Includes index.

My mother, my father and Peoria -- Discovering the life of the mind -- Become political, becoming sexual -- A "happy" suburban housewife -- The mystery of my writing The Feminine Mystique -- "It changed my whole life" -- Starting the women's movement -- Out of the mainstream into the revolution -- The enemies without and the enemies within -- Triumph and treachery within the sisterhood -- Travels with Emily and the women's movement -- Rules of engagement -- Shattering the age mystique -- New beginnings.

A portrait of the author of "The Feminine Mystique" takes readers from her lonely childhood and Smith College education through her years as a housewife and mother, to her founding of NOW and her efforts to keep the movement from becoming extremist.