June Arnold

June Fairfax Arnold ( Davis; October 27, 1926 – March 11, 1982) was an American novelist, publisher, and lesbian feminist activist known for her novel Sister Gin and posthumous novel Baby Houston. Arnold cofounded the feminist press Daughters, Inc., which published experimental and avant-garde feminist literature, including her own novels The Cook and the Carpenter and Sister Gin. She was a leader in the women in print movement and organized the first national Women in Print Conference in 1976. Her novels are broadly considered important works of feminist, lesbian, and Southern literature.

Early life and education June Fairfax Davis was born on October 27, 1926, to Robert Cowan Davis and Catherine ("Cad") Carter Wortham in Greenville, South Carolina. Arnold grew up in Memphis, Tennessee until 1938, when the family moved to Houston, Texas after her father's death. She attended Kincaid School in Houston before transferring to Shipley in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Arnold came from a wealthy background and had a debutante ball.

From 1943 to 1944, Arnold studied at Vassar College. She received her bachelor's degree from the Rice Institute (now Rice University) in 1948. In 1953, she married Gilbert Arnold, a classmate at Rice. Arnold returned to Rice as a twenty-seven year old mother of three to study literature at the graduate level. She divorced Eimerl within a year of their marriage.

While visiting feminist bookstores for her novel Sister Gin, Arnold was inspired to create a collaborative network of feminist publishers and printers. Along with Charlotte Bunch and Coletta Reid, both former members of the feminist separatist Furies Collective, Arnold organized the first Women in Print Conference in 1976. The conference allowed women in print activists to learn skills, share advice, coordinate movement work, and debate about how best to achieve their feminist goals. Her statement that "women can afford to say no" to lucrative offers from the male-dominated publishing industry was criticized by working class feminists and writers who wanted their works to receive broader exposure.

Arnold's first novel, Applesauce, was published in 1966 by McGraw Hill. It portrayed a woman who, due to the pressure of traditional gender roles and several traumatic events, fractures her sense of self into multiple identities, including a male alter ego. Arnold's second novel, The Cook and the Carpenter, was published in 1973. In it, Arnold experimented with stream-of-consciousness narration in depicting a radical feminist commune, partially inspired by her participation in the Fifth Street Women's Takeover. Arnold published Sister Gin in 1975, a novel about Su, a 46-year-old woman whose carefully constructed life is beginning to fall apart. It is significant for depicting an intergenerational lesbian relationship and for being one of the first novels to include a detailed firsthand depiction of menopause.

In addition to her novels, Arnold also contributed essays and other short works to publications such as Sinister Wisdom, Village Voice and Sister Courage.

List of publications