A fierce intellectual, an intrepid scholar, a wicked wit and an uncompromising radical, Mary Daly was the first feminist philosopher and theologian. Daly, who died Jan. 3 at 81, taught at Boston College for 33 years, and her outspoken views gave the school's Jesuit administration indigestion nearly every day. An eloquent critic of patriarchal organized religion, she barred men from her feminist-ethics classes--citing how their presence could change the dynamics of discussions--yet was willing to tutor them privately. And though she was the recipient of doctorates in religion and sacred theology, she left the church and confronted its politics. Daly also authored 10 books, including The Church and the Second Sex and Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation. "There is nothing like the sound of women really laughing," she wrote in Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. She was a central figure in contemporary feminist thought, and her influence is unlikely to fade.
Morgan is the author of 20 books of poetry, nonfiction and fiction and a former editor in chief of Ms. magazine