Houghton Library welcomes Erin McGuirl, Curator of the Mortimer Rare Book Collection at Smith College, who will give the Spring 2026 George Parker Winship Lecture on "No Modern Publishing Without Women: The Story of Dr. Sabine Jessner Sehlinger, the Unrecognized Co-Translator of Simone de Beauvoir."

In her recent essay for the Thanks for Typing catalog, Erin McGuirl surfaced the story of the uncredited co-translator of Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxième Sexe, Dr. Sabine Jessner Sehlinger. In this talk, McGuirl will recount the story of the 1950 English translation as a collaboration between Smith College zoologist Dr. Howard M. Parshley and Dr. Sehlinger, then an adjunct professor and European refugee of Jewish descent. Using Dr. Sehlinger's story as a springboard, McGuirl will explore how women's typing and secretarial labor have been elided from the history of 20th century American publishing through an exploration of the question she asks in her essay: how did glaring evidence of Sehlinger's work in a well-used archival collection go unnoticed for so long?

Erin McGuirl is the Curator of Rare Books at Smith College where she stewards and teaches with the Mortimer Rare Book Collection. Since 2016, her research and publications have recovered the work of women secretaries in Hollywood and beyond. Her most recent article, "Women's Work in Film Production and the Documents of Film History" was published in the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies in September 2025. McGuirl has worked with special collections since 2008, including as the Executive Director of the Bibliographical Society of America, the Special Collections Librarian at the historic New York Society Library, and bibliographer to the screenplay collector Robert M. Rubin.

Opening Reception

Afterwards, join us for the opening reception from 6:30–7:30 PM in the Edison and Newman Room. Beverages and hors d'oeuvres will be provided. Registration is encouraged but not required.