The Eleventh Virgin

This is the Cottager Press reprint of the long out-of-print novel THE ELEVENTH VIRGIN by Dorothy Day. Social activist and pioneer Dorothy Day's semi-autobiographical novel THE ELEVENTH VIRGIN was first published in 1924, but Day, who later regretted what she had revealed, tried to destroy all the copies over the course of her lifetime, leaving only a few remaining in the hands of rare book collectors and libraries. This new edition brings the book back into print. Day is best known for co-founding the Catholic Worker's Movement. Before she embraced Catholicism, Day spent her formative years in Bohemian circles in Greenwich Village where she wrote for anarchist and socialist newspapers, worked as a nurse, befriended artists and poets, and participated in the suffragette movement. THE ELEVENTH VIRGIN paints a rich portrait of life in early 20th-century America. While living in New York, Day was entangled in a volatile romance with a man who quoted Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, idealized a life free, and eventually left her alone and pregnant. Day, who then went to a doctor's apartment for an illegal abortion, describes the physical and emotional sensations in a later passage of the book. These events led her to wish it had never been published. 87 years later, readers can view this work though the forgiving lens of time and history. It reveals the human side of a woman who may one day be called a saint. It is a valuable slice of American history, of interest to historians and students of Women's or American Studies. This beautifully and respectfully restored edition, designed to emulate the original printing, should be widely available in libraries and required reading for anyone interested in the complexity of human morality.