by Breanne Fahs
Ending this letter with a clarification about her next book—a work that has never been seen—Valerie celebrated its self-promotional aspects: “My next book will be the promotion—a piece of self-promotion like this world has never seen. That’s why I’m gonna call it Valerie Solanas—I call a spade a spade. I’m out to take over. That’s why I need to write only truth. You can’t stand for long on a pile of shit. It’ll require many pages to definitively demolish (trivialize, rip-off, whichever you prefer) the WLM. I’ll do that in my book, which will by no means be confined to the WLM.” (vol. 6 [April 2–15, 1977]). She claimed that her next book would not be controversial: “There’ll be no comeback. . . . It’ll be the beginning of the end” (vol. 7 [June 11–24, 1977]).
When Valerie outlined the content of this new book, she revealed some of her increasingly paranoid suspicions about the framing of her shooting Andy Warhol:
In my upcoming book I’ll explain why I shot Warhol and present an airtight case against various other parasites, many of whom are female (‘defenders,’ ‘interpreters,’ etc.), who were sucking my blood about that time. My case will be based partly on a public confession of the money men (not just Maurice Girodias and Warhol) who were involved with me at the time, of all their naughty doings regarding me (paying off to have me declared insane and for massive amounts of bullshit to be written about me, to name just a few things) and the reasons for them. Yes, some of the naughties they must confess to are felonies, but the statute of limitations (7 years) has run out on them. Their public confession is a necessary condition for their getting my next book to publish.” (vol. 6 [February 19–March 4, 1977])
Feeding Valerie’s love of polemical banter, this missive started a firestorm of letters from women denouncing her. Brooke Williams argued that Valerie’s forthcoming book, “according to the scuttlebutt, consists of a collection of 3”x5” cards, without a publisher” (vol. 6 [April 30–May 13, 1977]). In another letter several issues later she sneers, “Who cares what Valerie Solanas has to say? (She should go back to pulling triggers. She’s pretty heavy-handed with the medium of words).” Valerie responded sarcastically: she had sent Random House a carton of three-by-five-inch cards, “but they said they’re only publishing pages this year. I said, ‘Can I interest you in some New York Times pages? I write in the margins.’ They said that’s not a bad idea, and they’d think about it, because when the readers of my book get tired of reading Brooke and Joreen’s letters that I’m going to bill my book out with, they read the New York Times editorials. So you can see, I’m making some headway.”
Valerie’s sense of authorship and the absolute precision she demanded from others who published her work extended to her relationship with Majority Report. When others accused her of distorting their words, she defended herself with “It’s legitimate for me to read between the lines of her [the writer’s] letter and say what I believe to be implied by her statements, so long as I also state what she actually said and make clear that my interpretation’s my interpretation. I did both.” She rejected claims that she used Majority Report to gain notoriety or publicity: “Brooke says I’m ‘using the issue solely to gain personal notoriety [as opposed to impersonal notoriety?] and a publisher. ‘Solely’ disallows the possibility that I say what I say at least in part because I believe it. Brooke would strip me of my conceit” (vol. 7 [June 11–24, 1977]). Valerie struck out at Majority Report for allowing typos in her letters to the editors. In the issue following her first lengthy such letter, she published a thirty-four-item list of typographical errors she had found in that first letter. “Some of the errors changed or muffled my meaning. Other errors were relatively minor, but, being a perfectionist, I’ll list all the errors!” (vol. 6 [April 16–29, 1977]). And in the following issue, Valerie wrote, “Margie Robertson in her MR letter, complained that I’m a semi-absolutist. I’m not; I’m an absolutist. What the hell is a semi-absolutist, anyway?” (vol. 6 [April 30-May 13, 1977]).
SELF-PUBLISHING SCUM MANIFESTO (1977)
Shortly after this flurry of letters in Majority Report, Valerie became obsessed with the idea of printing her own correct version of SCUM Manifesto. She learned that Olympia Press had become bankrupt recently and that this meant that the publishing rights for SCUM Manifesto had officially reverted back to her. She now had total control over how to publish the manifesto—something that had been denied to her for nearly a decade. She approached Majority Report to see if they could typeset it as long as she retained exclusive rights to edit and oversee it. Nancy Borman remembered, “We struck a deal so that it would make enough money for the people working for it. She really wanted there to be an authentic copy. She was no more unreasonable than any customer in a small type shop. Joanne Steele was going to distribute it at newsstands and through her channels.”38 Valerie would distribute the manifesto via mail order and on the streets. She wanted her manifesto in its purest form—as she had written it, without intrusions and changes from Olympia Press and the “Toads,” and completely on her own terms. For Valerie, the publication of a correct edition of SCUM Manifesto would be the culmination of many years of fighting for a pure, accurate text.
Valerie felt immense joy at having an authentic copy of SCUM Manifesto distributed to the world. Joanne Steele recalled that “[For SCUM Manifesto] we used the same printer that we used for Majority Report. [The manifesto] was wall-to-wall words, though a thin Majority Report. It was eight pages of newsprint like the Daily News. I was surprised that she was publishing it again.” Valerie insisted on not putting a price on this version, leaving it open to fluctuate depending on where and to whom she sold it. Joanne was struck by this, particularly given that Valerie had lived on the street in the past, had long stretches of inconsistent meals and sleeping arrangements, and still had no reliable income aside from her state assistance. “This shows that she was not concerned with money,” Joanne said, “that she was not a careerist.”39
After the correct SCUM Manifesto was printed, Valerie displayed an uncommon excitement and hopefulness. She and Joanne distributed it throughout New York City, with Joanne selling copies from her car and Valerie hawking copies to bookstores and newsstands and placing ads asking for others to sell it.
One such advertisement appeared in Majority Report:
Besides selling on newsstands, SCUM Manifesto’s being sold for $2.00 through the mail (send orders to me at the address below). Pay (by cash, money order, or certified check) and being hawked on the streets for $1.00.
I’ll let anybody who wants to hawk it—women, men, Hare Krishna, Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Legion. Maurice Girodias, you’re always in financial straits. Here’s your big chance—hawk SCUM Manifesto. You can peddle it around the massage parlor district. Anita Bryant, finance your anti-fag campaign selling the only book worth selling—SCUM Manifesto. Andy Warhol, peddle it at all those hot shit parties you go to.
SCUM Manifesto sells everywhere—campuses, Times Square, Harlem, the U.N., fag bars, Gristedes, along the dock, under the dock (if you can find anybody under it), Wall Street, construction sites, Sutton Place, junior high schools, criminal court house.
Peddlers, pick up your SCUM Manifesto’s at my place: 170 E. 3rd St., NYC 10009 or mail your orders to me at the same address. 50¢ a copy. Minimum order for peddlers is 200. No credit, no discounts. I don’t like arithmetic. And don’t have gang wars over territories—that’s not nice.40
Beneath the advertisement appears the statement “Here’s what various public people have had to say about me and SCUM Manifesto,” followed by quotes:
“I never read it.” —Jo Freeman
“SCUM Manifesto and radical women’s liberation have always been in opposition.”—Brooke
“[SCUM Manifesto] is of no value for understanding anything except [Girodias’s] desire to make some money.”—Phoebe Adams
“[In 1967] I had a contract [for SCUM Manifesto] prepared for [Valerie].”—Maurice Girodias
“Just a few more
months of peddling SCUM Manifesto up and down 42nd St. and I can get off the welfare.” —Maurice Girodias
“[Valerie Solanas] killed herself at the age of 32 in a mental hospital.”—Paule Lebrun
“[Valerie Solanas] gave herself that death of the scorpion trapped in a circle of fire.” —Francoise d’Eaubonne
“The police told me they found Valerie Solanas dead in a Paris hotel room.”—Francoise d’Eaubonne
“Valerie Solanas is a real blast.” —Andy Warhol, 1978
She also posted another ad in the Village Voice:
Olympia Press went bankrupt and the publishing rights to SCUM Manifesto reverted to me, Valerie Solanas, so I’m issuing the CORRECT edition, MY edition of SCUM Manifesto. It’s now being sold for $1.00 on newsstands in NYC and for $2.00 through the mail (send orders to me at address below and say you’re responding to MR ad; pay by cash, money order or certified check) and being hawked on the streets for $1.00.
I’ll let anybody who wants to hawk it—women, men, Redstockings, Pat Buckley, Phyllis Schafly [sic], Maurice Girodias, you’re always in financial straits. Here’s your big chance—hawk SCUM Manifesto.
You can peddle it around the massage parlor district. Ti-Grace, you can come back to N.Y. without having to live on welfare: by selling the only book worth selling—SCUM Manifesto. Andy Warhol, peddle it at all those hot shit parties you go to. Jo (Joreen) Freeman, I’ll let you peddle it around the SUNY campus. Make it required reading for your students and sell it to them. Everybody, make big money selling the anti-money system SCUM Manifesto. Don’t defend it, don’t interpret it, don’t even like it. Just SELL IT! SELL IT! SELL IT! SCUM Manifesto’ll sell anywhere—campuses, Times Square, Harlem, the U.N., fag bars, Gristedes, along the dock, under the dock (if you can find anybody under it), Wall Street, construction sites, Sutton Place, junior high schools, criminal court house.
Peddlers, pick up your SCUM Manifesto’s at my place: 170 E. 3rd St., NYC 10009. Pay 50¢ a copy. Sell it for $1.00. Out-of-town peddlers, order it from me for 50¢ a copy. Peddlers must buy at least 200 at a time. No credit. No discounts. I don’t like arithmetic. And don’t have gang wars over territories—that’s not nice.
Valerie Solanas41
As shown in these ads, at the time of SCUM Manifesto’s release, Valerie listed her address as 170 East Third Street, the small apartment building a few blocks from Tompkins Square Park where she lived with Louis Zwiren. Valerie spent a great deal of time talking to Louis about the manifesto, and she worked long hours printing it and sending out copies by mail order. At the same time she was working diligently on her new book, though she was secretive and would not divulge any details to Louis. She believed others wanted to steal her ideas and exploit her work and had no patience for saboteurs.
In particular, Valerie again became obsessed with the idea of finding out the identity of the “contact man” for the Mob, directing particular attention toward Mark Zussman, then editor of Oui and Playboy magazines, based in Chicago. She repeatedly sent him copies of SCUM Manifesto (the correct edition), urging him to print it in Playboy where readers could purchase the manifesto. Ever dedicated to her work, she even tried again to get her play, Up Your Ass, produced, writing Mark a short postcard: “I’ll send you a copy of the play for you to look at for $100.00 plus cost of copying + postage. Copying-$3.40, postage (estimate) .35 = $3.75. Valerie.”42
She wrote Mark clarifying her views on a recent piece put out by Marlene Edwards of Zodiac News Service in San Francisco, calling the labeling of her as the “founder of a group called SCUM” a libelous slander. “This reduces me to the level of Redstockings, Radical Feminists and the members of 1000’s of other totally worthless, insignificant, pathetic little ‘feminist’ groups. What did I expect to do with my little group of 7? 8? 15? 36?” She was angry that the word shit was censored on the air; a quote from the Manifesto was read aloud as “Every man deep-down knows he’s a worthless piece of [bleep].” When Marlene said SCUM Manifesto was the work of a group, Valerie retorted that this statement constituted “a libel so profound that, if uncorrected, it amounts to murder. It means: a) that I lack mental, psychological independence, am incapable of independent thought. b) I got together with a group of unnamed assholes and together wrote the manifesto . . . c) that the work is garbage. What else can a collectively written work be? The changes reduced the SCUM Manifesto to the level of Redstockings Manifesto.”43
Valerie believed that these perceived libelous slanders sabotaged the sales of her forthcoming book, Valerie Solanas, on which she was working intensively. “How many people will read the work of a nut? How many will read a group-written tract? How many will read a book about only the shooting of Warhol, written by the nut who shot him, put in no perspective?”44 She followed up with a letter to the Mob (Mark Zussman) on September 5, 1977 that detailed her paranoia about a man named Pacheco stealing her ideas: “It would be really good for my book if I could get proof of what Pacheco’s doing. The only way I can think of to get the proof is to have a hidden camera (maybe an infra-red one that can photograph thru walls) with a zoom lens photographing everything that gets punched into the computer, as well as the puncher. Valerie.”45
Valerie resented anything that distracted her from her work. She typed away furiously in her apartment, maintaining an almost fanatical concentration. In an uncharacteristic twist, she also spent time looking after her financial affairs quite closely during that year. She sent a letter to the Mob detailing her difficulty receiving her March 1977 SSI payment and blaming them for continually sabotaging her efforts to get this paid out to her. She believed the Mob had shortchanged each of her subsequent checks and said, “If I don’t get all the back money the SSI owes me . . . I’m gonna insist you punch them [SSI officials] out for me, that you can’t look at my next book until I see her completely toothless. And I mean I better not see one tooth.”46
Valerie was imbued with renewed energy and vitality. To celebrate her success with printing the correct edition of SCUM Manifesto, and to show off the realization of her dream, she invited her mother to visit. Her mother obliged. Years later, the building superintendent from 170 East Third Street, Mrs. P., remembered Valerie as “a pig, a bug” who was “filthy and unclean” but who had a “very nice, very clean” mother.47
Valerie put all her energy into SCUM Manifesto. Majority Report had published numerous excerpts, and this triggered Valerie to write numerous letters to the editor about commas and colons, revealing her obsession with the tiniest of details regarding the publication of SCUM Manifesto. Staff disagreed about whether she was on an endless power trip, came from a place of principle, or had a mental illness. As Joanne said, “She was very unstable. You didn’t know if she would run, fall, or dance next.” Over time, Joanne became increasingly concerned about the manifesto’s not having a price tag, as she assumed Valerie would expect money regardless of whether copies were stolen or sold. She urged Valerie to put prices on all the copies, but Valerie refused. “I told her that I hoped that she had a lot of money to pay me for putting [them] on,” Joanne said.48
In Valerie’s final letter to Majority Report, she listed six corrections to previously published letters that discussed her work. She told readers that even though she went out to the streets of the West Village one night to sell new copies of SCUM Manifesto, she mostly worked through mail order and hawkers: “I was out one night peddling Manifestos just as an experiment to see how well they’d sell on the street.” She described another facet of the work: “It was the publishing rights, not the copyright (which had always been mine), which reverted to me when Olympia Press went bankrupt.” She was, as always, attuned to her rights of authorship: “The book was not ‘originally published by Olympia Press,’ but by me in 1967.” She complained that the Olympia Press edition had many serious typographical errors, as “words and even extended parts of sentences were left out, rendering the passages that should’ve been in incoherent.” In her final published claim in Ma
jority Report, Valerie defended her 1966 Cavalier piece: “The MR (vol. 7, #4) editorial said that the Nov. 1975 MR issue entitled The Lesbians are Coming ‘was a collection of prose, poetry, and photography by members of the Lower East Side community.’ MR neglected to mention that the article written by me (first printed in the July 1966 Cavalier) in that issue was reprinted without my knowledge or permission” (vol. 7 [June 23–August 5, 1977]).
PARANOIA GROWS: VALERIE AND THE NEWS MEDIA (1977)
Valerie’s first project, she says, “is to dispel the notion that I am a self-promoter and that everything I do is designed to get me publicity.” To that end she is hard at work on a book with the proposed title Valerie Solanas.
—Michael Chance, “High Society: Valerie Solanas”
Valerie felt an intense desire to promote SCUM Manifesto now that she had the correct edition in circulation. At the urgings of Majority Report editors, she sought out and participated in three interviews in June 1977: one with High Times magazine (targeting stoners), one with the Village Voice (targeting East Village residents and countercultural lefties), and one with the New York Daily Planet (targeting the New York underground). In all these interviews, she spoke in lucid, engaging, but paranoid ways about her relationship to her work, her reasons for shooting Andy Warhol, and her plans for the future. She wanted to plug SCUM Manifesto to increase its sales and popularity. In the High Times interview, with Michael Chance (the husband of Majority Report editor Nancy Borman), she frequently became excited and behaved unpredictably. Her image as a hardworking, relatively stable figure gave way to one of an individual suffering from increasing madness. Michael remembered, “She looked like someone wasted in the ’70s. I assumed it was jail pallor. She gave off ‘off-balanced’ vibes—pretty intense, wild.”49 Valerie leaned hard on the edge of reason.