Cherry Potts, Writer

Tag: lesbian history

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 31st

    The final birthday post for March, and again no specific birthday so here is a late one: Margaret Webster March 15, 1905 – November 13, 1972 American born actor who became well known on stage in the UK before returning to the US as a highly successful Broadway stage director, noted for record breaking long…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 28th

    Today let us raise a glass to Jane Rule 28 March 1931 – 27 November 2007 Jane Rule was the author of many lesbian novels, and an early exponent of the happy ending, most famous for her 1964 novel Desert of the Heart (filmed as Desert Hearts), what a relief it was to find her…

  • The Historical Birthday-Tea Party March 25th

    Today’s birthday girl is Olive Schreiner, 24th March 1855 – 1920 South African author and prolific letter writer. Olive was a feminist, socialist, pacifist, vegetarian, rational dress advocate, anti-vivisectionist would-be doctor and thinker, you name it she had a position on it. She corresponded with everyone, from Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis to Emily Hobhouse…

  • 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…