The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades before Roe v. Wade
In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade. An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those...
Search in google:
In this deeply moving and myth-shattering work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the decades before Roe v. Wade. An adoptee who was herself surrendered during those years and recently made contact with her mother, Ann Fessler brilliantly brings to life the voices of more than a hundred women, as well as the spirit of those times, allowing the women to tell their stories in gripping and intimate detail. San Francisco Chronicle Journalism of the first order, moving and informative in equal measure.
The Girls Who Went Away 1. My Own Story as an Adoptee\ 2. Breaking the Silence\ Dorothy II Annie\ 3. Good Girls v. Bad Girls\ Nancy I Claudia\ 4. Discovery and Shame\ Marge Yvonne\ 5. The Family's Fears\ Jeanette Ruth\ 6. Going Away\ Karen I Pam\ 7. Birth and Surrender\ Margaret Leslie\ 8. The Aftermath\ Susan III Madeline\ 9. Search and Reunion\ Susan II Jennifer\ 10. Talking and Listening\ Lydia Linda I\ 11. Every Mother but My Own\ Afterword A Note on the Interviews Notes Acknowledgments Index
\ From Barnes & NobleIn what many remember as dark, distant days, 1.5 million single American women surrendered their out-of-wedlock babies rather than suffer shame or controversy. In some cases, they didn't even receive the chance to make the decision: Their parents or maternity home caregivers hastily shunted the newborn infants off to adoption. Girls Who Went Away re-creates this aspect of the preRoe v. Wade era with compelling, often deeply moving oral histories of birth mothers who lost their offspring.\ \ \ \ \ San Francisco ChronicleJournalism of the first order, moving and informative in equal measure.\ \ \ New York Times Book ReviewA remarkably well-researched and accomplished book.\ \ \ \ \ Chicago TribuneA wrenching, riveting book.\ \ \ \ \ PeopleHaunting.\ \
