Elisa Rolle's Blog, page 251

January 21, 2017

James Lorimer Graham, Jr (January 21, 1835 – June 30, 1876)

Lived: Palazzo di Valfonda, Via Valfonda, 9, 50123 Firenze, Italy (43.77837, 11.24866)
3 E 17th St, New York, NY 10003
Buried: Cimitero Accatolico, Florence, Città Metropolitana di Firenze, Toscana, Italy, Plot: E18L/ E12/ 1355/

James Lorimer “Lorrie” Graham, Jr. (1835-1876), American Consul in Florence, died in that city on June 30, 1876. Graham was the brother of R.M.C. Graham, President of the Metropolitan Insurance Company. He was born in New-York on January 21, 1835, but educated partly at Amiens, in France. Graham afterward lived for a time in Rio Janeiro; then, returning to New York, sailed again in the ill-fated steamer San Francisco, which foundered in a gale off Cape Hatteras. The hardship and exposure he underwent at the time left lasting physical disturbances. In 1856 he married Josephine Garner, the sister of Commodore William T. Garner. His collections of coins, autographs, drawings, and books were very interesting and valuable, and his house at 3 E. 17th St, 10003, became quite a treasury of rare articles. Some time after his return to Europe, Graham was appointed Consul-General of the United States for Italy, and took up his residence in Florence, then the capital. His spacious apartments in the Orsini Palace were always opened, with the most free and bountiful hospitality, to his countrymen, and very few who visited Florence escaped a welcome there.

Queer Places, Vol. 1 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532901904
ISBN-10: 1532901909
Release Date: July 24, 2016
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The Palazzo di Valfonda, formerly also called Gualfonda, is located in Florence at number 9 of the street with the same name. It stretches along the tracks of the Santa Maria Novella station, next to the royal palace, built on the site of what was one of the most extensive private and beautiful gardens in the city, which stretched for about 12 hectares of an area from via Valfonda to the Fortezza da Basso from one side, and up to via della Scala on the other side to lap the Orti Oricellari and the vegetable gardens of the basilica of Santa Maria Novella .
Address: Via Valfonda, 9, 50123 Firenze, Italy (43.77837, 11.24866)
Type: Administrative Building (open to public)
Phone: +39 055 298951
Place
The palace was built by the Bartolini-Salimbeni family towards 1520, probably by the architect already used for another family palace in Via Tornabuoni, Baccio d'Agnolo. However, also other prominent artists, such as Benedetto da Rovezzano, Andrea Sansovino and Giovanni della Robbia, who endowed the house of a remarkable sculptural kit, contributed to the embellishment of the palace. In 1558 the building was bought by Chiappino Vitelli Il Giovane, mercenary, appointed head of the Tuscan militia by Cosimo I de' Medici. Later, the palace passed to the wealthy banking family of Germanic origin of Riccardi, who had the palace renovated and expanded by Gherardo Silvani. The Riccardi were great patrons and collectors of antiques and rare books and when in 1659 they bought the Palazzo Medici in Via Larga, they brought with them all their prestigious collections. In the early XIX century the building was purchased by a Strozzi-Ridolfi and then by Giuntini. By mid-century the beautiful garden was expropriated and destroyed to make room for the new station Maria Antonia and its annexes. In the late thirties of the XX century, the villa was purchased by the Unione degli Industriali, who renovated and expanded some parts of the building by the architect Gherardo Bosio. Since WWII the palace is the headquarters of Confindustria Firenze.
Life
Who: J. Lorimer Graham, Jr. (1869-April 29, 1876)
James Lorimer Graham, Jr., aka “Lorrie” Graham was born in New York City in 1831. He was educated in New York until the age of sixteen at which point he was sent to Amiens, France to complete his education. He lived there for a time with a cousin while pursuing his studies but would ultimately travel to Paris to complete his education. During his sojourn abroad he became a proficient French scholar and retained his fluency and perfect accent all his life. As such, he was often mistaken for a Frenchman. In terms of family, all that is known is that he married Josephine, a prominent New York merchant’s daughter, at an early age. Graham is said to have loved the literature and art of France and England as much as those of his own country. His love of literature and the arts led to jobs as a librarian and as the editor of Putnam's Magazine, a monthly periodical featuring American literature and articles on science, art, and politics. Graham served in Florence first as U.S. Consul General, then as U.S. Consul until his death in 1876.

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Published on January 21, 2017 01:33

James Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985)

James Andrew Beard was an American cookbook author, teacher, syndicated columnist and television personality. Beard was a champion of American cuisine who taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts.
Born: May 5, 1903, Portland, Oregon, United States
Died: January 21, 1985, New York City, New York, United States
Education: Reed College
Lived: James Beard Foundation, 167 W 12th St, New York, NY 10011, USA (40.73709, -73.99985)
498 E St, Gearhart, OR 97138
Buried: over the beach in Gearhart, Oregon where he spent his summers as a child (ashes)
TV shows: I Love to Eat

The James Beard Foundation is a New York City-based national non-profit culinary arts organization named in honor of James Beard, a prolific food writer, teacher, and cookbook author, who was also known as the "Dean of American Cookery."
Address: 167 W 12th St, New York, NY 10011, USA (40.73709, -73.99985)
Type: Adminstrative Building (open to public)
Phone: +1 212-675-4984
Place
The Foundation’s mission is to celebrate, nurture, and honor America’s diverse culinary heritage through programs that educate and inspire. The programs run the gamut from elegant guest-chef dinners to scholarships for aspiring culinary students, educational conferences, and industry awards. In the spirit of James Beard’s legacy, the Foundation not only creates programs that help educate people about American cuisine, but also support and promote the chefs and other industry professionals who are behind it. The Foundation was started in 1986 by Peter Kump, a former student of James Beard and founder of the Institute of Culinary Education. At Julia Child’s suggestion, Kump purchased Beard’s New York brownstone at 167 West 12th Street in Greenwich Village and preserved it as a gathering place where the general public and press alike are able to appreciate the talents of established and emerging chefs. The first such dinner was at the suggestion of Wolfgang Puck in 1987. Puck cooked a dinner to raise money and Kump later established it into a monthly event.
Life
Who: James Andrew Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 21, 1985)
James Beard was a cookbook author, teacher, syndicated columnist and television personality. Beard was a champion of American cuisine who taught and mentored generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts. His legacy lives on in twenty books, other writings and his foundation’s annual James Beard awards in a number of culinary genres. Julia Child summed up Beard’s personal life: “Beard was the quintessential American cook. Well-educated and well-traveled during his eighty-two years, he was familiar with many cuisines but he remained fundamentally American. He was a big man, over six feet tall, with a big belly, and huge hands. An endearing and always lively teacher, he loved people, loved his work, loved gossip, loved to eat, loved a good time.” As a life-long bachelor, James Beard was homosexual. According to Beard’s memoir, "By the time I was seven, I knew that I was gay. I think it’s time to talk about that now." Beard also admitted of having "until I was about forty-five, I guess a really violent temper." Mark Bittman described him in a manner similar to Child’s description: "In a time when serious cooking meant French Cooking, Beard was quintessentially American, a Westerner whose mother ran a boardinghouse, a man who grew up with hotcakes and salmon and meatloaf in his blood. A man who was born a hundred years ago on the other side of the country, in a city, Portland, that at the time was every bit as cosmopolitan as, say, Allegheny, Pennsylvania." James Beard died of heart failure on January 21, 1985 at his home in New York City at age 81. He was cremated and his ashes scattered over the beach in Gearhart, Oregon, where he spent summers as a child.

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Published on January 21, 2017 01:16

Duncan Grant (January 21, 1885 – May 8, 1978)

Duncan James Corrowr Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group.
Born: January 21, 1885, Aviemore, United Kingdom
Died: May 8, 1978, Aldermaston, United Kingdom
Education: Westminster School of Art
Lived: Wissett Lodge, Lodge Ln, Wissett, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 0JQ, UK (52.35866, 1.47037)
Charleston Farmhouse, West Firle, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 6LL, UK (50.84268, 0.11559)
Hilton Hall, High St, Hilton, Huntingdon PE28 9NE, UK (52.31732, -0.09924)
24 Victoria Square, SW1W
26a Canonbury Square, N1
19 Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia, London W1T 6EU, UK
22 Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia, London W1T 6EU, UK
26 Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia, London W1T 6EU, UK
8 Fitzroy Street, W1T
28 Percy Street, W1T
1 Taviton Street, WC1H
143 Fellows Road, NW3
Doune of Rothiemurchus, The Polchar, Aviemore PH22, UK (57.1649, -3.83368)
45 Quai de Bourbon, Ile-St.-Louis, Paris
3 Park Square West, NW1
Buried: St Peter, The Street, West Firle, East Sussex, BN8 6LP
Books: Private

John Maynard Keynes, Baron Keynes of Tilton, was the preeminent economist of the 20th century. The artist Duncan Grant, whom he met in 1908, was one of Keynes's great loves. He was with Grant for nearly eight years and supported him financially even after they broke up. Keynes was also involved with Lytton Strachey. Keynes had won the affections of Arthur Hobhouse, as well as Grant, both times falling out with a jealous Strachey for it. Strachey had previously found himself put off by Keynes, not least because of his manner of "treat[ing] his love affairs statistically". Keynes' friends in the Bloomsbury Group were initially surprised when, in his later years, he began dating and pursuing affairs with women, demonstrating himself to be bisexual. Ray Costelloe (who would later marry Oliver Strachey) was an early heterosexual interest of Keynes. In 1906, Keynes had written of this infatuation that, "I seem to have fallen in love with Ray a little bit, but as she isn't male I haven't [been] able to think of any suitable steps to take.” In 1921, Keynes wrote that he had fallen "very much in love" with Lydia Lopokova, a well-known Russian ballerina, and one of the stars of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. In the early years of his courtship, he maintained an affair with a younger man, Sebastian Sprott, in tandem with Lopokova, but eventually chose Lopokova exclusively. They married in 1925.
Together from 1908 to 1916: 8 years.
Duncan Grant (January 21, 1885 – May 8, 1978)
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes (June 5, 1883 – April 21, 1946)

Days of Love edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
ISBN-10: 1500563323
Release Date: September 21, 2014
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Doune of Rothiemurchus, two miles south of Aviemore in Strathspey is an XVII-century mansion which replaced an earlier castle. The lands were held by the Shaws, Mackintoshes and by the Dallases of Cantray. James Shaw of Rothiemurchus was killed at the Battle of Harlaw in 1411.
Address: The Polchar, Aviemore PH22, UK (57.1649, -3.83368)
Type: Guest Facility (open to public)
Historic Scotland Building ID: 253 (Grade B, 1978)
Place
An elegant country house, the home of the Grants of Rothiemurchus for centuries. The Doune stands beside an ancient motte, or hill fort (Doune comes from 'dun' for a fortified place). The house dates to the XVI century, and was probably built by the Shaw family. The house was extended in the 1780s and again in 1803 when the Georgian frontage was added. For a time in the 1930s the house was operated as a hotel, and it was used by the army as a base during WWII. After the war the house was abandonned, and by 1975 it was derelict and in danger of being lost forever. An ambitious programme of ongoing restoration work has restored it to something approaching its former glory. Doune of Rothiemurchus was the home of Elizabeth Grant, who wrote her “Memoires of a Highland Lady” here. Visitors can explore the Doune as part of a themed “Highland Lady Safari,” or a Rothiemurchus Experience Safari Land Rover tour. The Doune is set in the midst of a glorious outdoor estate, with a location on the edge of Britain's winter playground; the Cairngorms National Park. The estate offers superb scenery and a huge variety of outdoor recreational activities.
Life
Who: Duncan James Corrowr Grant (January 21, 1885 – May 8, 1978)
Duncan Grant was a British painter and designer of textiles, pottery, theatre sets and costumes. He was a member of the Bloomsbury Group.He was a grandson of Sir John Peter Grant, 12th Laird of Rothiemurchus, KCB, GCMG, sometime Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. Grant was also the first cousin twice removed of John Grant, 13th Earl of Dysart (b. 1946). Grant was born on January 21, 1885 to Major Bartle Grant, a "poverty-stricken" major in the army, and Ethel McNeil in Rothiemurchus, Aviemore, Scotland. Between 1887-94 the family lived in India and Burma, returning to England every two years. During this period Grant was educated by his governess, Alice Bates. Along with Rupert Brooke, Grant attended Hillbrow School, Rugby (between 1894–99). During this period, Grant would spend his school holidays at Hogarth House, Chiswick with his grandmother, Lady Grant. He attended St Paul's School, London (as a boarder for two terms) between 1899-91 where he was awarded several art prizes. Between 1899/1900-1906, Grant lived with his aunt and uncle, Sir Richard and Lady Strachey and their children. Lady Strachey was able to persuade Grant's parents that he should be allowed to pursue an education in art. In 1902 Grant was enrolled by his aunt at Westminster School of Art; he attended for the next three years. While at Westminster, Grant was encouraged in his studies by Simon Bussy, a French painter and lifelong friend of Matisse, who went on to marry Dorothy Strachey.

Queer Places, Vol. 2 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906312
ISBN-10: 1532906315
Release Date: July 24, 2016
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English Heritage Blue Plaque: 33 Fitzroy Square, Roger Fry (1866–1934), “In this house Roger Fry 1866–1934 Artist and Art Critic ran the Omega Workshops 1913–1919"
Address: Fitzroy Square, Fitzrovia, London W1T 6EU, UK
Type: Historic Street (open to public)
Place
Fitzroy Square is one of the Georgian squares in London and is the only one found in the central London area known as Fitzrovia. The square, nearby Fitzroy Street, and the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street have the family name of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, into whose ownership the land passed through his marriage. His descendant Charles FitzRoy, 1st Baron Southampton developed the area during the late XVIII and early XIX century. Fitzroy Square was a speculative development intended to provide London residences for aristocratic families, and was built in four stages. Leases for the eastern and southern sides, designed by Robert Adam, were granted in 1792; building began in 1794 and was completed in 1798 by Adam’s brothers James and William. These buildings are fronted in Portland stone brought by sea from Dorset. The Napoleonic Wars and a slump in the London property market brought a temporary stop to construction of the square after the south and east sides were completed. According to the records of the Squares Frontagers’ Committee, 1815 residents looked out on “vacant ground, the resort of the idle and profligate.” Another contemporary account describes the incomplete square: “The houses are faced with stone, and have a greater proportion of architectural excellence and embellishment than most others in the metropolis. They were designed by the Adams, but the progress of the late war prevented the completion of the design. It is much to be regretted, that it remains in its present unfinished state.” The northern and western sides were subsequently constructed in 1827-1829 and 1832-1835 respectively, and are stucco-fronted. The south side suffered bomb damage during WWII and was rebuilt with traditional facades to remain in keeping with the rest of the square.
Notable queer residents at Fitzroy Square:
• No. 8, W1T was the home of the painter James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903.)
• No. 19, W1T was the base for the “International School” run by Louise Michel in the 1890s. Later, from 1909 to 1911, was the home of Bloomsbury Group artist Duncan Grant (1885-1978.)
• No. 21, W1T was Roger Fry (December 14, 1866 –September 9, 1934)’s studio
• No. 22, W1T was Duncan Grant’s studio.
• No. 26, W1T Duncan Grant and John Maynard Keynes shared a flat.
• Engligh Heritage Blue Plaque: 29 Fitzroy Square, W1T Virginia Woolf, née Stephen (1882–1941), "Novelist and Critic lived here 1907–1911" Also George Bernard Shaw lived here from 1887 until his marriage in 1898.
• No. 33, W1T housed Roger Fry (1866-1934)’s Omega Workshop, creating avant-garde furniture from 1913 to 1919.

Queer Places, Vol. 2 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906312
ISBN-10: 1532906315
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228833
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Charleston, in East Sussex is a property associated with the Bloomsbury group, that is open to the public.
Address: West Firle, Lewes, East Sussex BN8 6LL, UK (50.84268, 0.11559)
Type: Museum (open to public)
Phone: +44 1323 811265
English Heritage Building ID: 292908 (Grade II, 1965)
Place
The interior of the XVIII century farmhouse contains an important series of mural and furniture decorations painted between 1916-1939 by Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell. Charleston was the country home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant and is an example of their decorative style within a domestic context, representing the fruition of over sixty years of artistic creativity. Vanessa Bell wrote of this time; "It will be an odd life, but ... it ought to be a good one for painting." In addition to the house and artists’ garden, there is an exhibition gallery showing a mix of contemporary and historical shows of fine and decorative art, a Crafts Council selected shop selling applied art and books relating to Bloomsbury, a small tea room and a video presentation. Charleston hosts a number of special events throughout the year, most notably the Charleston Festival which is centred on talks and drama relating to literary, artistic and Bloomsbury themes. The house is located in the village of Firle, in the Lewes District of East Sussex. As you enter the street in Firle village, continue up the street after the Ram Inn and you will see Little Talland House on the left, opposite the village hall. Little Talland House was rented by Virginia Woolf from January 1911 to January 1912. “I'm very much excited - furnishing my cottage, and staining the floors the colours of the Atlantic in a storm.” (Virginia Woolf, Letters, no. 552) “I've got to go down [to Firle] and make curtains and move beds at the cottage, having been so rash as to ask 5 people to stay the week after. Nessa is bringing a sewing machine; and in the intervals, I shall spur her to bouts of talk.” (Letters, no. 553) “I spent yesterday finishing off the cottage. Its right underneath the downs, and though itself an eyesore, still that dont matter when one's inside. I have one gooseberry bush; 3 mongrels, thought by some to grow currants. Shall you ever come and stay there? There is a Bath, and a W. C.” (Letters, no. 554, to Violet Dickinson) “The villa is inconceivably ugly, done up in patches of post-impressionist colour.” (Letters, no. 561). The graves of Vanessa and Quentin Bell and Duncan Grant are quite close to the wall on the North side of the churchyard at St Peter (The Street, West Firle, East Sussex, BN8 6LP).
Life
Who: Duncan James Corrowr Grant (January 21, 1885 – May 8, 1978) and Vanessa Bell, née Stephen (May 30, 1879 –April 7, 1961)
In 1916 the artists Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant moved to Sussex with their unconventional household when Grant, under the terms of his exemption from military service, was employed at a nearby farm together with David Garnett (1892-1981.) Over the following half century Charleston became the country meeting place for the group of artists, writers and intellectuals known as Bloomsbury. Garnett, Clive Bell and John Maynard Keynes lived at Charleston for considerable periods; Virginia and Leonard Woolf, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey and Roger Fry were frequent visitors. Inspired by Italian fresco painting and the Post-Impressionists, the artists decorated the walls, doors and furniture at Charleston. The walled garden was redesigned in a style reminiscent of southern Europe, with mosaics, box hedges, gravel pathways and ponds, but with a touch of Bloomsbury humour in the placing of the statuary. "It’s most lovely, very solid and simple, with ... perfectly flat windows and wonderful tiled roofs. The pond is most beautiful, with a willow at one side and a stone or flint wall edging it all round the garden part, and a little lawn sloping down to it, with formal bushes on it." — Vanessa Bell. The rooms on show form a complete example of the decorative art of the Bloomsbury artists: murals, painted furniture, ceramics, objects from the Omega Workshops, paintings and textiles. The collection includes work by Auguste Renoir, Picasso, Derain, Matthew Smith, Sickert, Stephen Tomlin (1901-1937) and Eugène Delacroix.

Queer Places, Vol. 2 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906312
ISBN-10: 1532906315
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228833
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532906315/?...
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZ1KZBO/?...

"Vanessa Bell, who had fallen in love with Duncan Grant before the start of the war, was painting in a farm-cottage on the Sussex coast, living in an uneasy triangle with Duncan and his new lover, David (known as Bunny) Garnett. In 1918 Bell gave birth to Grant’s child, Angelica Bell.” Hermione Lee, “Virginia Woolf” (1996)
Address: Lodge Ln, Wissett, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 0JQ, UK (52.35866, 1.47037)
Type: Guest Facility (open to public)
Phone: +44 01986 873173
Place
Wissett is a village and parish in the Waveney district of Suffolk located at 52.35N 01.46E TM3679 about 2 km (about 1.5 miles) northwest of Halesworth. Historically, it was in the hundred of Blything. It has a population of about 200, measured at 268 in the 2011 Census. Wisset manor was held by Ralph the staller, Baron of Gael in Brittany before the Norman Conquest. Ralph was created Earl of Suffolk and Norfolk in 1067, but his son lost the title and the manor passed to Count Alan of Brittany and Richmond in 1075. The Domesday Book shows that in 1086 Wissett had a church at Rumburgh with two carucates of free land, twelve monks, and a chapel in the village. The XI century flint parish church dedicated to Saint Andrew has a circular church tower with a floor dated to the XII Century. This is the oldest recorded church tower floor in the United Kingdom. Built as a chapel to Rumburgh Priory, the surviving elements of the Norman church are two doors to the nave and the tower arch. The parish is now part of the Blyth Valley Team Ministry in the diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, and David Garnett lived in Wissett for the summer of 1916. Virginia Woolf (Vanessa’s sister) said after visiting them: "Wissett seems to lull asleep all ambition. Don’t you think they have discovered the secret of life? I thought it wonderfully harmonious." Wissett Hall is a red brick manor house owned by Colin Holmes, co-founder of Dencora PLC. The village pub is the Plough Inn. Wissett Wines are produced at the Valley Farm Vineyards by Elaine Heeler and Vanessa Tucker, who brought the business in 2014, Wissett Wines was established in 1987.
Life
Who: David Garnett (March 9, 1892 – February 17, 1981), Duncan James Corrowr Grant (January 21, 1885 – May 8, 1978) and Vanessa Bell, née Stephen (May 30, 1879 – April 7, 1961)
David Garnett was a British writer and publisher. He was the son of Constance Clara Garnett (née Black), an English translator of XIX-century Russian literature, one of the first English translators of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekhov who introduced them on a wide basis to the English-speaking public, and Edward William Garnett, an English writer, critic and a significant and personally generous literary editor, who was instrumental in getting D. H. Lawrence's “Sons and Lovers” published. As a child, David had a cloak made of rabbit skin and thus received the nickname "Bunny,” by which he was known to friends and intimates all his life. His first wife was illustrator Rachel "Ray" Marshall (1891–1940), sister of translator and diarist Frances Partridge. He and Ray, whose woodcuts appear in some of his books, had two sons, one of whom (Richard) went to Beacon Hill School. Ray died relatively young of breast cancer. Garnett was bisexual, as were several members of the artistic and literary Bloomsbury Group, and he had affairs with Francis Birrell and Duncan Grant. He was present at the birth of Grant’s daughter, Angelica (by Vanessa Bell, and accepted by her husband Clive Bell), on Dec. 25, 1918, and wrote to a friend shortly afterwards, "I think of marrying it. When she is 20, I shall be 46 – will it be scandalous?.” When Angelica was in her early twenties, they did marry (on May 8, 1942), to the horror of her parents.

Queer Places, Vol. 2 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906312
ISBN-10: 1532906315
Release Date: July 24, 2016
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In 1922 David Garnett published the highly successful novel, “Lady Into Fox.” The money he made from this book enabled him to buy Hilton Hall, an early XVII century house near Huntingdon.
Address: High St, Hilton, Huntingdon PE28 9NE, UK (52.31732, -0.09924)
Type: Private Property
English Heritage Building ID: 54022 (Grade II, 1951)
Place
Described as “The most beautiful of all the Bloomsbury houses” by biographer, critic and art historian Frances Spalding, Hilton Hall was bought by David Garnett Fox in 1924. There he entertained many literary friends: T.E. Lawrence would startle the village by roaring up unannounced on his motorbike; Virginia Woolf came and amused his boys by pretending to be a wolf. D.H. Lawrence teased him for living in a Hall, but added: “It’s not at all grand, except in the way a grandmother is grand, by being ancient.” Hilton Hall was built early in the XVII century perhaps by Robert Walpole, (a very distant relative of the prime minister) who died there in 1699 and is buried in Hilton Church. It was refronted and given new sash windows and panelling in the middle of the XVIII century but the fine Jacobean staircase, wide floorboards and moulded beams all remain. Otherwise it has been very little altered except by an extension containing panelling and a bay window salvaged from the ruins of Old Park Farm in Hilton. Behind the house there is a large dovehouse, also of the XVII century, which was used by Garnett’s second wife, Angelica, as a studio. She was the daughter of the Bloomsbury artists Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, and was herself a noted artist. She has left her mark on the house with a decorated bedroom mantelpiece, a large mural in the dovehouse and a mosaic doorstep. Because of its place in the history of the Bloomsbury Group, and its collection of paintings and sculpture – especially by Angelica’s parents, it has been a popular destination for groups from the Cambridge branch of the Art Fund and the Friends of Kettle Yard. The grounds are all enclosed by hedging and fencing. Swimming pool, kitchen garden.
Life
Who: David Garnett (March 9, 1892 – February 17, 1981)
The Garnetts lived at Hilton Hall, Hilton near St Ives in Cambridgeshire, where David Garnett kept a herd of Jersey cows. They had four daughters: in order, Amaryllis, Henrietta, and twins Nerissa and Frances; eventually the couple separated. Amaryllis Garnett (1943–1973) was an actress who had a small part in Harold Pinter’s film adaptation of “The Go-Between” (1970.) She drowned in the Thames, aged 29. Henrietta Garnett married Lytton Burgo Partridge, her father’s nephew by his first wife Ray, but was left a widow with a newborn infant when she was 18; she oversaw the legacies of both David Garnett and Duncan Grant. Nerissa Garnett (1946–2004) was an artist, ceramicist, and photographer. Fanny (Frances) Garnett moved to France where she became a farmer.

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Published on January 21, 2017 01:05

Cristóbal Balenciaga (January 21, 1895 – March 23, 1972)

Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre was a Spanish Basque fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house.
Born: January 21, 1895, Getaria, Gipuzkoa, Spain
Died: March 23, 1972, Xàbia, Spain
Lived: Cristobal Balenciaga Museum, Aldamar Parkea, 6, 20808 Getaria, Gipuzkoa, Spain (43.30188, -2.20494)
Buried: Cementerio de Getaria (Getaria), San Sebastian, Provincia de Guipuzcoa, País Vasco, Spain
Label: Balenciaga
Other name: Cristobal Balentziaga Eizagirre (Basque)
Parents: Martina Eizaguirre Embil, José Balenciaga Basurto
Organization founded: Balenciaga

The Balenciaga Museum is located in Getaria, just 25Km from San Sebastian, and makes an ideal daytrip from Guipuzcoa’s capital. Whilst the museum is well worth a visit in itself, Getaria is also one of the prettiest coastal towns in the region.
Address: Aldamar Parkea, 6, 20808 Getaria, Gipuzkoa, Spain (43.30188, -2.20494)
Type: Museum (open to public)
Phone: +34 943 00 88 40
Place
The Balenciaga Museum (Cristobal Balenciaga museoa) opened on June 7th 2011. Getaria was chosen as it is the birthplace of the renowned designer, and the museum became the first in the world to be dedicated entirely to the work of a fashion designer. The museum is housed in a building connected to the Aldamar Palace, the former residence of the Marquis and Marquise of Casa Torre, grandparents of Queen Fabiola of Belgium and mentors to Balenciaga in his early days. The building consists of four floors divided into three large spaces and six halls. One section of the museum showcases a rotating selection of the designer’s pieces, some of which are part of the Balenciaga Foundation’s own Collection, as well as others belonging to private individuals. In addition to this, the museum plays host to various temporary exhibitions and leisure activities. The building itself is also well worth seeing for its interesting combination of tradition and modernity in a single structure.
Life
Who: Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre (January 21, 1895 – March 23, 1972)
Cristóbal Balenciaga was a Spanish Basque fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior and as "the only couturier in the truest sense of the word" by Coco Chanel, who continued "The others are simply fashion designers". He continues to be revered as the supreme deity of the European salons. On the day of his death, in 1972, Women's Wear Daily ran the headline "The king is dead" (no one in the fashion world had any doubt as to whom it referred). Balenciaga was born in Getaria, a fishing town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa, on January 21, 1895. His mother was a seamstress, and as a child Balenciaga often spent time with her as she worked. At the age of twelve, he began work as the apprentice of a tailor. When Balenciaga was a teenager, the Marchioness de Casa Torres, the foremost noblewoman in his town, became his customer and patron. She sent him to Madrid, where he was formally trained in tailoring. Balenciaga was homosexual, although he kept his sexuality private throughout his life. The love of his life and long time partner was Franco-Russian milliner Vladzio Zawrorowski d'Attainville, who he met in the 1920s and had helped fund setting him up. When d'Attainville died in 1948, Balenciaga was so broken he almost considered closing the business. In 1960 he made the wedding dress for Fabiola de Mora y Aragón when she married king Baudouin I of Belgium. The Queen later donated her wedding dress to the Cristóbal Balenciaga Foundation. On 7 June 2011, the Balenciaga Museum was inaugurated in his hometown of Getaria by Queen Sofía of Spain and with the presence of Hubert de Givenchy, honorific president of the Balenciaga Foundation. The museum has a collection of more than 1,200 pieces designed by Balenciaga, part of them donations by disciples like Givenchy or clients, like Queen Fabiola of Belgium and the heirs of Grace Kelly. Balenciaga is buried at Cementerio de Getaria, San Sebastian.

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Published on January 21, 2017 00:17

Christian Dior (January 21, 1905 - October 23, 1957)

Christian Dior was a French fashion designer, best known as the founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, also called Christian Dior, which is now owned by Groupe Arnault.
Born: January 21, 1905, Granville, France
Died: October 23, 1957, Montecatini Terme
Education: Sciences Po
Lived: 220, Route Départementale 562, 83440 Montauroux, France (43.59805, 6.78831)
Buried: Cimetière de Callian, Callian, Departement du Var, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Siblings: Catherine Dior, Raymond Dior, Jacqueline Dior, Bernard Dior
Parents: Maurice Dior, Isabelle Cardamone

Christian Dior’s love for this land was born in the 1930s, when his family, ruined by the stock market crash, had to leave Normandy to take refuge in the South. Dior’s father acquired a modest home, Les Nayssées, in Callian, and it is here that his son discovered himself "peasant in the heart".
Address: 220, Route Départementale 562, 83440 Montauroux, France (43.59805, 6.78831)
Type: Private Property
Phone: +33 4 94 39 01 40
Place
The château de La Colle Noire is a residence located at the entrance of the Pays de Fayence, on the border of the Alpes-Maritimes and the Var. It is built on a promontory overlooking the plain of Montauroux. The castle is surrounded by a park with a chapel dedicated to Sainte-Anne. The ensemble dates back to the mid-XIX century and was completely redesigned by Christian Dior from 1950. It is property of Parfums Christian Dior since 2013. From the XV century to the beginning of the XIX century, the site is described in various ways: La Colle Narbonne, La Colle, La Colle Noire, logis de La Colle. However, it was from 1826 that the domain really took shape, when Henri-Emmanuel Poulle (1792-1877), lawyer, first president of the Court of Aix-en-Provence and deputy of the Var, from an old family of Montauroux, becomes owner of the "domaine de La Colle", which by extension will take the name of the neighboring hamlet to become the "domaine de La Colle Noire". Beginning in 1839, Henri-Emmanuel Poulle created a relais des Postes on the estate, the building of which would probably serve as a base for the future castle. Over time, through various acquisitions, the estate reaches an area of more than 100 hectares, becoming a vast agricultural operation, composed mainly of plowing, pastures, vines and muriers. It was in 1858, at the age of 66, that Henri-Emmanuel Poulle decided to build a residence there for his retirement. The construction will last three years, from 1858 to 1861. The facade with its two emblematic towers, dominating the valley, dates from that time. It was also during this period that Poulle had a chapel dedicated to Sainte Anne, referring to her daughter Anne-Victoire. Henri-Emmanuel Poulle also built a chapel dedicated to Saint Barthélémy in the village of Montauroux, near the parish church. Due to the loss of his title, it could not be sold as a national asset during the French Revolution and was removed from vandalism during the revolution of 1870. It passed into the patrimony of Poulle and was transmitted to Christian Dior who offered it to the commune of Montauroux in 1953. Built in 1634 by the Pénitents Blancs (White Penitents,) it still presents today a decor painted on wood of which are adorned the walls as well as the vault. At the death of Henri-Emmanuel Poulle in 1877, the property passed to his daughter, Anne-Victoire (1827-1894), married to Félix Reibaud, maître des Postes du secteur. Anne-Victoire, very pious, obtained from the Bishop of Frejus that the priest of Montauroux could say mass at the Sainte-Anne chapel on the property every Sunday except at Christmas, Easter and other feasts. The inhabitants of the neighborhood then took the habit of coming to hear Mass at La Colle Noire. The Sainte-Anne chapel is still consecrated today. On the death of Anne-Victoire in 1894, his son Paul Félix Honoré Reibaud inherited the estate of La Colle Noire. Head of office at the Ministry of Justice in Paris, he had no interest in this property. Abandoned, the property was sold to a businessman named Fayolle, whose widow resold the estate in 1921 to Pierre Grosselin. On October 25, 1950, the property, with an area of 50 hectares, made up of a noble house, agricultural buildings and land cultivated mainly in vines and flowers, was bought by Christian Dior.
Life
Who: Christian Dior (January 21, 1905 – October 24, 1957)
Christian Dior acquires the property in a region that he knew well. His father, widow since 1931, lived in the plain of Callian with his young sister Catherine, inspiration of the perfume Miss Dior. "And then Miss Dior was born. It was born from those evenings of Provence crossed by fireflies where the green jasmine serves as a counter-song to the melody of the night and the earth". It is therefore in this Provence dear to his heart, in the inaccessible Var inland that Christian Dior will develop his house, far from Paris and 30 Avenue Montaigne, home of his couture house. "It is in Montauroux, near Callian, where a good star had allowed me, fifteen years ago, to find tranquility and prepare a new existence. Of the house, I cannot say much because I'm doing it. It is simple, solid and noble, and its serenity suits the period of life that I will have to tackle in a few years. That house, I wish it to be my real home. Where - if God lends me long life - I can retire. Where - if I have the means - I can close the loop of my existence and find, under another climate, the closed garden that protected my childhood. That is where I can finally live quiet, forgetting Christian Dior to just become Christian again. It is at Montauroux that I write these last lines." It was to the Russian architect André Svétchine that Christian Dior entrusted the restoration and renovation of La Colle Noire from 1955 onwards. His friends Raymonde Zehnacker in Mougins and then Marc Chagall in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and in Saint-Paul-de-Vence also used the same architect, then specialized in the transformation of "rural dwellings, neither simple farms nor real castles". The stone was laid bare, the perspectives restored and enlarged, the accesses rethought with the transformation of the service wing into a main entrance. Planted with cypresses, this walkway leads to the hexagonal entrance hall, a sort of atrium designed by Christian Dior himself, where the Provençal calade floor draws a pattern of wind-colored roses, dear to his childhood in Normandy. To this facade located in the North responds the South facade, asymmetric, in the style of Provençal villa of the years 1940-50. It is reflected in a 45 meter long water mirror, also designed by Christian Dior, showing a contrast between the sinuosity of the landscape and the rigor of its straight lines. Completely redesigned, the distribution includes a large staircase with zenital lighting leading to "rooms to give" to friends of passage, a succession of reception rooms, including the large living room measuring more than 18 meters opening onto a terrace overlooking the mirror of water. Combining vintage furniture, comfort from the 1950s, references to Provence or England, "it is an art of living that Christian Dior wanted to invent at the Colle Noire", André Svétchine declared. The reception rooms and apartment of Christian Dior are furnished with eclecticism, decorated with objects of the XVIII and XIX centuries bought from antique dealers, while some rooms have the Louis XV or Louis XVI styles "among a multitude of other styles”. If Provence has inspired Christian Dior to create Miss Dior in 1947, it is the lily of the valley of the Colle Noire that is at the origin of Diorissimo, created in 1956 by Edmond Roudnitska. It is this tradition that inspired to François Demachy, perfume-creator of Parfums Christian Dior, La Col Noire, whose flowers come from the rose field in May, planted as a tribute in the park of the estate. After the death of Christian Dior on October 23, 1957, her sister Catherine inherited the estate but she cannot keep it and in 2013 the company Parfums Christian Dior bought La Colle Noire. Before this acquisition, the property belonged to the Laroche, owners of La Reserve in Beaulieu, then to Mr. and Mrs. Tassou. After an intense restoration begun in 2015, La Colle Noire was inaugurated by the Parfums Christian Dior on May 9, 2016 in the presence of Charlize Theron, regaining its vocation to welcome "the friends of the house". Christian Dior lies in a very simple tomb near his father, his housekeeper and his sister Catherine, who died in 2008, in the cemetery of Callian, near the chapel of Saint-Barthélemy.

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Published on January 21, 2017 00:14

Antonio D'Amico (born January 21, 1959)

Antonio D'Amico is a model and fashion designer. He is best known as the partner of Gianni Versace.
Born: January 21, 1959 (age 57), Mesagne

Gianni Versace’s influence and artistic vision are evident throughout the gated property, which features an opulent 10-bedroom, 11-bathroom Mediterranean villa decorated with hand-painted walls and ceiling frescos.
Address: 1116 Ocean Dr, Miami Beach, FL 33139, USA (25.7819, -80.13044)
Type: Guest Facility (open to public)
Phone: +1 786-485-2200
Place
Built in 1930
The house was built in Mediterranean Revival style, commissioned by architect Alden Freeman. There is a rumour that during construction a time capsule was hidden in one of the walls. When Freeman died in 1937 the house was bought by Jacques Amsterdam who changed it into an apartment building naming it The Amsterdam Palace. In 1992 it was purchased by Gianni Versace to become his residence in South Beach. He restored and expanded the building by adding a south wing and a pool. Versace completely redecorated it. Gianni Versace and his partner Antonio D’Amico were regulars on the international party scene. A lot of famous people stayed in the house. Versace was murdered outside his Miami Beach home, the former Casa Casuarina now known as The Villa, at the age of 50 by Andrew Cunanan, a male prostitute and crazed C.S. Lewis fan. The Mansion now operates as a hotel, restaurant and event location. The restaurant is Il Sole at The Villa Casa Casuarina.
Note: The Hilton Garden Inn Miami South Beach - Royal Polo, formerly Embassy Hotel (2940 Collins Ave, Miami Beach, FL 33140) was the early location of Miami's Jewel Box Revue, from 1936 to 1939, featuring several dozen female impersonators and one male impersonator.
Life
Who: Giovanni Maria Versace (December 2, 1946 – July 15, 1997)
Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Versace, an international fashion house, which produces accessories, fragrances, make-up and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films. As a friend of Eric Clapton, Diana, Princess of Wales, Naomi Campbell, Madonna, Elton John, Cher, Sting and many other celebrities, he was the first designer to link fashion to the music world. Versace met his partner Antonio D’Amico, a model, in 1982. Their relationship lasted until Versace’s murder. During that time, D’Amico worked as a designer for the company, becoming head designer for Istante and Versus Sport. Versace’s will left D’Amico with a lifelong pension of 50 million lire (about US$26,000) per month, and the right to live in any of Versace’s homes in Italy and the United States. However, due to Versace family’s interference he only obtained a fraction of these allowances.

Queer Places, Vol. 1 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532901904
ISBN-10: 1532901909
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228297
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532901909/?...
Amazon (kindle): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZ1BU9K/?...

Villa Fontanelle is a villa (sometimes called a Palazzo) near Moltrasio on Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) from Milan. The four-storey yellow-painted building was built in the first half of the XIX century by the eccentric Lord Charles Currie, a visiting Englishman who fell in love with Lake Como. Failing to find a villa for sale, he decided to create his own, right on the water’s edge.
Address: 22010 Moltrasio CO, Italy (45.85111, 9.08944)
Type: Private Property
Place
By 1977, when it was bought by the Italian designer Gianni Versace, it was in a state of abandonment, and the designer set about restoring it to its former neoclassical glory. The work, completed in December 1980, included landscaping the three acres (1.2 Ha) of ornamental gardens, which include three cottages, a tennis court, water frontage of some 800m and a private mooring. Versace personally chose hundreds of oil paintings and with other artworks displayed throughout the interior and exterior, he created a mini-palace that was a personal shrine. Before Versace’s death celebrities, such as Sir Elton John, Sting, Diana, Princess of Wales and Madonna, were regular guests at the property. Since the death of Versace in 1997, however, only American singer Jennifer Lopez and her husband Chris Judd were known to have visited, having spent their honeymoon there in 2001. Otherwise the property was a largely lifeless temple to Gianni Versace, and his taste for the adolescent male body. The estate is now owned by Russian millionaire restaurateur Arkady Novikov who bought it for 33 million Euros in early 2008 and retained Milanese architect Claudio Pozza to undertake restoration works at the property.
Life
Who: Gianni Versace (December 2, 1946 – July 15, 1997)
Gianni Versace was an Italian fashion designer and founder of Versace. As a friend of Eric Clapton, Diana, Princess of Wales, Naomi Campbell, Madonna, Elton John, Cher, Sting, and many other celebrities, he was the first designer to link fashion to the music world. Openly homosexual, Versace and his partner Antonio D'Amico were regulars on the international party scene. Versace was murdered outside his Miami Beach home, the former Casa Casuarina now known as "The Villa," at the age of 50 by Andrew Cunanan. Versace's body was cremated and his ashes returned to the family's estate near Cernobbio, Italy. He is buried at Moltrasio cemetery.

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Published on January 21, 2017 00:10

January 20, 2017

Raymond Roussel (January 20, 1877 – July 14, 1933)

Raymond Roussel was a French poet, novelist, playwright, musician, and chess enthusiast. Through his novels, poems, and plays he exerted a profound influence on certain groups within 20th century French ...
Born: January 20, 1877, Paris, France
Died: July 14, 1933, Palermo
Education: Conservatoire de Paris
Lived: 25 Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris
47 Rue Pierre Charron, Paris
25 Boulevard Richard Wallace, Neuilly
Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes, Via Roma, 398, 90139 Palermo
Buried: Cimetière du Père Lachaise, Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France, Plot: Division 89

Raymond Roussel (January 20, 1877 – July 14, 1933) was a French poet, novelist, playwright, musician, and chess enthusiast. Through his novels, poems, and plays he exerted a profound influence on certain groups within XX century French literature, including the Surrealists, Oulipo, and the authors of the nouveau roman. He began to be rediscovered in the late 1950s, by the Oulipo and Alain Robbe-Grillet. His most direct influence in the English speaking world was on the New York School of poets; John Ashbery, Harry Mathews, James Schuyler, and Kenneth Koch briefly edited a magazine called Locus Solus after his novel. French theorist Michel Foucault's only book-length work of literary criticism is on Roussel. Roussel was born in Paris on January 20, 1877, to affluent parents: his father, Eugène, was a stockbrocker; his mother, Marguerite, was the daughter of a wealthy Paris businessman. They lived at 25 Boulevard Malesherbes, near the Madeleine Church, and were thus neighbors of the family of Marcel Proust, who lived at number 9 Boulevard Malesherbes. The Roussels also knew the painter Madeleine Lemaire, the principal model for Proust’s Mme. Verdurin, who painted a portrait of Raymond as a child. Later in life, Roussel became acquainted with Robert de Montesquiou, Proust’s Baron de Charlus, who wrote one of the first substantial critical essays on Roussel’s work. In the 1880s, the Roussels moved from the Boulevard Malesherbes to a splendid mansion just off the Champs-Elysées; they also spent time at a villa in the Bois de Boulogne at Neuilly and later summered in another villa overlooking the Atlantic at Biarritz.

Queer Places, Vol. 3 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906695
ISBN-10: 1532906692
Release Date: July 24, 2016
CreateSpace Store: https://www.createspace.com/6228901
Amazon (print): http://www.amazon.com/dp/1532906692/?...
Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IZXI10E/?...

Vast tree-lined burial site with famous names including Oscar Wilde, Jim Morrison & Maria Callas.
Address: 16 Rue du Repos, 75020 Paris, France (48.86139, 2.39332)
Type: Cemetery (open to public)
Hours: Monday through Friday 8.00-18.00, Saturday 8.30-18.00, Sunday 9.00-18.00
Phone: +33 1 55 25 82 10
Place
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris (44 hectares or 110 acres), though there are larger cemeteries in the city’s suburbs. Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement and is notable for being the first garden cemetery, as well as the first municipal cemetery. It is also the site of three WWI memorials. The cemetery is on Boulevard de Ménilmontant. The Paris Métro station Philippe Auguste on line 2 is next to the main entrance, while the station called Père Lachaise, on both lines 2 and 3, is 500 metres away near a side entrance that has been closed to the public. Many tourists prefer the Gambetta station on line 3, as it allows them to enter near the tomb of Oscar Wilde and then walk downhill to visit the rest of the cemetery. Père Lachaise Cemetery was opened on May 21, 1804. The first person buried there was a five-year-old girl named Adélaïde Paillard de Villeneuve, the daughter of a door bell-boy of the Faubourg St. Antoine. Her grave no longer exists as the plot was a temporary concession. Napoleon, who had been proclaimed Emperor by the Senate three days earlier, had declared during the Consulate that "Every citizen has the right to be buried regardless of race or religion.”
Notable queer burials at Père Lachaise:
• Louise Abbéma (1853-1927) was a French painter, sculptor, and designer of the Belle Époque. She first received recognition for her work at age 23 when she painted a portrait of Sarah Bernhardt, her lifelong friend and possibly her lover.
• Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French stage and early film actress.
• Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), Nathalie Micas (1824-1889) and Anna Elizabeth Klumpke (1856-1942), buried together.
• Jean Börlin (1893-1930) was a Swedish dancer and choreographer born in Härnösand. He worked with Michel Fokine, who was his teacher in Stockholm. Jean Borlin was a principal dancer of the Royal Swedish Ballet when Rolf de Mare brought him to Paris in in 1920 as first dancer and choreographer of the Ballets Suedois at the Theatre de Champs-Elysees. According to Paul Colin, de Mare “was very rich” and he had brought the Swedish Ballet to Paris “especially to show his young lover, Jean Borlin.” The Stockholm press derided de Mare's sexual orientation. In contrast, open-minded Paris welcomed the Ballets Suedois. One wonders what might have happened if de Mare had not disbanded the company in 1925, reportedly because its recent performances had disappointed him. But he had a new lover. Borlin's last years were melancholy. By 1925, he was exhausted: he had choreographed all 23 ballets in his company's repertory and danced in each of its 900 performances -- a grueling schedule that led him to alcohol and drugs. In 1930, he opened a school in New York but died of heart failure shortly thereafter. He was only 37. He was buried at his own wish in the cemetery of Pére Lachaise in Paris in January l931. A stricken de Mare founded Les Archives Internationales de Danse, in his memory.
• Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès (1753-1824) 1st Duke of Parma, later 1st Duke of Cambacérès, was a French lawyer and statesman during the French Revolution and the First Empire, best remembered as the author of the Napoleonic Code, which still forms the basis of French civil law and inspired civil law in many countries. The common belief that Cambacérès is responsible for decriminalizing homosexuality in France is in error. Cambacérès was not responsible for ending the legal prosecution of homosexuals. He did play a key role in drafting the Code Napoléon, but this was a civil law code. He had nothing to do with the Penal Code of 1810, which covered sexual crimes. Before the French Revolution, sodomy had been a capital crime under royal legislation. The penalty was burning at the stake. Very few men, however, were ever actually prosecuted and executed for consensual sodomy (no more than five in the entire XVIII century). Sodomites arrested by the police were more usually released with a warning or held in prison for (at most) a few weeks or months. The National Constituent Assembly abolished the law against sodomy when it revised French criminal law in 1791 and got rid of a variety of offenses inspired by religion, including blasphemy. Cambacérès was a homosexual, his sexual orientation was well-known, and he does not seem to have made any effort to conceal it. He remained unmarried, and kept to the company of other bachelors. Napoleon is recorded as making a number of jokes on the subject. Robert Badinter once mentioned in a speech to the French National Assembly, during debates on reforming the homosexual age of consent, that Cambacérès was known in the gardens of the Palais-Royal as "tante Turlurette".
• Colette (Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, 1873-1954) was a French novelist nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. She embarked on a relationship with Mathilde de Morny, Marquise de Belbeuf ("Missy"), with whom she sometimes shared the stage.
• Alphonse Daudet (1840–1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée Daudet, and writers Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet. Cultivated, “very beautiful, very elegant, a thin and frail young man, with a tender and a somewhat effeminate face”, according to Jean-Yves Tadié, Lucien Daudet lived a fashionable life which made him meet Marcel Proust. They shared at least a friendship (if not a sexual relationship), which was revealed by Jean Lorrain in his chronicle in the Journal. It is for this indiscretion that Proust and Lorrain fought a duel in 1897. Daudet was also friends with Jean Cocteau.
• Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) was an American dancer. Bisexual she had a daughter by theatre designer Gordon Craig, and a son by Paris Singer, one of the many sons of sewing machine magnate Isaac Singer. She had relationships with Eleonara Duse and Mercedes de Acosta. She married the Russian bisexual poet Sergei Yesenin, who was 18 years her junior.
• Joseph Fiévée (1767-1839) was a French journalist, novelist, essayist, playwright, civil servant (haut fonctionnaire) and secret agent. Joseph Fiévée married in 1790 (his brother-in-law was Charles Frédéric Perlet), but his wife died giving birth, leaving him one child. At the end of the 1790s, he met the writer Théodore Leclercq who became his life companion, and the two would live and raise Fiévée’s son together. When becoming Préfet, Fiévée and Leclercq moved to the Nièvre department, and their open relationship greatly shocked some locals. The two men were received together in the salons of the Restoration. Both men are buried in the same tomb at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
• Loie Fuller (1862–1928) was an American dancer who was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Fuller supported other pioneering performers, such as fellow United States-born dancer Isadora Duncan. Fuller helped Duncan ignite her European career in 1902 by sponsoring independent concerts in Vienna and Budapest. She was cremated and her ashes are interred in the columbarium at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. Her sister, Mollie Fuller, had a long career as an actress and vaudeville performer.
• Anne-Louis Girodet (1767-1824) was a French painter and pupil of Jacques-Louis David, who was part of the beginning of the Romantic movement by adding elements of eroticism through his paintings. According to the scholar Diana Knight, over the years Girodet’s homosexuality became widely known.
• Eileen Gray (1878–1976) was an Irish furniture designer and architect and a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Gray was bisexual. She mixed in the lesbian circles of the time, being associated with Romaine Brooks, Gabrielle Bloch, Loie Fuller, the singer Damia and Natalie Barney. Gray's intermittent relationship with Damia (or Marie-Louise Damien) ended in 1938, after which they never saw each other again, although both lived into their nineties in the same city. Damia died at La Celle-Saint-Cloud, a western suburb of Paris, and was interred in the Cimetière de Pantin (163 Avenue Jean Jaurès, 93500 Aubervilliers, France). Today, she is considered to be the third greatest singer of chansons réalistes, after Edith Piaf and Barbara.
• Reynaldo Hahn (1874-1947) was a Venezuelan, naturalised French, composer, conductor, music critic, diarist, theatre director, and salon singer.
• Harry Graf Kessler (1868-1937) was an Anglo-German count, diplomat, writer, and patron of modern art. In his introduction to “Berlin Lights” (2000) Ian Buruma asserted Kessler was homosexual and struggled his whole life to conceal it.
• Boris Yevgen'yevich Kochno (1904-1990), was hired as the personal secretary to Serge Diaghilev, the impresario of the famed Ballets Russes. He served in this capacity until Diaghilev's death in 1929. In addition to his other duties, he also wrote several ballet libretti for the troupe. He died in 1990 in Paris following a fall. He was buried next to Wladimir Augenblick who died in 2001.
• Marie Laurencin (1883-1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or. She became romantically involved with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and has often been identified as his muse. In addition, Laurencin had important connections to the salon of the American expatriate and famed lesbian writer Natalie Clifford Barney. She had heterosexual and lesbian affairs. During WWI, Laurencin left France for exile in Spain with her German-born husband, Baron Otto von Waëtjen, since through her marriage she had automatically lost her French citizenship. The couple subsequently lived together briefly in Düsseldorf. After they divorced in 1920, she returned to Paris, where she achieved financial success as an artist until the economic depression of the 1930s. During the 1930s she worked as an art instructor at a private school. She lived in Paris until her death.
• Mary Elizabeth Clarke Mohl (1793–1883) was a British writer who was known as a salon hostess in Paris. She was known by her nickname of "Clarkey". She was admired for her independence and conversation. She eventually married the orientalist Julius von Mohl. She was an ardent Francophile, a feminist, and a close friend of Florence Nightingale. She wrote about her interest in the history of women's rights. She was buried with her husband, Julius von Mohl, at Père Lachaise Cemetery (56th division).
• Mathilde (Missy) de Morny (1863-1944), a French noblewoman, artist and transgender figure, she became a lover of several women in Paris, including Liane de Pougy and Colette.
• Francis Poulenc (1899–1963) was a French composer and pianist. The biographer Richard D. E. Burton comments that, in the late 1920s, Poulenc might have seemed to be in an enviable position: professionally successful and independently well-off, having inherited a substantial fortune from his father. He bought a large country house, Le Grande Coteau (Chemin Francis Poulenc, 37210 Noizay, France), 140 miles (230 km) south-west of Paris, where he retreated to compose in peaceful surroundings. Yet he was troubled, struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, which was predominantly gay. His first serious affair was with the painter Richard Chanlaire, to whom he sent a copy of the Concert champêtre score inscribed, "You have changed my life, you are the sunshine of my thirty years, a reason for living and working". Nevertheless, while this affair was in progress Poulenc proposed marriage to his friend Raymonde Linossier. As she was not only well aware of his homosexuality but was also romantically attached elsewhere, she refused him, and their relationship became strained. He suffered the first of many periods of depression, which affected his ability to compose, and he was devastated in January 1930, when Linossier died suddenly at the age of 32. On her death he wrote, "All my youth departs with her, all that part of my life that belonged only to her. I sob ... I am now twenty years older". His affair with Chanlaire petered out in 1931, though they remained lifelong friends. On 30 January 1963, at his flat opposite the Jardin du Luxembourg, Poulenc suffered a fatal heart attack. His funeral was at the nearby church of Saint-Sulpice. In compliance with his wishes, none of his music was performed; Marcel Dupré played works by Bach on the grand organ of the church. Poulenc was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery, alongside his family.
• Marcel Proust (1871-1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel “À la recherche du temps perdu” (In Search of Lost Time), published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. Also his friend and sometime lover, Reynaldo Hahn is buried here.
• Raymond Radiguet (1903–1923) was a French novelist and poet whose two novels were noted for their explicit themes, and unique style and tone. In early 1923, Radiguet published his first and most famous novel, “Le Diable au corps” (The Devil in the Flesh). The story of a young married woman who has an affair with a sixteen-year-old boy while her husband is away fighting at the front provoked scandal in a country that had just been through WWI. Though Radiguet denied it, it was established later that the story was in large part autobiographical. He associated himself with the Modernist set, befriending Picasso, Max Jacob, Jean Hugo, Juan Gris and especially Jean Cocteau, who became his mentor. Radiguet also had several well-documented relationships with women. An anecdote told by Ernest Hemingway has an enraged Cocteau charging Radiguet (known in the Parisian literary circles as "Monsieur Bébé" – Mister Baby) with decadence for his tryst with a model: "Bébé est vicieuse. Il aime les femmes." ("Baby is depraved. He likes women.") Radiguet, Hemingway implies, employed his sexuality to advance his career, being a writer "who knew how to make his career not only with his pen but with his pencil." Aldous Huxley is quoted as declaring that Radiguet had attained the literary control that others required a long career to reach. On December 12, 1923, Radiguet died at age 20 in Paris of typhoid fever, which he contracted after a trip he took with Cocteau. Cocteau, in an interview with The Paris Review stated that Radiguet had told him three days prior to his death that, "In three days, I am going to be shot by the soldiers of God." In reaction to this death Francis Poulenc wrote, "For two days I was unable to do anything, I was so stunned". In her 1932 memoir, “Laughing Torso,” British artist Nina Hamnett describes Radiguet's funeral: "The church was crowded with people. In the pew in front of us was the negro band from the Boeuf sur le Toit. Picasso was there, Brâncuși and so many celebrated people that I cannot remember their names. Radiguet's death was a terrible shock to everyone. Coco Chanel, the celebrated dressmaker, arranged the funeral. It was most wonderfully done. Cocteau was too ill to come." ... "Cocteau was terribly upset and could not see anyone for weeks afterwards.”
• Mlle Raucourt (1756-1815) was a French actress.
• Salomon James de Rothschild (1835–1864) was a French banker and socialite. He was the father of Baroness Hélène van Zuylen.
• Raymond Roussel (1877-1933) wrote and published some of his most important work between 1900 and 1914, and then from 1920 to 1921 traveled around the world. He continued to write for the next decade, but when his fortune finally gave out, he made his way to a hotel in Palermo, Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes (Via Roma, 398, 90139 Palermo), where he died of a barbiturate overdose in 1933, aged 56.
• Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American writer of novels, poetry and plays. In 1933, Stein published a kind of memoir of her Paris years, “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas,” written in the voice of Toklas, her life partner. Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967) was an American-born member of the Parisian avant-garde of the early XX century. They are buried together.
• Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957), Russian-born surrealist painter. Loved by Edith Sitwell, he then in turn fell in love with Charles Henry Ford and moved with him in New York City.
• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet.

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Published on January 20, 2017 00:34

Jamie Pedersen (born September 9, 1968)

Jamie Pedersen is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Washington who has served as a member of the Washington State Legislature since January 2007. He currently represents the 43rd District in the Washington State Senate.
Born: September 9, 1968 (age 48), Puyallup, Washington, United States
Education: Yale Law School
Puyallup High School
Yale University
Spouse: Eric Pedersen (m. 2004)
Party: Democratic Party
Residence: Seattle, Washington, United States
Succeeded by: Brady Walkinshaw
Anniversary: September 27
Married: July 3, 2004

Jamie Pedersen is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Washington who has served as a member of the Washington State Legislature since Jan. 2007. He currently represents the 43rd District in the Washington State Senate. Pedersen is married to Eric Cochran Pedersen, a high-school assistant principal whom he met while attending Central Lutheran Church on Capitol Hill in Seattle. They married at the same church on July 3, 2004. They registered as domestic partners on July 23, 2007, the day that the law went into effect. Their oldest son, Trygve, was born a month later on August 27. He was joined by his brothers Leif, Erik, and Anders on July 12, 2009. Pedersen graduated summa cum laude in American Studies from Yale and received his law degree from Yale Law School. Pedersen joined Preston Gates & Ellis in 1995, working on corporate mergers. His pro bono work during this time focused on gay rights issues and he was Lambda Legal's lead attorney on the state's same-sex marriage case – Andersen v. King County. In 2012 Pedersen publicly endorsed Washington Referendum 74, which legalized the same-sex marriage.
Together since 2004: 11 years.
Eric Cochran Pedersen
Jamie Pedersen (born September 9, 1968)
Anniversary: September 27
Married: July 3, 2004

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Published on January 20, 2017 00:23

Isa Blagden (June 30, 1816 or 1817 – January 20, 1873)

Isa or Isabella Jane Blagden was an English-language novelist and poet born in the East Indies or India, who spent much of her life among the English community in Florence.
Born: 1817
Buried: Cimitero Accatolico, Florence, Città Metropolitana di Firenze, Toscana, Italy, Plot: B11C/ B42/ 1194

The English Cemetery in Florence, Italy is at Piazzale Donatello. Its names, 'Cimitero Inglese' and 'Cimitero Protestante' are somewhat misleading, as the cemetery holds bodies of Orthodox Christians as well as those of many Reformed Churches; but the majority of those buried here were of the Anglophone British and American communities of Florence.
Address: Piazzale Donatello, 38, 50132 Firenze, Italy (43.77716, 11.26858)
Type: Cemetery (open to public)
Phone: +39 055 582608
Place
Before 1827 non-Catholics and non-Jews who died in Florence could be buried in Livorno only. In 1827 the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church bought land outside the medieval wall and gate of Porta a' Pinti at Florence from Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany for an international and ecumenical cemetery, Russian and Greek Orthodox burials joining the Protestant ones. Carlo Reishammer, a young architectural student, landscaped the cemetery, then Giuseppe Poggi shaped it as its present oval when Florence became capital of Italy. He surrounded it with studios for artists, including that of Michele Gordigiani (who painted the portraits of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London). Many famous people are buried in the graveyard like Elizabeth Barrett Browning (in a tomb designed by Frederic, Lord Leighton); her son Pen Browning is buried at Cimitero Evangelico agli Allori. Florence has always been a place were queer people from all over the world came due to its acceptance, wherelse in other countries was impossible to live. We cannot say if the following were really all queer couples, or maybe just special friends, the fact is that some of them chose to be buried near to each other.
Notable queer burials at Cimitero Acattolico:
• Emilia Sophia Macpherson Abadam Adams (1776-1831) was the grandmother of both Alice Abadam, the suffragette, and Vernon Lee (aka Violet Page), the writer.
• Charles Bankhead, M.D. (1768-1859), George IV's Physician Extraordinary, he was the physician in attendance at Castlereagh's suicide.
• Isa or Isabella Jane Blagden (1816 or 1817–1873) was an English-language novelist and poet born in the East Indies or India, who spent much of her life among the English community in Florence. Some of the surviving letters to Blagden from Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning are demonstrably affectionate. (Unfortunately Blagden's letters to them have not survived.) "Isa, perfect in companionship, as in other things," Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote of her. In one letter to Isa in the summer of 1859, she wrote: "My ever dearest, kindest Isa, I can't let another day go without writing just a word to say that I am alive enough to love you." In another from Paris a year earlier, Elizabeth Barrett Browning states that they had arrived "having lost nothing – neither a carpet-bag nor a bit of our true love for you."
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), died in her husband's arms. Robert Browning said that she died "smilingly, happily, and with a face like a girl's.... Her last word was... ''Beautiful". "On Monday July 1 the shops in the area around Casa Guidi were closed, while Elizabeth was mourned with unusual demonstrations." The nature of her illness is still unclear. Some modern scientists speculate her illness may have been hypokalemic periodic paralysis, a genetic disorder that causes weakness and many of the other symptoms she described.
• George Frederic Waihinger (1800-1867), German, was the beloved head waiter/butler to the Prince Demidoff of San Donato. Count Anatoly or Anatoli (called Anatole) Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato (1813–1870), was a Russian industrialist, diplomat and arts patron of the Demidov family.
• William Edgeworth (1832-1833), a one-year-old child unlisted in the Peerage though his two siblings Antonio Eroles and Francis Ysidro are. His mother is the Spanish Mariquita Eroles' sister, Rosa Florentina Eroles Edgeworth. His aunt is Maria Edgeworth, the great Irish novelist. He is buried in same plot with David (1807-1833) and Mary Reid (1833-1833), first husband and daughter of Mariquita Eroles, and Rev. Robert John Tennant (1809-1842), second husband of Mariquita. Mariquita Dorotea Francesca Tennant, née Eroles (1811–1860), is known as a social reformer. She is commemorated for helping the impoverished women of Windsor.
• Mary Farhill (1784-1854), small, clever, generous and eccentric, she was ennobled in Fiesole's Order of St Stephen. Farhill was found drowned in her bath at 70 years old. Though in Florence they thought she had no family when she died at the Villa il Palmerino, her brother Edward Farhill carefully arranged her burial in both English and Italian in a grand tomb. The Morning Post noted she willed her villa to the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Maria Antonia. In the 1870s it came into the possession of the Earl of Belcarres and Crawford, Lord Lindsay. Dumas and Queen Victoria were guests under its roof. It later became Vernon Lee's residence.
• Harriet Theodosia Fisher, nee Garrow (1811-1848), half-sister of Theodosia Trollope, is buried with their maid, Elizabeth Shinner (1811-1852).
• James Lorimer "Lorrie" Graham, Jr (1831-1876), American Maecenas, married, gay, founded Graham's Magazine, had wealth, was shipwrecked and injured, appointed American Consul in Florence by President Grant, occupied the Palazzo di Valfonda, Claire Claremont (Mary Shelley's stepsister, who bore Lord Byron the child Allegra), lodging with him, and he collected autographs, books, paintings which he willed to the Century Association, New York, which sold them at auction.
• Hadrian Marryat (1845-1873). His maternal grandfather was General Lord Robert Edward Henry Somerset of Badminton House and his grandmother, Lady Louisa Augusta Courtenay, daughter of William Courtenay, 8th Earl of Devon, of Powderham Castle. The three Marryat children were painted in 1851-2 in Rome by the young Frederick Leighton.
• Clara Anastasia Novello (1818-1908), was an acclaimed soprano, the fourth daughter of Vincent Novello, a musician and music publisher, and his wife, Mary Sabilla Hehl. In 1843 she married Count Gigliucci, and retired in 1861. Clara Novello Davies (1861-1943), a well-known Welsh singer, teacher and conductor was named after Clara Novello. She married David Davies, a solicitor's clerk with the same surname as her own- Their son, David Ivor Davies, became better known as Ivor Novello, the actor, composer, dramatist and director.
• Eugene Polyakov (1943-1996), a Russian-trained balletmaster who was Rudolf Nureyev's chief assistant when Nureyev was director of the Paris Opera Ballet in the 1980's. Polyakov was born in Moscow and trained at the Bolshoi Ballet before leaving Russia for Venice in 1976. He formed his own troupe, Viva la Danza, there in 1977 and was the dance director of the Teatro Comunale in Florence from 1978 to 1983, when Nureyev appointed him balletmaster. Polyakov worked again in Florence from 1992 to 1995, when he returned to the Paris Opera Ballet. He died in Paris, but asked to be buried in Florence.
• Elena Raffalovich Comparetti (1842-1918) was an educator , intellectual and froebeliana Russian. She was the third daughter of Leo Raffalovich (1813-1879), wealthy jew landowner, and Rosette (Rosa) Mondel Loevensohn (1807-1895). The family moved to Paris. The older sister Maria Raffalovich, married to their uncle Hermann, is the mother of Marc André Raffalovich and great friend of Claude Bernard.
• William Reader of Banghurst House, Hampshire (1787-1846). His original tombstone identifies Henry Austin as his faithful servant; Austin died in Florence on July 5, 1859, age 40,
• The tomb of Mary Anne Salisbury (1798-1848) was placed by the Catholic wife of the last descendant of Michelangelo Buonarotti, Rosina, beneath a great yew tree at the entrance of the English Cemetery. It was tradition to have two yew trees, poisonous to cattle but essential for the English long bow of Agincourt in English graveyards, which also symbolize the Jachin and Boaz columns of the Jerusalem Temple. Only one yew tree remains and a falling branch from it destroyed this tomb, now replaced by the Rotary Club, 23/4/2012. The busts of Count Cosimo Buonarroti and Rosina which grace the Michelangelo museum at the Casa Buonarroti were sculpted by Aristodemo Costoli.
• James Bansfield’s tomb and that of King William IV's son's wife, Lady Georgina Hacking Hamilton Sewell, lie on either side of the king's natural son, Sir William Henry Sewell, each being apparently equal to Sir William. “Known as a servant above a servant a brother beloved. James died January 11, 1862. He was for 20 years the faithful and devoted servant of General Sir W.H. Sewell, K.C.B. by whose widow this tomb was raised.”
• Eleanore Emilie Contessa Stenbock-Fermor (1815-1859) was the daughter of Count Magnus Stenbock-Fermor, Russian Colonel. Her Oxford-educated PreRaphaelite poet nephew was Eric Stenbock.
• Theodosia Trollope, born Theodosia Garrow (1816–1865) was an English poet, translator, and writer known also for her marriage into the Trollope family. She married and bought a villa in Florence, Italy with her husband, Thomas Adolphus Trollope. Her hospitality made her home the centre of British society in the city. Her writings in support of the Italian nationalists are credited with changing public opinions.

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Published on January 20, 2017 00:19

Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990)

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence, and a ...
Born: July 16, 1907, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Died: January 20, 1990, Santa Monica, California, United States
Education: Erasmus Hall High School
Lived: 1055 Loma Vista Drive
Buried: Lone Pine, California (ashes)
Height: 1.65 m
Children: Anthony Dion Fay
Spouse: Robert Taylor (m. 1939–1952), Frank Fay (m. 1928–1935)

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. She was often cast as a tough woman in a man’s world, always in command and control, whether playing a reporter (Meet John Doe), a criminal manipulator (Double Indemnity, The Lady Eve), or a husbandless rancher (The Big Valley). She played a lesbian in Walk on the Wild Side, and it was not much of a stretch. For nearly thirty years, Stanwyck had an intimate relationship with her publicist Helen Ferguson, former actress. In 1933, Ferguson left acting to focus on publicity work, a job she became very successful in and which made her a major power in Hollywood; she was representing such big name stars as Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, and Robert Taylor, among others. Ferguson represented actress Loretta Young for more than nineteen years.
They met in 1947 and remained friends until Ferguson’s death in 1977: 30 years.
Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990)
Helen Ferguson (July 23, 1901 - March 14, 1977)

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Published on January 20, 2017 00:13

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