The Education of a Woman by Carolyn Heilbrun Virago $340 If Betty Friedan is the mother of American feminism, Gloria Steinem is probably its most famous daughter. Now in her 60s, her life has spanned decades of campaigning for women's rights in the United States and included the co-founding of Ms Magazine, which was for many years after its launch in 1971 the central focus of feminist thought.
Her adoption by the US media as the acceptable public face of feminism has been both a curse and blessing. It gave her an extraordinary prominence and influence, but it also led to persistent attacks from more radical factions in the feminist movement.
Given Steinem's fame, it is hard to believe this is the first biography to be published. It is a colourful and passionate story. Her childhood was spent in poverty in the tenements of Toledo, Ohio, where Gloria, her older sister and her anxious, depressed mother lived in fear of the rats.
Her parents had separated when she was young. Her father was a happy-go-lucky character, who always ate dessert first because it was his favourite course. Constantly in debt, he endlessly entered slogan-writing competitions, convinced that each one would bring them riches and an end to their troubles.
After college, Steinem spent a year in India where she went native, abandoning her possessions, living in a sari and walking from village to village with the followers of Gandhi, spreading a political message.
Her first jobs when she returned to New York were as a freelance journalist, following the career her mother had hoped for but never managed to realise.
Her breakthrough came with a dubious assignment to work undercover as a Playboy Bunny.