Faber seizes Humble's 'radical new history' of psychoanalysts in five-way auction

Faber has acquired the untold history of three pioneering female psychoanalysts by Catherine Humble, in a five-way auction.

Ella Griffiths, editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights to Women in the Shadows of Psychoanalysis from Seren Adams at United Agents. It is slated for publication in spring 2025. Milo Walls, editor at FSG, bought US rights via Georgina Le Grice, while translation rights have been sold in Germany and the Netherlands so far, also by United Agents.

The synopsis states: "Sabina Spielrein, Lou Andreas-Salomé and Joan Riviere are often remembered for the famous men—including Freud, Nietzsche, and Jung—who loved, mentored or exploited them. But these women were groundbreaking intellectuals in their own right: the lost first generation of psychoanalysts, whose intersecting lives and transgressive ideas about sexuality, trauma and consciousness disrupted Vienna and beyond, resonating to this day."

Humble works at the Institute of Psychoanalysis as executive editor of the International Journal of Psychoanalysis. She holds the posts of honorary associate lecturer at the UCL Psychoanalysis Unit and short course tutor in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University. She has co-edited a book and published academic papers on psychoanalysis, literature and film as well as reviewing books for the Telegraph and the Times Literary Supplement.

"I am overjoyed to be published with Faber, FSG and beyond," she said. "These three women led extraordinary lives, making vital, unsung insights into gender, sexuality and mental health. In my work between literature and psychoanalysis, their stories have haunted me, and I’m thrilled to bring their lives out of relative obscurity. It is an immense privilege to be working with such skilled and sensitive editors. I can’t wait to begin."

Griffiths said: "These three remarkable women illuminate a century’s turmoiled psyche. They are inspiring in their commitment to forging careers and championing revolutionary theories while navigating personal experiences of desire, motherhood, abuse and mental illness. Fusing intellectual rigour with luminous storytelling, this is not only a stunning debut group biography but a radical new history of our bodies and minds."

Adams added: “It is a dream that Catherine’s first book will be published by Faber, FSG and other prestigious publishers around the world, and this is surely just the start of a long and brilliant career. I can’t wait for readers to meet these three fascinating women through Catherine’s astonishing writing.”