Free Valerie Solanas: The Defiant Life of the Woman Who Wrote SCUM by Breanne Fahs Page B

University, Duke University, and the University of Michigan. Arizona State University’s Center for Critical Inquiry and Cultural Studies provided support for photos and travel costs to conduct some of the interviews, while the Scholarship for Research and Creative Activities grant through Arizona State University funded two summer’s worth of work. Dean Elizabeth Langland’s support of my work came at just the right time—thank you! I also had the true pleasure of doing archival research at the Duke University Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture while on a Mary Lily Research Grant in the summer of 2008. Thank you to the superb archivist Kelly Wooten and to Duke for investing in, and preserving, the history of radical feminism. I am also grateful to the Dobkin Collection, particularly Sarah Funke Butler, who so generously helped me with documents and photos concerning Valerie from their collection. I owe thanks to the University of Michigan, which provided funding to visit the Andy Warhol Museum archives in Pittsburgh back in 2006 and to Matt Wrbican, lead archivist at the Warhol archives, and Greg Burchard, the rights and reproductions specialist, who provided many of the rich histories and documents about Valerie during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
    For the many striking images in this book, I owe gratitude to numerous photographers, archivists, and friends: I thank the estate of Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Howard Berman, Jennifer Bertagni, David Blackwell, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Robert Fustero, Matt Grace, Bob Gruen, Jeremiah Newton, Fred Palumbo, Christopher Payne, Drew Stevens, and Louis Zwiren.
    I have also had the great fortune of working with a number of talented students, whose energy, talent, and bravery humbles me every day. They have propelled the book along by fact-checking, taking photos, tracking down contact information, reading drafts, compiling references, thinking deeply about Valerie’s life, and providing humor and laughter amid this most tragic of stories. Love and thanks to Jennifer Bertagni, the crème de la crème, whose imprint is everywhere in this text, and whose support brought so much life and passion to the work—words cannot describe how much I have valued our many conversations about Valerie over the years. Thanks to the Feminist Research on Gender and Sexuality Group—the FROGS—whose extraordinary work ethic, diligence, earnestness, and passion have kept me going. I owe much to those who have worked on this text and who believed in Valerie’s story, particularly Michelle Ashley Gohr, Adrielle Munger, Kelly Trujillo, Jaqueline “Jax” Gonzalez, Kalen Brest, Denise Delgado, Jennifer Pryor, Kathleen Courter, Judith Sipes, Mitchell Call, Perla Solorzano, Michael Karger, Emily Dolan, Rose Coursey, Stephanie Robinson-Cestaro, Natali Blazevic, Yessica del Rincon, Eva Sisko, Amanda Garcia, Victoria Guinn, and Marisa Loiacono.
    I extend appreciation to my many colleagues and friends who have contributed so much to this project. Susannah Straw-Gast gave me my first copy of SCUM Manifesto at college back in 1999—thank you, thank you, thank you. Carroll Smith-Rosenberg first validated my interest in writing a book on Valerie and, in so many ways, deserves recognition for this book’s existence. Thanks to Deborah Martinson, superwoman of feminist biography—I adore you and will never have enough words with which to sing your praises. Thanks to my colleagues at Arizona State University and beyond, particularly Marlene Tromp, Monica Casper, Stephanie Fink, Elizabeth Langland, Patrick Grzanka, Mary Margaret Fonow, Michael Starcliff, Ilana Luna, Gloria Cuadraz, Valerie Kemper, Clare Croft, Leonore Tiefer, Rebecca Plante, Andrew Smiler, Virginia Braun, Michelle Tea, Rose Carlson, Jennifer Baumgardner, Michael Kimmel, and Abby Stewart.
    Thanks especially to my family, particularly my incredible mother, who dug up genealogy on Valerie, read drafts, tracked down Holy