NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | ONE OF O: THE OPRAH MAGAZINE’S TEN
FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR | NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE
YEAR BY Harper’s Bazaar • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Publishers
Weekly
Gloria Steinem—writer, activist, organizer, and inspiring
leader—now tells a story she has never told before, a candid
account of her life as a traveler, a listener, and a catalyst for
change. Includes “Secrets,” a new chapter!
When people ask me why I still have hope and energy after all
these years, I always say: Because I travel. Taking to the
road—by which I mean letting the road take you—changed who I
thought I was. The road is messy in the way that real life is
messy. It leads us out of denial and into reality, out of theory
and into practice, out of caution and into action, out of
statistics and into stories—in short, out of our heads and into
our hearts.
Gloria Steinem had an itinerant childhood. When she was a young
girl, her her would pack the family in the car every fall and
drive across country searching for adventure and trying to make a
living. The were ed: Gloria realized that growing up
didn’t have to mean settling down. And so began a lifetime of
travel, of activism and leadership, of listening to people whose
voices and ideas would inspire change and revolution.
My Life on the Road is the moving, funny, and profound story of
Gloria’s growth and also the growth of a revolutionary movement
for equality—and the story of how surprising encounters on the
road shaped both. From her first experience of social activism
among women in India to her work as a journalist in the 1960s;
from the whirlwind of political campaigns to the founding of Ms.
magazine; from the historic 1977 National Women’s Conference to
her travels through Indian Country—a lifetime spent on the road
allowed Gloria to listen and connect deeply with people, to
understand that context is everything, and to become part of a
movement that would change the world.
In prose that is revealing and rich, Gloria reminds us that
living in an open, observant, and “on the road” state of mind can
make a difference in how we learn, what we do, and how we
understand each other.
Praise for My Life on the Road
“Like Steinem herself, [My Life on the Road] is thoughtful and
astonishingly humble. It is also filled with a sense of the
momentous while offering deeply personal ins into what
shaped her.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“A lyrical meditation on restlessness and the quest for equity .
. . Part of the appeal of My Life is how Steinem, with evocative,
melodic prose, conveys the air of discovery and wonder she felt
during so many of her journeys. . . . The lessons imparted in
Life on the Road offer more than a reminiscence. They are a
beacon of hope for the future.”—USA Today
“A warmly companionable look back at nearly five decades as
itinerant feminist organizer and standard-bearer. If you’ve ever
wondered what it might be like to sit down with Ms. Steinem for a
casual dinner, this disarmingly book gives a pretty good
idea, mixing hard-won pragmatic lessons with more inspirational
ins.”—The New York Times
“Steinem rocks. My Life on the Road abounds with fresh ins
and is as populist as can be.”—The Boston Globe
“In person and in her writing, Steinem exudes a rare combination
of calm, humility and honesty about her weaknesses that explains
all she has accomplished.”—Jezebel