Cherry Potts, Writer

Category: history

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 23rd

    And finally I’ve caught up! A week’s holiday does get in the way of a regular blog. Right, we’re going for one of those early cross dressers today, though it is an actual genuine birth date. Hannah Snell  23/3/1723-1792 In 1740, Hannah’s parents died and she moved to Wapping, where she married a Dutch sailor,…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 22nd

    And another date with no birthday, so let’s skip back a couple of months and one that got away: Eva La Gallienne 11 January 1899-3 June 1991 Eva was an actor and producer, born in England and who became part of the milieu of lesbian actors in Hollywood, performing herself on stage as Emily Dickinson,…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 21st

    Another no-show so today let’s raise a glass for Eugenie (Evgenia) Souline, for whom I can find no dates. Eugenie was a Russian born nurse, who had a relationship with Radclyffe Hall, living in an uncomfortable three-way relationship with Una Troubridge for the last nine years of Radclyffe Hall’s life. On her deathbed, Hall revoked…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 20th

    No birthday today so here’s someone I can’t find an accurate date for: Sarah Wilkinson aka Solita Solano 1888 – 22 November 1975 Theatre critic with the New York Tribune and as a freelance contributor to the National Geographic Society. In 1919 Solita started a relationship the journalist Janet Flanner. They travelled together to Greece…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 19th

    Alice French aka Octave Thanet March 19, 1850 – January 9, 1934 Alice French was an american writer of  stories, journalistic essays and novels, using the pseudonym Octave Thanet – she chose Octave for being non gender specific. In 1883, Alice and her widowed friend Jane Allen Crawford set up  home at Clover Bend Plantation…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 18th

    Not strictly a birthday, as all I have for today’s admirable woman is a baptism date, but never mind, it will do. Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Comtesse de la Fayette (Baptised) 18 March 1634 – 25 May 1693 I love those french aristocratic names, they go on for ages. Anyway, so Marie was a…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 17th

    No Birthday today, so lets look back to yesterday and celebrate I. A. R. Wylie. 16 March 1885 – 4 November 1959. Ida Wylie (known to her friends as Uncle) was a novelist, screenwriter, magazine writer and poet. More than 30 of her works were made into films between 1915 and 1953. Ida had a…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 16th

    And today, let’s put on our glad rags and celebrate Rosa Bonheur March 16th 1822 – May 25, 1899 Oh my dear sir, if you knew how little I care for your sex you wouldn’t get any ideas in your head. the fact is, in the way of males, I like only the bulls I…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 15th

    No official candidate for today so lets skip ahead a day and celebrate with Caroline Herschel 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848. Caroline was born in Germany and moved to England at the age of 22 to keep house for her older brother William, having been brought up by her mother to effectively be…

  • The Historical Birthday-Party March 14th

    Sylvia Beach was born on March 14, 1887 in  America. She studied French Literature at the Sorbonne in 1917, discovered a bookshop La Maison des Amis des Livres and fell in love with its proprietor  Adrienne Monnier and lived with her for the rest of her life, apart from when she was interned during WWII.…