Woman on the Edge of Time was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1976, and it remains one of the most important novels of the American feminist movement — a work that operates simultaneously as science fiction, political manifesto, and psychiatric case study, refusing to let the reader settle into any single genre.
Connie Ramos is thirty-seven, Mexican-American, poor, and has been committed to a New York mental institution after a violent incident (defending her niece from a pimp). She is powerless — the hospital can drug her, experiment on her, and restrain her with impunity. In this state of total disempowerment, she begins receiving visits from Luciente, a person from a future society (Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, 2137) who explains that the future is not fixed: there are possible futures, and the choices made in Connie’s time will determine which one becomes real.
The utopian future Piercy imagines is radical even by 1976 standards: gender has been abolished (pronouns are neutral, reproductive technology has freed women from biological motherhood, men can breastfeed through hormonal choice), ecology governs all decisions, property is communal, art is central to life, and conflict is resolved through non-coercive processes. The dystopian alternative — also glimpsed — is a hyper-capitalist nightmare of genetic modification, corporate ownership of bodies, and permanent underclass servitude.
The novel never resolves whether Connie’s visions are real or psychotic — and this ambiguity is its most powerful device.
Collecting Woman on the Edge of Time
First edition (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1976): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $40–$120
- Signed first edition: $80–$200
- Without jacket: $10–$20