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Elsa Gidlow
Elsa Gidlow | |
|---|---|
 Gidlow in 1974 | |
| Born | Elsie Alice Gidlow 29 December 1898 Hull, Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 8 June 1986 (aged 87) Mill Valley, California, United States |
| Occupation |
|
| Education | Self-educated[1]: 104 |
| Period | 1917–1986 |
| Genre | Love poetry, essays, autobiography |
| Subject | Love, beauty, politics, protest, mysticism, nature |
| Literary movement | Lesbian literature Feminist literature |
| Notable works | On A Grey Thread (1923) Elsa, I Come with My Songs (1986) |
| Partner | Isabel Grenfell Quallo (1945–1964) "Tommy" Violet Henry-Anderson (1924–1935†) Muriel Symington (1922) |
Elsa Gidlow (29 December 1898 – 8 June 1986) was a British-born, Canadian-American poet, freelance journalist, philosopher and humanitarian. She is best known for writing On a Grey Thread (1923), the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America.[2] In the 1950s, Gidlow helped found Druid Heights, a bohemian community in Marin County, California.[3] She was the author of thirteen books and appeared as herself in the documentary film, Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives (1977).[4][5] Completed just before her death, her autobiography, Elsa, I Come with My Songs (1986), recounts her life story.[6] It is the first complete-life, lesbian autobiography published where the author "outs" herself and does not employ a pseudonym.
- ^ Rapp, Rayna (Intro.); Gidlow, Elsa (Spring, 1980). "Memoirs". Feminist Studies. 6 (1), 103–127. (subscription required)
- ^ Rexroth, Kenneth (1978) and subsequently, penning the first Lesbian autobiography not pseudononously ascribed. "Elsa Gidlow's Sapphic Songs". American Poetry Review. 7 (1), 20. (subscription required)
- ^ Oldenburg, Chuck (2012). "Druid Heights". The Mill Valley Historical Society.
- ^ Holt, Patricia (22 June 1986). "Search for the Independent Mind". San Francisco Chronicle, 1.
- ^ Atwell, Lee (Winter, 1978–1979). "Word Is out and Gay U. S. A." Film Quarterly. University of California Press. 32 (2), 50–57. (subscription required)
- ^ West, Celeste (1986). "In Memoriam: Elsa Gidlow". Feminist Studies. 12 (3), 614. (subscription required)
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