By the end of the 1960s, both Florence Howe and her then husband Paul Lauter had taught in the Freedom Schools in Mississippi, and Howe was already attempting to compile a mini-women’s studies curriculum for her writing students at Goucher College in Baltimore. As the 1970s approached, Howe was convinced that, just as she needed texts for teaching about women, so would other educators. Her initial appeal to a number of university and trade publishers to issue a series of critical feminist biographies proved of no avail. Ultimately, the Baltimore Women’s Liberation, an active local group and publishers of a successful new journal, helped to raise money for the Press’s first publications. On November 17, 1970, the first meeting of the newly formed Press was held in Florence Howe's living room. The first book to be published was Barbara Danish’s children's book "The Dragon and the Doctor" in 1971. Howe saw her dreams of producing feminist biographies come true with the publication of "Elizabeth Barrett Browning" at the end of 1971.