order of the day.
After the war, she finds love in Switzerland, marries, and starts a family. Her perfect life soon unravels however, when she meets the irresistible writer Fred Grunfeld, a foreign correspondent for Time, Life, and other magazines, and the new couple settles in Mallorca. Fred takes her along on his travels covering the world for various publications, from Alaska to Argentina, India, and China. Reinventing herself yet again, Toby learns her new trade as a photographer and becomes an eminent photojournalist.
When Husband Number Two leaves and her life in Mallorca evaporates, she is ready to carry on, taking on her own international assignments—until Husband Number Three enters the picture, in France, and a new child is born.
Courage, indomitable spirit, an open mind, and accountability only to herself are the stuff of this fascinating and inspirational story.
Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From WWII-devastated Rotterdam to the comforts of Sag Harbor, N.Y., photojournalist Molenaar travels through an extraordinarily wide world in this always absorbing memoir. Readers will: visit Mallorca, Brazil, Tanzania, and Delhi; witness the Bengal Lancers charge; spend time with the prostitutes of the Crepuri (Brazil) gold miners and the burqa-covered women of the Pathans; travel along China's Silk Road and the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Compostela; meet poet Robert Graves, and novelists Lawrence Durrell and Joseph Heller; and see "one of the world's most extraordinary galleries of pre-historic art" while traveling with the Spanish Foreign Legion. In between, Molenaar shares stories about her three husbands and blended family, as well as her working life as a writer-photographer, making award-winning documentaries (Memories of Monet). At the book's core is Molenaar's curiosity and learning about this wide world a crafty and engaging way to teach the reader. Reading her is like meeting a new acquaintance with an abundance of pithy and marvelous tales. Photos.