I can't help but feel she'd sneer at that award title as well.That's what this biography does an excellent job of illuminating, that there's much more to Solanas than the day she shot Andy Warhol (fifteen minutes of fame?). It's ironic that this was a Bisexual Book Award finalist: not because the book is undeserving, but because Valerie Solanas refused and repudiated every available label. It is “not only a remarkable biographical feat but also a delicate navigation of an unwieldy, demanding, and complex life story” ( BOMB Magazine).

Valerie Solanas reveals the tragic, remarkable life of an iconic figure. It reveals surprising details about Solanas’s life: the children nearly no one knew she had, her drive for control over her own writing, and her elusive personal and professional relationships. This book is the first biography about Solanas, including original interviews with family, friends (and enemies), and numerous living Warhol associates. And yet, shockingly little work has investigated the life of its author. It has sold more copies and been translated into more languages than nearly all other feminist texts of its time. Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto, a sui generis vision of radical gender dystopia, predicted ATMs, test-tube babies, the Internet, and artificial insemination long before they existed. But she was also diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and spent much of her life homeless or in mental hospitals.

Known for shooting Andy Warhol in 1968 and for writing the infamous SCUM Manifesto, Solanas became one of the most famous women of her era. A cult hero to some and vehemently denounced by others, she has been dismissed but never forgotten. Valerie Solanas is one of the most polarizing figures of 1960s counterculture. The authoritative biography of the 60s countercultural icon who wrote SCUM Manifesto, shot Andy Warhol, and made an unforgettable mark on feminist history.

Valerie solanas book