INEZ | New Book (Updated)

Cover of the new book. Order now
for March publication.

A new book is coming out as a tribute to Inez Milholland in preparation for the centennial of her death in 1916. The only full-length biography of Inez so far is by Linda Lumsden.

The publication date is March 8, 2015 but books will be available before that. The publisher is the American Graphic Press, which has created a special website for the book. It has published two other books by the same author.

I have received a copy of the book and it is nicely done. The author, Robert P. J. (Bob) Cooney, Jr., has gone to a great deal of trouble to find good new photos of Inez from the Library of Congress.

Having the texts of several speeches and editorials she made in one place is a treat. As an Inez fan, I am happy.

Here is the promotional release. I'm glad to see in the book Carl Sandburg's poem to Inez. It is energetic and captures the flavor of her life.

I appreciate the fact that the author uses her married name later in the book - Inez Milholland Boissevain. That was how she was known.

New Collection Honors a Remarkable American Suffragist

Vida (L) and her sister Inez, c. 1912.
This is a rare photo of them
together. It is not in the book.

Remembering Inez: The Last Campaign of Inez Milholland, Suffrage Martyr pays tribute to vibrant New York attorney and prominent suffrage leader Inez Milholland, who died of pernicious anemia in Los Angeles 99 years ago while campaigning for women's right to vote.  Using suffragists' own words, the book presents intimate first-person articles, speeches, and emotional memorials that appeared in issues of The Suffragist, the weekly publication of the National Woman's Party.  

Remembering Inez includes the classic address Inez delivered during her final speaking tour in 1916. In her historic "Appeal to the Women Voters of the West," she passionately advocated gender solidarity among women and called for a controversial boycott of Democratic candidates because their party refused to support the Nineteenth Amendment.  

The book also presents 24 photographs of Inez and her times from the Library of Congress and closes with a poem by Carl Sandburg.  An original Introduction briefly outlines Inez's life and summarizes her importance in the struggle for equal rights.  She came to symbolize the unrelenting commitment that finally won the vote for women nationally in 1920.

Remembering Inez is part of the drive to educate the country about the woman suffrage movement that won basic civil rights for women, and to prepare for the suffrage centennial in 2020.  2015 marks 100 years since the exciting if unsuccessful "Empire State Campaign" in New York that Inez was part of, 2016 marks the centennial of her death, and 2017 is the centennial of the measure finally passing there. 

96 pages  6 x 9" Trade Paperback   24 photographs    Bibliography    American Graphic Press    ISBN 978-0-9770095-2-7    Library of Congress No. 2014938050    $14.95 

Editor Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr. is Director of the Woman Suffrage Media Project and author of Winning the Vote: The Triumph of the American Woman Suffrage Movement (American Graphic Press), which was named one of the Five Best Books on the topic by the Wall Street Journal.  He also co-edited The Power of the People: Active Nonviolence in the United States (New Society Press).

Here is a listing of some of the stories about Inez's last campaign in newspapers along her railway trail:

• “Beauty Contest to Be Part of the Great Suffrage Parade,” Laramie Republican, February 1, 1913, 2.
• “Cheyenne Woman Routs Speaker of Sex Party,” Sunday State Leader, October 8, 1916, 1.
• “Dawn Mist of Montana in Parade,” Weekly Boomerang, February 27, 1913, 4.
• “Death of Miss Inez Milholland Boissevain,” Rock Springs Miner, December 2, 1916, 6.
• “Extension Phones for Mrs. Boissevain’s Talk,” Wyoming Tribune, November 4, 1916, 1.
• “Famous Woman Spoke at Pocatello,” Kemmerer Republican, October 13, 1916, 1.
• “Memorial for Inez Milholland Boissevain,” Park County Enterprise, December 27, 1916, 4.
• “Memorial to Mrs. Boissevain,” Kemmerer Republican, December 29, 1916.
• “Miss Inez Milholland: Equal Suffrage Advocate Is Made the Heroine of a Novel,” Laramie Republican, November 11, 1911, 5.
• “Noted Beauty Coming,” Laramie Republican, October 4, 1916, 8.
• “Rioting Mars the Suffrage Parade,” Laramie Boomerang, March 4, 1913, 1.
• “Sing Sing Inmates Honor Suffragist,” Laramie Daily Boomerang, December 7, 1916, 1.
• “Successful Meeting at Plains Hotel,” Laramie Republican, 11 Oct 1916, 6.
• “Washington’s Discourtesy to Women,” Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune, March 11, 1913, 6.
• “Washington City’s Insult to Women,” Wyoming Semi-Weekly Tribune, March 11, 1913, 6.
• “Women Outline Political Views,” Kemmerer Republican, October 27, 1916.
• “Women Unfurl Their First Battle Flag,” Laramie Daily Boomerang, December 7, 1916, 1.