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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 10th February
No official birthday holder for today, so here’s someone who’s birthdate we do not know: Ebba Larsdotter Sparre (1629 – 19 March 1662) lover of Queen Christina of Sweden. Ebba was a celebrated beauty nicknamed La belle comtesse. Christina doted on Ebba, always drawing attention to her beauty. When she abdicated and left Sweden, she…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 9th February
Amy Lowell February 9, 1874 – May 12, 1925 the embodiment of the new liberated woman, … unlimited faith in her own capability God made me a business woman, and I made myself a poet Towards the end of her short life Amy had a relationship with Ada Dwyer Russell, and wrote several poems for…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 8th February
Today’s birthday girl is multiple award-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) “one of the most important American poets” of the twentieth century. Elizabeth was great friends with Marianne Moore who mentored her while she was studying at Vassar. Elizabeth travelled widely, often with female companions, one of whom Marjorie Stevens, she…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 7th February
The 7th February is another date I have found no candidate for so here is Mary de la Rivière Manley 1663-1724 Mary was briefly the editor of The Examiner, a Tory paper. She was the first English woman political journalist. She was arrested for her publication The New Atlantis (Secret memoirs and manners of several…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 6th February
Queen Anne 6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714 Anne is reknowned for her passionate relationships with women, extraordinarily well documented, largely thanks to her longest lasting passion Sarah Jennings (later Churchill), whokept all the Queen’s letters to her, and wrote an autobiography which is surprisingly (and perhaps naively) frank. (see also Cicely Cornwallis, Elizabeth…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 3rd February
February third and the birthday we are celebrating is the amazing Gertrude Stein February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946. One must dare to be happy Gertrude was quite something, an experimental writer, a very out lesbian. One of her books is The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas (Alice was her lover – Hemingway refered to…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 31st January
Lets have a big hand and a whoop or two for Miss Tallulah Bankhead 1903-1968. Tallulah (her real name!) was a good actor who played a lot of bad women and I found this hilarious quote from Carl Elliot I fear Tallulah has suffered from the sometimes swashbuckling, sometimes naughty characters she played on stage…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 28th January
Here’s a woman not afraid to call a spade a bleeding shovel. Born in 1695, Anne Stainton went to Virginia (famous as a hunting ground for women in search of a husband) with her sister who was married to William Gooch, the colonial governor. She described herself as Two and thirty years of Age, Ugly…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 27th January
Another day another no show – no birthday and I’m late posting the birthday card too. So standing in for 27th January is Mary Ann Talbot 1778-1803 also known as John Taylor, a famous cross dresser – so famous someone tried to impersonate her and was arrested for it! Mary Ann was raped and forced…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 25th January
Well my dears, unless you don’t look at twitter etc at all, I suppose it might have escaped your notice that today’s birthday is celebrated on behalf of the magnificent Virginia Woolf. I hope she needs no introduction? I’ve had her picture on my wall for about thirty years. If you don’t know who she…
Cherry Potts, Writer 