WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE - JOHN, Nancy A. (ed.).

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Holloway Jingles. First edition, association copy, with the ownership signature of the suffragette Francis Mary McPhun on the half-title. McPhun was the sister of Margaret McPhun, whose poem "To a Fellow Prisoner" is included here. Both sisters were imprisoned for participating in the window-smashing campaign of March 1912 and were awarded Hunger Strike Medals upon their release.The March campaign was the WSPU's largest co-ordinated use of window smashing yet; it involved over 150 women, 76 of whom were imprisoned. Overcrowding at Holloway meant that "routine discipline and control broke down... By turning their imprisonment into a platform for activism and camaraderie, the suffragettes were able to amplify their message" (Bow Street Museum). The vast number of convictions meant that women were imprisoned as far away as Birmingham.The poems were smuggled out by the Scottish suffragettes Nancy John and Janet Barrowman. Other contributors to the collection included Emily Davison, Joan Lavendar Bailie Guthrie, and Theresa Gough. "Part of its appeal lies in the unexpectedness of articulate voices emerging from so base a situation. The suffragettes maintained a strong sense of the inappropriateness of prison for their deeds and conveyed this to their readers at every opportunity. Whether detailing the strange incidents and circumstances of prison life or describing the spiritual insights derived from the experience, the material on this subject maintained a curious duality, stress

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