Women's Review of Books

Someday, whenever the tangled histories of the interdisci-plinary sixties art scene, of new journalism and experimental female/feminist autobiographical writing, or of lesbians and the avant-garde, get written, Jill Johnstons life and work will receive key billing. . . . Johnston was an originator. Her constant experimentation with language emerged from a genuine effort to record and communicate new and disruptive art forms, social realities, and states of consciousness.

One cannot thank Serpent’s Tail enough for making this significant and enjoyable collection of writings by Jill Johnston available. Hers was a voice of assurance, rage, inspiration and intelligence that gave an entire generation the incentive to declare and be proud of our lesbian identity. More than any other writer from this era, Johnston was a trailblazer, a lone voice in the pre-Stonewall days, before Lesbian chic and Queer theory. Revisiting these weekly columns, published in the Village Voice during the early to mid-seventies, one is dazed by her clarity and wisdom, her empowering and insightful observations, the sheer speed and force of her writing, and the breadth of her experience and knowledge. It is reassuring to find that the impact and tremendous shifts experienced by us who partook in the second wave of the women’s movement are as stupendous as we recall. I recommend that all the "straight" feminists writing about us in their queer theories immerse themselves in “The Comingest Womanifesto,” sample “Dyke Nationalism & Heterosexutility,” or “The March of the Real Women.” Vintage Jill Johnston!

     In Johnston’s current incarnation as critic and (auto)biographer, we must be grateful that the forces that rule have not been able to shut down this enormously talented, creatively inventive and brilliant author. Her integrity and passions are alive, and her writing has retained its seething vigor despite being properly punctuated and paragraphed.

     Admission Accomplished should be required reading on any Women’s Studies and/or Queer Studies syllabus. On a clear day, you might be lucky enough to read Jill Johnston.

Library Journal

This collection of Johnston writings reminds us how far American society has come with respect to gender and sexuality and how far it has to go. The 56 essays in this book reintroduce us to an original thinker who shares her bag of goodiesa melange of literary criticism; articulate descrip-tions of coming out, gay marriage, misogyny, philogyny, and parenting; and the playful use of language. She is forthright about her language, making no apologies for its fire or its irreverence. . . . Readers will note how far-reaching Johnston's perspective was; her 'radical' espousals have become part and parcel of today's rhetoric and laid the groundwork for other writers coming out in a mass-media context.

CloverTown.com

Jill Johnston has been acknowledged as one of the most vital, original thinkers of her time. As vanguard feminist, she was the forefront of a movement that changed the way we think about gender and sexuality. These essay . . . break with the convention and tackle social issues as current today as when they were written: coming out and 'outing' public icons; gay marriage and monogamy; solidarity and betrayal between gay men and lesbians, and between straight feminists and lesbians; the men's movement and misogyny. Johnston was the first writer to come out in the mass media, and the only one to sustain this kind of exposure over a revolutionary span of time.

Amazon.com

As a columnist in the Village Voice in the 1970's, Jill Johnston was the first writer to come out as a lesbian in the mass media. Her 1973 book, Lesbian Nation, was a bible for militant feminists. This collection gathers more than seventy of the wildly inventive rants, reviews and diatribes Johnston wrote during that explosive era. What comes through in these writings is Johnston's fierce and iconoclastic intelligence. Her signature style of long, run-on, rarely indented paragraphs and the uncapitalized 'i' suggest the frenzy of change that took place during the 1970's Women's Movement. . . . Hopefully, this collection will spark a reevaluation and appreciation of an important lesbian theorist and writer.