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Martha didn't throw the magazines away. She drove them to her book club.

The name was stamped in bruised-plum ink on the recycled cardstock cover. Below it, in smaller type: A Magazine for the Rest of Us. mutha magazine alison mutha magazine

Within a year, "Mutha Magazine" had a circulation of 10,000. Within three years, it was a glossy (but still slightly smudged) national publication. Alison never fired Martha; she made her the "Mutha Emeritus," the magazine’s conscience. Martha didn't throw the magazines away

The book club was composed of six women between the ages of 68 and 82. They passed the copies around like contraband. By Friday, Martha had written Alison a letter, handwritten in looping cursive: Below it, in smaller type: A Magazine for the Rest of Us

A bulk shipment meant for a feminist bookstore in Seattle was accidentally delivered to "Martha's Bible & Hymn Society" in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Martha, a 74-year-old widow with blue-rinsed hair, opened the box expecting a new shipment of inspirational pamphlets. Instead, she found twenty copies of Alison’s magazine.