“Over the course of that first year, these five women knit themselves together into a friend group, a sort of institute within the Institute. They collaborated and debated and celebrated each other’s work. They saw each other as artists first and foremost and in this way differentiated themselves from the more bookish associate scholars. They did not have PhDs, but as the application had requested, they had ‘the equivalent’ training in artistic craft. Joking about the way the Institute compared artists to scholars, they called themselves ‘The Equivalents.’”
I am thoroughly enjoying this group biography of writers and artists in the first years of the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study, a brave and risky venture initiated by the amazing Polly Bunting in 1960.