Woman of Valor (97 page)

13.
M.S. to Clarence Gamble, Dec. 1, 1953, MS-LC; M.S. to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, n.d. (1953,) MS-SS; M.S. to Mr. and Mrs. J.D.R., Jr., Feb. 1953; Dana S. Creel to JDR, Jr., Feb. 23, 1954; J.D.R., Jr., to Dana S. Creel, Mar. 5, 1955; D.S.C.to J.D.R., Jr., Mar. 11, 1955; Mrs. J.D.R., Jr., to D.S.C., Mar. 22, 1955; D.S.C. to Tom O. Griessemer, IPPF, Mar. 28, 1955; D.S.C. to Mrs. J.D.R., Jr., Mar. 28, 1955; M.S. to D.S.C, Mar. 31, 1955; Robert C. Bates to General Files, Apr. 11, 1955; and “PPFA Agency Analyses” memoranda of Dec, 1953; May 1954; May 1955; June 1956; May 1957; Aug. 1958, all in Rocky-RG 2. J.D.R., Jr., died at the Arizona Inn in 1960.

14.
Edwina Sanger to M.S., Mar. 12, Apr. 6, and Aug. 2, 1953, MS-LC, and M.S. to Vera Houghton, Mar. 12, 1954, MS-SS; Alex Sanger interview with the author.

15.
M.S. to Robert Levy, Jan. 9, 1953, MS-LC; M.S. to Herbert and Betty Simonds, May 11, 1953, MS-LC, mentions “feeling better on new drug”; M.S. to
The New York Times
subscription department, Jan. 7, 1953, MS-LC. I am also grateful to Sumiko Ohmori for her engaging reminiscences of June, 1988, New York, N.Y.

16.
Lawrence Lader,
The Margaret Sanger Story
(New York: 1955); Lader interview with the author, Nov. 1986, New York, N.Y. M.S. to Lawrence Lader, July 5, 1953, Nov. 6, 1953, Jan. 19, 1954, Mar. 2, 1954, Mar. 11,1954, recently given to the Sanger Papers Project to be deposited in MS-SS. The Cyon quote is from F.C. to M.S., June 18, 1957, MS-SS. Dorothy Brush's comment is in D.B. to a “Mr. Barker,” Feb. 22, 1955, DB-SS. The Sanger quotes are from M.S. to Abraham Stone, n.d., AS-Countway and M.S. to Harriet Pilpel, July 16, 1954; also see M.S. to H.P., Dec. 2, 1954, MS-SS. The Ellis distortions are acknowledged in M.S. to Françoise Cyon, Apr. 24, July 22, and Sept. 9, 1955, Jan. 25, May 2, and July 13, 1956, and F.C. to M.S., May 13, 1956, but Margaret refused to accept responsibility for them. Wm. Sanger to M.S., July 1, 1953, MS-LC, refuses to cooperate.

17.
This dimension of the history of the pill's development is covered more extensively in Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 311-16, from which much of this narrative is taken. I am grateful to Jim Reed for sharing his research with me, including correspondence and other material from the papers of Gregory Pincus at the Library of Congress.

18.
Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 317-39; Obituary for Katherine Dexter McCormick from the
Santa-Barbara News-Press
, Dec. 31, 1967, clipping in MS-SS; M.S. to K.M., June 10 and Sept. 17, 1938; K.M. to M.S., Aug. 15, 1938, MS-LC:

19.
Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 339-45; M.S. to K.D.R., Nov. 28, 1948, and miscellaneous additional correspondence from that year; K.M. to M.S., Oct. 19, 1950 and M.S. to K.M., Oct. 27, 1950; K.M. to M.S., enclosing the $5,000 check for international work; M.S. to K.M., Jan. 8, 1951; K. M. to M.S., Mar. 30, 1952, all in MS-SS; M.S. to K.M., Feb. 24, Mar. 3, Mar. 27, Oct. 5, 1953, all in MS-LC. Copies of the correspondence detailing PPFA's early support for Pincus are in AS-Countway. See, for example, D. F. Milam, M.D. to G.P., Oct. 31, 1950. Gregory Pincus, “Report of Progress to PPFA,” Jan. 24, 1952, is in MS-SS. Also see Gregory Pincus,
The Control of Fertility
(New York: 1965), p. 6.

20.
Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 339-45. Reed determines the extent of McCormick's contribution from an interview with Hudson Hoagland. M.S. to Betty Simonds, June 2, 1953, MS-LC, mentions her appointment with McCormick and Pincus. The direct quote is from K.M. to M.S., Feb. 17, 1954, MS-SS.

21.
M.S. to K.M., Feb. 23, 1954; G.P. to K.M., Mar. 5; G.P. to PPFA, Progress Report, Mar. 5; M.S. to K.M., Mar. 26; K.M. to G.P., Mar. 31; G.P. to M.S., Mar. 31; A. Stone to K.M., Apr. 22; K.M. to M.S. June 17, 1954, all in MS-SS; Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 348-58. Also see John D. Rock, M.D., and David Loth,
Voluntary Parenthood
(New York: 1949); John Rock, M.D.,
The Time Has Come, A Catholic Doctor's Proposals to End the Battle over Birth Control
(New York: 1963); and on the Sanger clinic's role in testing: M.S. to Dr. Lena Levine, Feb. 20, 1956, MS-SS; and Drs. Herbert S. Kupperman and Abraham Stone, “Preliminary Report on Progesterone Studies,” Mar. 1956, AS-Countway. “Conversation with Dr. Pincus, June 30, 1955,” mentions the Worcester State Hospital sample. The final quotes are from K.M. to M.S., May 31, 1955, both in MS-SS; and M.S. to Gregory Pincus, Gregory Pincus Papers, Library of Congress, hereinafter, GP-LC.

22.
M.S. to K. M., Dec. 12, 1956, and K.M. to M.S., June 3, 1957, MS-SS.

23.
M.S. to Herbert and Betty Simonds, May 11, 1953, MS-LC; Stockholm Recording and “This I Believe,” script by Margaret Sanger, Nov. 1953, MS-SS; M.S. to Lawrence Lader, Aug. 26, 1953, Sanger Papers Project, to be deposited in MS-SS; author's interviews with Harriet Pilpel, Feb. 11, 1986, and Frances Ferguson, June 9, 1986.

24.
On Japan, see Shidzue Kato,
Fight for Women's Happiness
, p. 101. My thanks to Taki Katoh for sending me a copy of the book. Johnson, “Birth Control Movement in Japan,” translated the entire transcript of the committee session back into English and appended it to her dissertation, Appendix B., pp. 146-79. There are several references in the Q&A to Margaret's fatigue. Lady Rama Rau's disdain for the Japanese is in M.S. to Vera Houghton, Mar. 23, 1956, IPPF-Cardiff. T.O. Greissemer to Mrs. J.D.R., Jr., Sept. 22, 1955, details the expenditures from her grant for the Tokyo conference, and Montgomery S. Bradley to “General Files,” July 18, 1956, summarizes opinion about it, both in Rocky-RG 2. News articles on Margaret's trip were in the
Arizona Star
, in Sept. 1955, microfilm in the library of the University of Arizona in Tucson. On the U.N., see Piotrow,
World Population
, p. 13. On IPPF in general, see Mrs. Philip W. Pillsbury, May 1954 report, pp. 3-7; M.S. to Mrs. G. J. Watumull, Nov. 16, 1953, MS-LC, and re: reimbursements to Margaret, see M.S. to Vera Houghton, Mar. 26, July 13, Aug. 11, Aug. 17, 1954; M.S. to Jerome Fisher (treasurer), Mar. 26, 1954; Tom Greissemer to M.S., Aug. 11, 1954, all in IPPF-Cardiff; and Juliet Rublee to M.S., n.d. (1953), MS-LC. Also see Robert C. Bates, memorandum, “International Planned Parenthood Federation, Dec. 23, 1953,” Rocky-RG 2; and Berryl Suitters,
Be Brave and Angry: Chronicles of the International Planned Parenthood Federation
(London: 1973), pp. 68-91. Finally, on Margaret's ill health, see news reports from the
Arizona Star
for Mar. 24, Mar. 25, June 27, July 28, and July 31, 1955, University of Arizona, Tucson.

25.
About finding more money, see M.S. to Katherine McCormick, undated (1954); June 19, 1954, and Feb. 27, 1956, all in MS-SS. McCormick, in turn, sent money to cover expenses when Margaret returned to the hospital in October of 1954. See K.M. to M.S., Oct. 14, 1954, MS-SS. The quotes are respectively from Juliet Rublee to Dorothy Brush (Rublee comments on Brush's “bitchy” remark), Aug. 19, 1953, and M.S. to D.B., July 28, 1956, both in MS-SS. Additional discussion of internal IPPF problems is in the correspondence between M.S. and Eleanor Pillsbury during 1956, MS-SS, and in M.S. to Mrs. Raymond V. Ingersoll, July 22, 1959, MS-SS. M.S. to “Friends of Planned Parenthood” (in Massachusetts), Feb. 27, 1953, MS-LC, is one of many examples of how vituperative her criticisms could be. Also see Frances Ferguson's interview with James Reed, June 3, 1974, Schlesinger Library Oral History Project; my own interview with Mrs. Ferguson on June 9, 1986 in New York; and, finally, Suitters,
Be Brave and Angry
, pp. 184-86.

26.
An extensive Gamble-Sanger correspondence from this period is in MSSS. Also see M.S. to Dhanvanthi Rama Rau, June 25 and Sept. 2, 1954, MS-SS; M.S., to Vera Houghton, Nov. 4, 1953, Feb. 8 and April 8, 1955; C.P. Blacker to M.S., Aug. 8, 1955; V.H. to M.S., Aug. 27 and Dec. 30, 1954, Feb. 24 and June 29, 1955, all in IPPF-Cardiff.

27.
Hugh Moore, Bruce Barton, and Will Clayton to Mrs. Walter E. Campbell, Nov. 13, 1956, enclosing a copy of
The Population Bomb
; Campbell to Moore, Nov. 30, 1956; Moore to Campbell, Jan 10, 1957; Campbell to Charles W. Morton, associate editor,
The Atlantic Monthly
, Nov. 8, 1957, all in PPLMSS. The saga of the aborted Washington Conference and the alternative regional initiative in Jamaica, W.I., is in E. Weeks to Dana S. Creel and Montgomery Bradley, June 11, 1956; Montgomery S. Bradley to general files, June 14, 1956; D.S.C. to M.S., Sept. 28, 1956; D.S. C. to Mrs. J.D.R., Jr., Nov. 29, 1956; M.S. to D.S.C., Dec. 12, 1956; D.S.C. to Mrs. J.D.R., Jr., May 1, 1957; D.S.C. to Laurance S. Rockefeller, Mar. 17, 1958, all in Rocky-RG 2. Also see M.S. to Gregory Pincus, Dec. 12, 1958, GP-LC. The Osborn quote is from F.O. to M.S., April 3, 1947, MS-SS. Finally, see Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 303-304, and Piotrow,
World Population
, pp. 18-19.

28.
Examples of Sanger's declining health and increasing disenchantment are in M.S. to Dorothy Brush, Nov. 12, 1956, Apr. 11 and Nov. 11, 1957, DB-SS; M.S. to Vera Houghton, Aug. 30, 1956, May 21 and July 18, 1957; Mrs. G. J. Watumull to C. P. Blacker, Feb. 22, 1957; and ten “President's Memoranda” announced in a letter of Feb. 22, 1958, and first distributed on May 10 and July 18, 1958, all in IPPF-Cardiff. Indulgent responses include Vera Houghton to M.S., June 30, 1958. The material quoted is in “Margaret” (Margaret Pyke) to “Pip” (C. P. Blacker), Aug. 12, 1958, both in IPPF-Cardiff, and the overall impression was confirmed by my interview with Frances Ferguson, June 9, 1986. The final quotes are from M.S. to Dorothy Brush, Nov. 12, 1956, and D.B. to Margaret Grierson, Dec. 3, 1957, both in DB-SS. Finally, see Suitters,
Be Brave and Angry
, pp. 135.

29.
A complete, fifteen-page transcript of the Mike Wallace interview is in MS-SS. (A brief excerpt, incorporating only the Sanger quote about celibate priests, was recently included in a retrospective on Wallace's career shown on CBS News, and I am grateful to Betsy Roistacher for calling my attention to it.) A clipping of the Jack Gould review from
The New York Times
, Sept. 23, 1957, is also at Smith, along with several folders of mail received in response to the interview, most of it from opponents, eager to chastize Margaret's views. Margaret Sanger Marston's recollections are from my interview with her in 1985, Joan Hoppe's, from a conversation with Peter Engelman. Margaret told Olive Richard not to be distressed over Wallace. “He was, of course, speaking for the R. C. 's as instructed,” she wrote in M.S. to Olive Byrne Richard, Sanger Papers Project, to be deposited in MS-SS.

21: WOMAN OF THE CENTURY

1.
Gregory Pincus to Katherine McCormick, Mar. 5, 1954; K.M. to M.S., July 19, 1954; and Pincus to K.M., July 27, 1957, details the Puerto Rico situation. Frederick Osborn to Vera Houghton, Apr. 22, 1957, IPPF-Cardiff, confirms Population Council interest in joint meetings. Gregory Pincus to M.S., July 22, 1957, GP-LC, reports on the pill and side-effects. On Puerto Rico, see Reuben J. Hill, J. Mayone Stycos, Kurt W. Beck,
The Family and Population Control: A Puerto Rican Experiment in Social Change
(Chapel Hill, N.C.: 1959), passim; Adaline Pendleton Satterthwaite, M.D., interview with James Reed, Schlesinger-Rockefeller Oral History Project, June 1974, pp. 13-32; and finally, Phyllis Tilson Piotrow,
World Population Crisis: The United States Response
(New York: 1973), pp. 31-32, and James Reed,
Birth Control Movement and American Society: From Private Vice to Public Virture
(Princeton: 1984), pp. 359-61.

2.
PPFA's early reticence about the pill is in Carl Hartman, M.D. and Alan Guttmacher, M.D., July 10, 1957; and K.M. to M.S., Jan. 28, 1958, enclosing “Excerpt from Report of National Director,” PPFA, Apr. 9, 1958 (with Margaret's margin comment), both in MS-SS. Hartman also expressed his reservations in “Plan for a Planet,” his contribution to “Our Margaret Sanger,” the collection of reminiscences and photographs prepared for her in 1959, pp. 102-107, also in MS-SS. Also see “Enovid Contraceptive Pill Is Cleared by FDA, But Not All the Questions Have Been Answered,”
Science
, 14:8, (Aug. 16, 1963), pp. 621-22; and for more recent contrasting viewpoints, Paul Vaughan, “The Pill Turns Twenty,”
The New York Times Magazine
, June 13, 1976, pp. 9, 61-75; Barbara Seaman, “The New Pill Scare,”
Ms
. 3:12 (June 1975), pp. 61-64, 98-101; and Scientific Working Group on Oral Contraceptives and Neoplasia, The Pill--is there a cancer connection? Report of the World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland: 1990).

3.
On the perceived failure of simple methods in India, see John E. Gordon and John B. Wyon,
The Khanna Study: Population Problems in the Rural Punjab
(New York: 1971), passim, and Reed,
Birth Control Movement
, pp. 300-302. The Population Council authorization of the NCMH to evaluate the effectiveness of contraceptive measures is detailed in Dana S. Creel to the Files July 11, 1957; D.S.C. to Laurance S. Rockefeller, July 16, 1957; and Randolph B. Marston to Arthur Jones, authorizing a $30,000 contribution, all in Rocky-RG 2. Frederick S. Jaffe, “Knowledge, Perception and Change: Notes on a Fragment of Social History,”
The Mt. Sinai Journal of Medicine
42:4 (July-Aug. 1975), pp. 286-99 underscores the effect of American fertility survey research, especially the work of Princeton University demographer Charles F. Westoff, on generating interest in new methods, as well as the caution of Planned Parenthood officials. On the development of the IUD, also see Piotrow,
World Population
, pp. 13-15, and Reed,
idem
, pp. 294-308. Finally, see R. A. Hatcher, F. Guest, F. Stewart, et al.
Contraceptive Technology: 1988-1989
. 14th rev. ed. (New York: 1988); and Wyeth Laboratories Inc.,
Contraceptive Costs in the Nineties: A Comparative Cost-Benefit Study of the Norplant System
(Philadephia: 1990).