The Secret History of Wonder Woman

August 15, 2014
The surprising origins of a 20th-century goddess. Wonder Woman, writes Lepore (History/Harvard Univ.; Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, 2013), "was the product of the suffragist, feminist, and birth control movements of the 1900s and 1910s and became a source of the women's liberation and feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s." Long-legged, wearing short shorts and knee-high red boots, Wonder Woman burst into comics in 1941, the creation of William Moulton Marston, a Harvard-educated psychologist. Marston, a master at self-promotion, had failed as a college professor; colleagues scorned his publicity stunts. When he tried to market himself as a psychology consultant to the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover opened a file on him. Among the many topics on which Marston expounded was women's power. "Women have twice the emotional development, the ability for love, than man has," he announced. Oddly, he also believed that submission and bondage were intrinsic to women's happiness. "In episode after episode," writes Lepore, "Wonder Woman is chained, bound, gagged, lassoed, tied, fettered and manacled," scenes that Marston described "in careful, intimate detail, with utmost precision," so that the artist who drew the series could get them exactly right. The creation, publishing history and eventual demise of the cartoon character are only part of Lepore's story, which uncovers the secret of Marston's startlingly unconventional family. Married to Elizabeth "Betty" Holloway, who often provided the family's sole support, Marston brought into their home Olive Byrne, the niece of Margaret Sanger. Byrne had been his student, became his mistress, and had two of his children, who were brought up thinking their father had died. Marston had two children with Holloway, as well, whom Byrne raised, freeing Holloway to go to work. After Marston's death in 1947, the two women spent the rest of their lives together. Lepore mines new archival sources to reconstruct Marston's tangled home life and the controversy generated by Wonder Woman. It's an irresistible story, and the author tells it with relish and delight.

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Starred review from September 1, 2014
In her latest compelling book of historical sleuthing and resurrection, Lepore (Book of Ages, 2013) chronicles the creation and assesses the impact of Wonder Woman, the most popular female comic-book superhero of all time. The tiara-wearing amazon burst forth in 1941, the brainchild of Charles Moulton (pen name of William Moulton Marston), a controversial, Harvard-educated polymath and huckster who invented the lie-detector test and lived a life of deception. The first historian granted access to Marston's private papers, Lepore tells a true tale nearly as outlandish as the plots Marston concocted for Wonder Woman. While Marston's schemes led to precedent-setting court cases, he was living a daringly unconventional life with his wife, the diligent attorney Sadie Elizabeth Holloway; his student-turned-lover, Olive Byrne, niece of the great birth-control advocate, Margaret Sanger; and the children he had with each. Lepore thoroughly covers their colorful lives and every aspect of Wonder Woman's persona and adventures, including Marston's penchant for depicting the superhero bound in chains, then breaking triumphantly free. Evidence of a fascination with bondage or a visual metaphor for overcoming the oppression of sexism? Lepore restores Wonder Woman to her rightful place as an essential women's rights icon in this dynamically researched and interpreted, spectacularly illustrated, downright astounding work of discovery that injects new zest into the history of feminism. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Vigorous promotion and a cross-country author tour will spread word of intellectual wonder woman Lepore's exciting portrait of a superhero.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

September 15, 2014

New Yorker writer Lepore (David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of History, Harvard Univ.) presents an engaging, well-researched look at the unconventional family behind the character and stories of Wonder Woman. The author focuses on the character's creator, William Moulton Marston, and his family: Elizabeth Holloway Marston, his wife and partial inspiration for the character; Olive Byrne, who lived with the couple in a polyamorous relationship; and Margaret Huntley, who also lived with the family on and off through the years. Also featured are the family's four children: two with Holloway Marston and two with Byrne. Marston was a psychologist, one of the originators of the modern lie detector, and a fervent propagandist of female sexual power, if not necessarily female emancipation. Lepore handles her potentially thorny topic well and manages to avoid being salacious or gossipy. Readers looking for an exploration of Wonder Woman herself would do better to try Tim Hanley's Wonder Woman Unbound. Lepore uses the character more as a touchstone to guide her exploration of the Marston family. VERDICT Fans interested in the background of the character and readers who appreciate well-written popular history will enjoy this thought-provoking volume. [See Prepub Alert, 4/21/14.]--Hanna Clutterbuck, Harvard Univ. Lib., Cambridge, MA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 15, 2014

A Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard historian, Lepore tells the story of Wonder Woman and her creator, William Moulton Marston, whom Lepore portrays as holding strong feminist beliefs. Interestingly, he also invented the lie detector.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.