Review: The Secret History of Wonder Woman

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The title of this book would leave you to believe that this is a historical look at Wonder Woman, the superheroine and it is in part, but not the main part and not until the last third of the book. This book is a biography of Wonder Woman's creator, William Moulton Marston. It is about the people and events of his life and the events of the world around him that inspired the comic book icon. Marston grew up in the age of women's suffrage, the early feminist movement, and the fight for birth control. He was a lawyer, a psychologist, and the inventor of the lie detector test (before the polygraph). He was once an esteemed faculty member at many colleges, including Harvard. He carried out tests on lie detection during his tenure as a student and professor. Eventually, he was labeled a bit of a kook and had trouble keeping a job. He married a suffragette, named Elizabeth Holloway who really became the family breadwinner. They also had a very secret life behind closed doors that was kept for their entire lives. After marrying Holloway, Marston met Olive Byrne, the niece of birth control activist Margaret Sanger. It was Sanger who helped build what is today Planned Parenthood. Marston took Olive Byrne in as his mistress (and his wife's), having quite a three-some type marriage. They also included another woman as part of their family, Marjorie Wilkes Huntley, however, she appeared to be just a companion and not a sexual partner of anyone's.

Now how does Wonder Woman fit into all of this? Marston also wrote plays, to earn money during his college years. He used those connections to help get him into the movie business when his career as a college professor floundered. Universal Studios, during the 1930s, was looking for a psychologist to help them make editing decisions based on how certain movie scene elicit emotions from the audience. Using his super duper lie detection test, Universal hired Marston as an advisor and he went to work on experiments with audiences.

Yes, I'm getting to Wonder Woman. Those movie connections also led him to the work of comics and superheroes. Inspired by all (and I mean ALL) of the women in his life, Marston set out to create a female superhero to rival Superman and Batman. Pulling theme ideas from the suffrage and feminist movements that his ladies were involved in, Wonder Woman became the epitome of a strong, independent superhero that is not tied down or pushed into submission by a man. Wonder Woman's roots come from the Amazonia Island of Pleasure where women ruled and men were not allowed.

The first 2/3rds of the book are really the biography of Marston and his family, with a history lesson in suffrage and the early feminist movement. Interspersed in these chapters is some foreshadowing of Wonder Woman comic strip themes, with pictures of the comic panels showing how some of the real-life events of the Marstons show up in future editions of Wonder Woman. The last third of the book details the actual history of the comic strip itself, from inception through the popular series with Lynda Carter.

Don't miss reading the Afterwards. All those secrets that were kept behind closed doors at the Marston house are revealed. All those years, the secret of the family trio was not even revealed to the children of Marston by both of his loves. They all lived as one family, but everyone, including the children, believed Olive to be a dear friend or former housekeeper and each child was told a different story.

This was an exhaustive but very interesting look at so many different subjects that surprisingly are all interrelated. Lepore does an excellent job of weaving it all together. I wasn't so sure about this at the beginning because the Wonder Woman references were sparse, but it is those tidbits that kept me engaged until the full secret of the strange tryst began to be unveiled. It is an obscure but fascinating look at the beginning of the feminist movement. Anyone who remotely considers themselves a feminist or is interested in the history of women's suffrage needs to read this one.

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