The Women's National Book Association: Background information when reading The Bookshop

The Women's National Book Association

This article relates to The Bookshop

In The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, Evan Friss talks about one of the few women in the book trade in the early 20th century: Madge Jenison, who opened The Sunwise Turn bookshop in Manhattan in 1916. A year later, she joined 20,000 other women in a protest for women's suffrage, marching with her fellow female booksellers. "The contingent was small," the author writes, "in part because there weren't many of them and in part because they weren't well connected. Membership in the American Booksellers Association was all male…" This inspired the women to create the Women's National Book Association (WNBA), a group still active today.

Thirty-five women in the book trade were invited to the first meeting, on October 29, 1917; about 15 were present, including Jenison. She later wrote, "The Women's National Book Association was founded when great ideas were about…Big ideas of civilization and what we wanted of it; how we could keep all we have and get some more. It seemed to us that books are power—that if we could create a working body of all those who have to do with the circulation of ideas in books…if we could start up such an organization, we would have a mechanism, through which we could throw our weight en masse behind anything in which we believed…[I]t seems to us logical that women should undertake such an enterprise as this." The group nominated Pauline Sherwood of Sherwood's Book Store as its first president.

In the early years the group was really a small social club, meeting to discuss ways to impact politics and support their fellow bookwomen. According to their website, they "made it possible for people engaged in various book activities to…broaden their part in the book world, and to know one another as individuals with common problems, aspirations, and goals." They developed seminars on bookselling techniques, sponsored book and author luncheons and dinners, and participated in book fairs, among other activities.

As the WNBA grew, they created a newsletter, The Bookwoman, which informed members about the organization's goals and ways to get involved. Started in 1936 by Canadian writer and editor Constance Lindsay Skinner, it's still published monthly from September to June, although it's now an email-only publication (and you don't need to be a member to receive it; just email newsletter@wnba-books.org and request to be added to the distribution list).

The group also undertook public service tasks, particularly during World War II, at which time "WNBA members served on committees to select books for prisoners of war through the International Red Cross, sent food packages to bookwomen overseas, and as travel again became possible, entertained bookwomen from abroad."

The organization has always considered itself a national one, allowing people from across the country to join, and was originally open to women in all areas of the book world: publishers, editors, booksellers, authors, librarians, illustrators, and production workers. Its second official chapter, in Chicago, opened in 1947, followed by a third in Cleveland in 1952.

Today, the WNBA has nine chapters across the country (Boston, LA, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, San Franciso, South Florida, and Washington D.C.), plus a "Network" chapter for individuals not located near a physical chapter. Dues are $40 annually, and membership is now open to anyone (i.e., no longer just women) who loves books and supports the organization's mission and goals, "including supporting women and marginalized voices and educating and advocating for books and literacy." The WNBA is still relatively small, however, claiming just 800 members nationwide. For more information and membership details, visit their website.

Madge Jenison in The Sunwise Turn bookstore circa 1916, courtesy of Roomsmoody1924

Filed under Books and Authors

This article relates to The Bookshop. It first ran in the September 4, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.