- US Edition
Ms Gloria Steinem: A Life
A highly readable but meticulously researched biography of one of the greatest icons of women's rights
Throughout the years, Gloria Steinem is perhaps the single-most iconic figure associated with women’s rights, her name practically synonymous with the word “feminism.”
Documenting everything from her boundary-pushing journalistic career to the foundation of Ms. magazine to being awarded the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, this book is sure to satisfy even the most voracious of aspiring glass-ceiling smashers.
Gloria Steinem was no stranger to injustice even from a young age.
Her mother, Ruth, having suffered a nervous breakdown at only 34, spent much of Gloria’s childhood in and out of mental health facilities. And when Gloria was only 10 years old, her father divorced her mother and left for California, unable to bear the stress of caring for Ruth any longer.
Gloria never blamed her mother for being unable to hold down a job to support them both after that, but rather blamed society’s intrinsic hostility toward women, and working women in particular. This was the spark that lit a fire in her that would burn for decades, and continues to burn brightly today.
Rights details
Feiwel & Friends, Macmillan: World rights (June 2020)
The Author

Winifred Conkling
Winifred Conkling (she/her) studied journalism in college and later worked as a writer and editor at various newspapers and magazines. She has written more than 30 non-fiction books for grown-ups and a number of highly regarded non-fiction books for young people, including Ms. Gloria Steinem, Heroism Begins with Her, Hidden Figures (co-authored with Margot Lee Shetterly), Votes for Women!, Radioactive!, and Passenger on the Pearl. She’s adapted various adult nonfiction titles for young readers including The Light of Days by Judy Batalion, American Moonshot by Douglas Brinkley, Exploring the White House by Kate Andersen Brower, Craig and Fred by Craig Grossi, and works by Bret Baier (Three Days at the Brink, Three Days in January, and Three Days in Moscow).
She has loved writing since third grade when she taught herself to type, and she went on to become a journalist and author of adult non-fiction books, rediscovering her love of children’s books when she became a mother. She has also taught reading to inmates at a maximum-security prison, run a marathon, spent the night in a dung hut with Samburu warriors, and volunteered with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India.
She lives in Northern Virginia and has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of the Fine Arts.
Visit her website at winifredconkling.com.
Winifred is represented by Kristin Ostby.