The Equivalents: The Untold Story of the Five Friends Who Started a Personal, Political, and Artistic Revolution

"When she sticks to her subject, the book is superb, especially when she recounts Sexton's personal struggles and offers close analyses of each author's works."

"Doherty's elegantly composed account of this circle, with its camaraderie and occasional rivalries, doubles as an affectionate — if not entirely uncritical — homage to the institute itself ..."

"Doherty focuses on five women: three writers, Kumin, Sexton, and Tillie Olsen; the painter Barbara Swan, who specialized in expressionist portraits dense with texture and emotions; and the sculptor Marianna Pineda, a Brookline mother of three who longed for recognition from an artistic community ..."

"We are still trying to figure it out."

"Doherty's overall galvanizing look at a little-explored conjunction of critical feminist voices should incite provocative historical context to current-day discussions around the need for more support of women's intellectual work."

"Doherty uses their correspondence and diaries to paint a vivid and compelling portrait of mutual support and artistic innovation, in spite of their class differences, in the decades before modern feminism ..."

"Doherty's first book, is written with panache."

"Maggie Doherty's brilliant new book, The Equivalents, tells the story of the institute by focusing on the five fellows who called themselves 'The Equivalents' ..."

"Doherty closes with a comparison of that era with ours."

"It's hard to tell whether the book's primary interest lies in portraying the complicated and demanding friendships among Kumin, Sexton and Olsen in the context of what is now the Radcliffe Institute, or in representing, at speed, the diverse strands of feminist activism and scholarship in the late '60s and '70s."