Robin Morgan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Robin Morgan
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Morgan in 2012
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| Born | January 29, 1941 Lake Worth, Florida, U.S.
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| Education | Columbia University (BA) |
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| Years active | 1940s–present |
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Notable work
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Sisterhood anthologies |
| Spouse(s) |
Kenneth Pitchford
(m. 1962–1983) |
| Children | Blake Morgan |
Robin Morgan (born January 29, 1941) is an American poet, writer, and activist. She is also a journalist, lecturer, and was a child actor. Since the 1960s, she has been a key leader in the American and international women's movement.
Her 1970 book Sisterhood Is Powerful was very important. The New York Public Library called it "One of the 100 Most Influential Books of the 20th Century." Robin Morgan has written over 20 books. These include poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. She was also the editor of Ms. magazine.
In the 1960s, she joined the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements. She helped start feminist groups like New York Radical Women and W.I.T.C.H.. She also helped create many other organizations. These include the Feminist Women's Health Network and the Sisterhood Is Global Institute. In 2005, she co-founded the Women's Media Center with Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda. In 2018, the BBC listed her as one of their 100 Women.
Contents
Robin Morgan: A Young Star
Robin Morgan started her career as a child model when she was very young. Her mother, Faith, and aunt, Sally, helped her begin. When Robin was five, she got her own radio show. It was called Little Robin Morgan on New York's WOR radio station. She also appeared regularly on Juvenile Jury.
Her acting career grew when she was eight. She joined the TV series Mama as Dagmar Hansen. This show started in 1949 and was very popular. Robin also acted in other TV shows during the "Golden Age of Television." She appeared in Kiss and Tell and Alice in Wonderland. She also guest-starred in live dramas like Omnibus and Suspense.
Robin worked with famous directors and writers. She performed with actors like Boris Karloff and Rosalind Russell. From a young age, Robin wanted to write, not act. She left the show Mama when she was 14.
Robin Morgan's Adult Life and Career
As an adult, Robin Morgan continued her education at Columbia University. She started working at a literary agency. There, she met and worked with writers like poet W. H. Auden. She also began publishing her own poetry. Her first poetry book, Monster, came out in 1972. For many years, she kept writing poetry. She also wrote fiction and non-fiction. She lectured at colleges about women's rights.
In 1962, Robin married poet Kenneth Pitchford. Their son, Blake Morgan, was born in 1969. They divorced in 1983. Robin worked as an editor at Grove Press. She was part of an effort to help workers form a union. When Grove Press fired her and others, she led a protest. They occupied the offices in 1970. She and eight other women were arrested. They were protesting the firings and unfair payments to Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow.
In the mid-1970s, Morgan became an editor at Ms. magazine. She worked there for many years. From 1989 to 1994, she was the editor-in-chief. She made Ms. a successful, ad-free, international magazine. It won awards for its writing and design.
In 1979, Robin Morgan was featured on a Supersisters trading card. These cards showed famous women from different fields. Today, these cards are in museum collections.
In 2005, Morgan co-founded The Women’s Media Center. This group works to make women powerful and visible in the media. Her friends Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem helped her. In 2012, she started a weekly radio show and podcast. It is called Women’s Media Center Live With Robin Morgan. The show features her thoughts on news and interviews with activists and artists.
Robin Morgan's Activism
By 1962, Robin Morgan was active in the anti-war movement. She wrote articles and poems for journals like Liberation. In the 1960s, she became more involved in social justice. She worked for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. She was part of the Youth International Party (Yippies). But she noticed sexism within these groups. This led her to focus more on the Women's Liberation movement.
In 1967, Morgan helped start the New York Radical Women group. She organized their protest of the Miss America pageant in 1968. She wrote the No More Miss America! pamphlet. That same year, she co-founded Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (W.I.T.C.H.). This group used public street theater to highlight sexism.
Robin Morgan designed the symbol for the women’s movement. It is the female symbol with a raised fist inside. She is also credited with using the term "herstory" in her 1970 book Sisterhood is Powerful.
With money from Sisterhood Is Powerful, Morgan started a foundation. It was called The Sisterhood Is Powerful Fund. This fund gave money to many early women's groups. In 1970, she led women in taking over the underground newspaper Rat. She wrote an essay called "Goodbye to All That." It explained why she was leaving the "male Left." Years later, she wrote a sequel, "Goodbye To All That #2." This essay defended Hillary Clinton from sexist comments.
In 1977, Morgan joined the Women's Institute for Freedom of the Press (WIFP). This group works to improve communication among women.
Morgan has traveled widely to fight sexism. She has met women activists in the Philippines, Brazil, South Africa, and Iran. She also visited Palestinian refugee camps to report on women's conditions. She has spoken at universities around the world.
Robin Morgan has received many awards for her work. The Feminist Majority Foundation named her "Woman of the Year" in 1990. She received a Lifetime Achievement in Human Rights award in 2002. In 2007, she got the Humanist Heroine Award.
Sisterhood Anthologies
In 1970, Morgan created and edited Sisterhood is Powerful. This was the first collection of feminist writings. It included essays by famous activists like Naomi Weisstein and Kate Millett. It also had historical documents from women's groups. The New York Public Library called it one of the most important books of the 20th century. Robin Morgan used the money from this book to start the first feminist grant-giving group in the US. However, the book was banned in Chile, China, and South Africa.
Her next book, Sisterhood Is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, came out in 1984. It had articles about women in over seventy countries. That same year, she founded the Sisterhood Is Global Institute. This was the first international feminist think tank.
A third book, Sisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, was published in 2003. It was a collection of articles by well-known feminists. It looked back at the feminist movement and planned for its future.
Robin Morgan's Journalism
Morgan's articles and essays have appeared in many publications. These include The Atlantic, Ms., and The New York Times. Her work has been reprinted internationally and translated into 13 languages.
She was a contributing editor for Ms. magazine for many years. She won an award for her cover story on "The First Feminist Exiles from the USSR" in 1981. As editor-in-chief from 1989 to 1994, she relaunched Ms. as an ad-free, international magazine. This earned her several awards. She resigned in 1994 but remains a Consulting Global Editor.
Morgan has also written for online audiences. Her articles include "Letters from Ground Zero" after the September 11 attacks. Her online work is kept in the archives of the Women's Media Center.
Robin Morgan's Books
Robin Morgan has published 21 books. These include poetry, fiction, and her famous Sisterhood anthologies. Before she was known as a feminist leader, she was recognized as a serious poet. A 1972 review of her first poetry book, Monster, called it "A powerful, challenging book." In 1979, she received a writing fellowship for poetry.
Her poetry collections include A Hot January (1999) and Upstairs in the Garden (1990). Poet Alice Walker praised A Hot January. Another review noted that her poems "celebrate the female experience." Critic Jay Parini said Robin Morgan would soon be seen as "one of our first-ranking poets."
Morgan has published three fiction books. Her first novel was Dry Your Smile (1987). This was followed by The Mer-Child (1991). Her most recent novel is The Burning Time (2006). It is a historical novel set in the 14th century. It is based on records from the first witchcraft trial in Ireland. This book was recommended by the American Library Association.
Besides her anthologies, she has written non-fiction books. These include Going Too Far (1978) and The Anatomy of Freedom (1984). Her book The Demon Lover is about the reasons behind terrorism. The New York Times Book Review called it "Important...compelling." Her latest non-fiction book is Fighting Words (2006).
Organizations Robin Morgan Helped Lead
The Sisterhood Is Global Institute
In 1984, Robin Morgan, along with Simone de Beauvoir and women from 80 other countries, founded The Sisterhood Is Global Institute (SIGI). This is an international non-profit group that works with the United Nations. For three decades, it has been the world’s first feminist think-tank. SIGI has helped shape policies and strategies for the international women’s movement. It has also created a global network to support women's groups.
SIGI has done many important things. It created the first Urgent Action Alerts for women’s rights. It also started the first global campaign to make women’s unpaid work visible. Its newest project, Donor Direct Action, connects women’s rights activists with funding and support.
Women’s Media Center
In 2005, Morgan co-founded The Women’s Media Center. She started this non-profit group with her friends Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem. The main goal of this organization is to make women powerful and visible in the media.
Lectures and Teaching
Robin Morgan has been a speaker at many universities in North America. She has traveled across the world as an organizer, speaker, and journalist. She has visited Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Brazil, China, and South Africa. She has also been a guest professor at several universities. She was a visiting professor at Rutgers University in 1987. In 1992, she received an honorary degree from the University of Connecticut at Storrs.
Her personal and professional papers are kept at Duke University. They show her life from the 1940s to today.
Robin Morgan's Personal Life
Robin Morgan grew up in New York. She lived in Mount Vernon and later in Manhattan. She graduated from The Wetter School in 1956. She started publishing serious poetry at age 17.
Robin Morgan has Jewish ancestry. She identifies her religion as Wiccan and/or atheist. She has said she is proud of her roots but does not feel they are central to her identity. She is against all patriarchal religions.
Today, Robin Morgan lives in Manhattan. Her son, Blake Morgan, is a musician. He founded a record company in New York.
In 2000, Morgan published her memoir, Saturday's Child. The New York Times Book Review said it showed her "passion for writing" and "love and respect for her son."
In April 2013, Robin Morgan shared that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2010. She discussed it on her radio show. She said her quality of life was still "normal." Since her diagnosis, she has become active with the Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF). She helps the PDF work to better support women with Parkinson's disease. Morgan has also written new poetry about her experience. She performed some of these poems in a TED Talk in 2015.
Robin Morgan's Birth and Parents
Robin Morgan's mother, Faith Berkeley Morgan, traveled to Florida to give birth. She wanted privacy because she was not married. Robin's father was a doctor named Mates Morgenstern. He did not go with Faith.
For many years, Robin's mother told her that her father had died in World War II. But Robin later learned the truth. In 1961, she found her father, Dr. Mates Morgenstern, in New Jersey. He told her that she was born on January 29, 1941, a year earlier than she thought. He showed her a copy of her birth certificate. Her mother had changed the date to hide the birth.
Dr. Morgenstern told Robin that he had met her mother briefly. He had married another woman and had two sons. He did not want his sons to know about Robin. Robin met her father only twice. She wrote about these meetings in her autobiography, Saturday's Child: A Memoir.
Later, when Faith Morgan developed Parkinson's disease, Robin called her father. She asked if he wanted to say goodbye, but he declined. During Faith's illness, her life savings, which were Robin's earnings from her child acting career, were stolen by caregivers. Robin chose not to press charges.
Robin Morgan's Filmography
- 1940s
- Citizen Saint: The Life of Mother Cabrini (playing Francesca S. Cabrini as a child)
- The Little Robin Morgan Show as herself (WOR radio show)
- Juvenile Jury as herself
- 1950s
- Mama as Dagmar Hansen
- Kraft Television Theatre's Alice in Wonderland (as Alice)
- Mr. I-Magination (as self)
- Tales of Tomorrow (starring as Lily Massner)
- Kiss and Tell TV Special (starring as Corliss Archer, 1956)
- Other videos and kinescopes in the Robin Morgan Collection at the Paley Center for Media, NYC
- 1980s - 2010s
- Not a Love Story: A Film About ... [Feature length Documentary] (as herself) (1981)
- The American Experience TV Documentary (as herself) (2002)
- 1968 TV Documentary with Tom Brokaw (as herself) (2007)
- Interview by Ronnie Eldridge (2007)
- Makers: Women Who Make America on PBS (2013)
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See also
In Spanish: Robin Morgan para niños
