Valerie Jean Solanas (April 9, 1936 – April 25, 1988) was an American radical feminist known for the SCUM Manifesto, which she self-published in 1967, and for her attempt to murder artist Andy Warhol in 1968. In New York City, she asked pop artist Andy Warhol to produce her play Up Your Ass, but he claimed to have lost her script, hiring her to perform in his film, I, a Man, by way of compensation. At this time, a Parisian publisher of censored works, Maurice Girodias, offered her a contract which she interpreted as a conspiracy between him and Warhol to steal her future writings.