Pope Joan Website Revisits the Middle Ages with a Feminist Edge

Posted on September 26, 1997

The ninth century woman who disguised herself as a man to attain the highest throne in Christendom is today the subject of an interactive web site: http://www.popejoan.com.

The site is the work of Donna Woolfolk Cross, author of Pope Joan, the historical drama about the only woman ever to attain the papal throne. In addition to offering excerpts and information about the new book, the site enables readers to ask questions and offer comments to the author--and get a personal response.

Pope Joan is one of the debut books in Ballantine Book's exciting new "Reader's Circle" series. Every copy of Pope Joan has a guide in the back with questions for group discussion, as well as an interview with the author. To kick off the new series, Cross will chat by e-mail or telephone with any reading group that selects her book. Interested reading groups can leave a message on the website, and the author will contact them to set up a date and time.

Pope Joan is the engaging story of a brilliant and talented woman who rebelled against the medieval social strictures that forbade women to learn to read and write. In October, because of her focus on women's history and women's rights, Donna Woolfolk Cross will receive the National Organization for Women (NOW) award for "Feminist History" in New York. "For 1100 years, men have denied Joan's existence," comments Cross, "but she is the legend that will not die."

Now an international bestseller, the book is "a colorful, richly imagined novel," writes Publishers Weekly, and an "exciting journey through history as it's being made" according to the San Francisco Chronicle. "Pope Joan has all the elements," says the Los Angeles Times, "love, sex, violence, duplicity, and long-buried secrets." New Line Cinema has already secured the film rights.