Special Supplement, Quicksilver Times: Women's Liberation by QUICKSILVER TIMES - [1969]

[Washington, DC?]: Quicksilver Times, [1969]. First Edition. Tabloid (42.5cm.); pictorial self-wrappers; 8-22pp. (as issued); illus. throughout. Newsprint uniformly toned, mail fold as issued, else Near Fine. Special supplement issued by the underground newspaper Quicksilver Times devoted to the Women's Liberation Movement. Date based on a calendar of events on p. 20 for October, 1969. Includes articles on abortion and WITCH, poetry, and editorials, among them authored by Marilyn Salzman Webb, Alice Wolfson, and Pat Mainardi. One of the best-known counterculture publications to emerge from Washington D.C., Quicksilver Times was published (roughly) every three weeks from June 16, 1969 to August 1972 by the staff collective. Content was largely dedicated to the anti-war effort, gay rights, feminism, and the Black Panther Party, and the general aesthetic of the paper largely embraced the hippie and drug culture of the time. The most interesting aspect of the paper was its infiltration and manipulation at the hands of a domestic CIA operative named Salvatore John Ferrera. Ferrera was assigned to infiltrate the Quicksilver collective by senior CIA official Richard Ober as part of the departments MHCHAOS project. Using the alias 'Sal Torey,' Ferrera was able to gain the collective's trust almost from the get-go, making himself indispensible as both a writer and photographer. His articles and photos appear in nearly every issue of Quicksilver Times - more than thirty issues altogether (MACKENZIE, Angus. Secrets: The CIA's War At Home, pp.31-34). After three years of contending with dissention, printing disruptions, and counterintelligence measures, the paper ceased publication.