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Susan Brownmiller Dies at 90

Katharine Q. Seelye, New York Times:

Susan Brownmiller, the feminist author, journalist and activist whose book “Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape” helped define the modern view of rape, debunking it as an act of passion and reframing it as a crime of power and violence, died on Saturday in the Bronx. She was 90.

It’s a weird sensation when a long-ago part of your life surfaces unexpectedly. I met Susan in the mid-’90s on EchoNYC (where she was known as sueb), and I was fortunate to be part of one of her regular nickel poker games that she held at her West Village apartment. For the longest time I had no idea she was a famous feminist author and activist. To me, she was just my very smart, poker-playing friend. Those evenings of poker remain some of my favorite memories.

During one poker game, I was browsing her book collection and pulled out Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about his father’s experience as a Holocaust survivor. She offered to loan it to me, but only if I promised to read it, warning it wasn’t a light comic book. I agreed. She was right.

I still have that book.

RIP sueb.

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