Elisa Rolle's Blog, page 260

January 9, 2017

Katherine Mansfield (October 14, 1888 – January 9, 1923)

Kathleen Mansfield Murry was a prominent New Zealand modernist short story writer who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield.
Born: October 14, 1888, Wellington, New Zealand
Died: January 9, 1923, Fontainebleau, France
Spouse: John Middleton Murry (m. 1918)
Short stories: The Garden Party, Miss Brill, The Doll's House, Bliss, more
Lived: 17 E Heath Rd, London NW3 1AL, UK (51.56079, -0.17506)
Studied: Queen's College, London
Wellington Girls' College
Buried: Cimetiere d'Avon, Avon, Departement de Seine-et-Marne, Île-de-France, France

English Heritage Blue Plaque: 17 East Heath Road, “Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) writer, and her husband John Middleton Murry (1889–1957) critic lived here”.
Addresses:
1 Ellerdale Cl, London NW3 6BE, UK (51.55445, -0.17962)
17 E Heath Rd, London NW3 1AL, UK (51.56079, -0.17506)
Branch Hill, London NW3, UK (51.56067, -0.18363)
Place
Hampstead Heath (locally known as "the Heath") is a large, ancient London park, covering 320 hectares (790 acres.) Hampstead Heath, a grassy public space sitting astride a sandy ridge, is one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London Clay. The Heath is rambling and hilly, embracing ponds, recent and ancient woodlands, a lido, playgrounds, and a training track, and it adjoins the stately home of Kenwood House and its grounds. The south-east part of the Heath is Parliament Hill, from which the view over London is protected by law. Running along its eastern perimeter are a chain of ponds – including three open-air public swimming pools – which were originally reservoirs for drinking water from the River Fleet. The Heath is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, and part of Kenwood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Lakeside concerts are held there in summer. The Heath is managed by the City of London Corporation, and lies mostly within the London Borough of Camden with the adjoining Hampstead Heath Extension and Golders Hill Park in the London Borough of Barnet. The Heath first entered the history books in 986 when Ethelred the Unready granted one of his servants five hides of land at "Hemstede.” This same land is later recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held by the monastery of St. Peter’s at Westminster Abbey, and by then is known as the "Manor of Hampstead.” Westminster held the land until 1133 when control of part of the manor was released to one Richard de Balta; then during Henry II’s reign the whole of the manor became privately owned by Alexander de Barentyn, the King’s butler. Manorial rights to the land remained in private hands until the 1940s when they lapsed under Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon Wilson, though the estate itself was passed on to Shane Gough, 5th Viscount Gough. Over time, plots of land in the manor were sold off for building, particularly in the early XIX century, though the Heath remained mainly common land. The main part of the Heath was acquired for the people by the Metropolitan Board of Works. Parliament Hill was purchased for the public for £300,000 and added to the park in 1888. Golders Hill was added in 1898 and Kenwood House and grounds were added in 1928. From 1808 to 1814 Hampstead Heath hosted a station in the shutter telegraph chain which connected the Admiralty in London to its naval ships in the port of Great Yarmouth. The City of London Corporation has managed the Heath since 1989. Before that it was managed by the GLC and before that by the London County Council (LCC.) In 2009, the City of London proposed to upgrade a footpath across the Heath into a service-road. The proposal met with protests from local residents and celebrities, and did not proceed.
Notable queer residents at Hampstead Heath:
• In 1936 Beverly Nichols (September 9, 1898-September 15, 1983) purchased a house at One Ellerdale Close, NW3. Ellerdale Road is one of Hampstead’s premier turnings, ideally located off the top of Fitzjohns Avenue. A book about Beverly Nichols’ city garden near Hampstead Heath in London, “Green Grows the City,” published in 1939, was very successful. That book introduced Arthur R. Gaskin, who was Nichols’s manservant from 1924 until Gaskin’s death in 1966. Gaskin was a popular character, who also appeared in the succeeding gardening books.
• Lord Alfred Douglas, or “Bosie,” Oscar Wilde’s one time lover and ruin, moved at 26 Church Row, NW3 with his wife (he was by now officially heterosexual) in 1907 until 1910, shortly after winning a libel suit against “The Daily News,” which had run an obituary calling him a degenerate, only to find he was still alive. Though not a great writer, the peer was highly rated by the young John Betjeman, who told C.S. Lewis, his tutor at Oxford, that Douglas was a better poet than Shakespeare.
• Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) and John Middleton Murry (1889–1957) lived at 17 E Heath Road, NW3. A prominent critic, Murry is best remembered for his association with Katherine Mansfield, whom he married in 1918 as her second husband, for his friendship with D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, and for his friendship (and brief affair) with Frieda Lawrence. Following Mansfield’s death, Murry edited her work. Mansfield had several romantic relationships with both men and women. She became pregnant in 1909 but her lover’s parents did not approve of the relationship and they broke up. She hastily married a George Bowden, a singing teacher, but left him the same evening, before the marriage could be consummated. Mansfield later miscarried. Mansfield began a relationship with Ida Baker which continued for many years, even after Mansfield met her second husband, John Middleton Murray, in 1911. “Baker, whom Mansfield often called, with a mixture of affection and disdain, her “wife”, moved in with her shortly afterwards.” Mansfield was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1917, leading to her death in 1923.
• English Heritage Blue Plaque: The Chestnuts, Branch Hill, NW3 Paul Robeson (1898–1976), “Singer and Actor lived here 1929–1930"
• John Schlesinger (1926-2003) was an English film and stage director, and actor. He won an Academy Award for Best Director for “Midnight Cowboy,” and was nominated for two other films (“Darling” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday”). Schlesinger was born at 53 Hollycroft Avenue, NW3 into a middle class Jewish family, the son of Winifred Henrietta (née Regensburg) and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician. He recalled a normal, middle-class childhood in Hampstead (he grew up at 15 Templewood Avenue, NW3), though he was not happy at the boarding-schools to which he was sent.
• Josephine Hutchinson (1903-1998), American actress who appeared in “North By North West” (1959) lived at Swiss Cottage, 4 Finchley Road, NW3.

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/?...

At Cimetiere d'Avon (Rue du Souvenir, 77210 Avon) is buried Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923), prominent New Zealand modernist short story writer who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand. At 19, Mansfield left New Zealand and settled in the United Kingdom, where she became a friend of modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. In October 1922 Mansfield moved to Georges Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in Fontainebleau, France, where she was put under the care of Olgivanna Lazovitch Hinzenburg (who later married Frank Lloyd Wright). She died on January 9, 1923 and was buried in a cemetery in Avon.

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Published on January 09, 2017 01:14

Herbert Huncke (January 9, 1915 – August 8, 1996)

Herbert Edwin Huncke was an American writer and poet, and active participant in a number of emerging cultural, social and aesthetic movements of the 20th century in America.
Born: January 9, 1915, Greenfield, Massachusetts, United States
Died: August 8, 1996, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Literary movement: Beat Generation
Books: Guilty of Everything: The Autobiography of Herbert Huncke, more
Lived: 271 E. 7th Street
Hotel Chelsea

Herbert Huncke lived from 1991 to 1994 in a garden apartment on 271 E. 7th Street near Avenue D in New York City. At first, he lived upstairs in an apartment owned by a wealthy arts patron named Paola Igliori, who divided her time between Italy and New York. Later, he moved downstairs to an apartment that Igliori also owned. An admirer and benefactor of Huncke’s, Igliori had set up a trust fund for him to which all of Huncke’s other admirers were welcome to donate. The fund covered his monthly rent at Igliori’s place, though Allen Ginsberg’s secretary Bob Rosenthal, who managed the fund, only learned of this salient detail belatedly.

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/?...

The Hotel Chelsea – also called the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea – is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for the notability of its residents over the years.
Address: 222 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10011, USA (40.74431, -73.9969)
Type: Guest facility (open to public)
Phone:+1 616-918-8770
National Register of Historic Places: 77000958, 1977
Place
Built between 1883 and 1885, Design by Hubert, Pirsson & Company (Philip Gengembre Hubert (1830-1911) and James W. Pirrson (1833-1888))
Opened for initial occupation in 1884, the twelve-story red-brick building that is now the Hotel Chelsea was one of the city’s first private apartment cooperatives. It was designed in a style that has been described variously as Queen Anne Revival and Victorian Gothic. Among its distinctive features are the delicate, flower-ornamented iron balconies on its facade, which were constructed by J.B. and J.M. Cornell and its grand staircase, which extends upward twelve floors. Generally, this staircase is only accessible to registered guests, although the hotel does offer monthly tours to others. At the time of its construction, the building was the tallest in New York. Hubert and Pirsson had created a "Hubert Home Club" in 1880 for "The Rembrandt,” a six-story building on West 57th Street intended as housing for artists. This early cooperative building had rental units to help defray costs, and also provided servants as part of the building staff. The success of this model led to other "Hubert Home Clubs,” and the Chelsea was one of them. Initially successful, its surrounding neighborhood constituted the center of New York’s theater district. However within a few years the combination of economic stresses, the suspicions of New York’s middle class about apartment living, the opening up of Upper Manhattan and the plentiful supply of houses there, and the relocation of the city’s theater district, bankrupted the Chelsea. In 1905, the building reopened as a hotel, which was later managed by Knott Hotels and resident manager A.R. Walty. After the hotel went bankrupt, it was purchased in 1939 by Joseph Gross, Julius Krauss, and David Bard, and these partners managed the hotel together until the early 1970s. With the passing of Joseph Gross and Julius Krauss, the management fell to Stanley Bard, David Bard’s son. On 18 June, 2007, the hotel’s board of directors ousted Bard as the hotel’s manager. Dr. Marlene Krauss, the daughter of Julius Krauss, and David Elder, the grandson of Joseph Gross and the son of playwright and screenwriter Lonne Elder III, replaced Stanley Bard with the management company BD Hotels NY; that firm has since been terminated as well. In May, 2011, the hotel was sold to real estate developer Joseph Chetrit for US$80 million. As of August 1, 2011, the hotel stopped taking reservations for guests in order to begin renovations, but long-time residents remain in the building, some of them protected by state rent regulations. The renovations prompted complaints by the remaining tenants of health hazards caused by the construction. These were investigated by the city’s Building Department, which found no major violations. In Nov. 2011, the management ordered all of the hotel’s many artworks taken off the walls, supposedly for their protection and cataloging, a move which some tenants interpreted as a step towards forcing them out as well. In 2013, Ed Scheetz became the Chelsea Hotel’s new owner after buying back five properties from Joseph Chetrit, his partner in King & Grove Hotels, and David Bistricer. Hotel Chelsea is now managed by Chelsea Hotels, formerly King & Grove Hotels. Restoration and renovation is underway and Hotel Chelsea plans to reopen in 2016.
Notable queer resident at Hotel Chelsea:
• William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), novelist, short story writer, satirist, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author who wrote in the paranoid fiction genre, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the XX century.”
• Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) wrote “2001: A Space Odyssey” while staying at the Chelsea.
• Quentin Crisp (1908-1999), writer and raconteur. His first stay in the Hotel Chelsea coincided with a fire, a robbery, and the death of Nancy Spungen.
• Musician, gay civil rights icon and Stonewall veteran Stormé DeLarverie (1920-2014) resided at the hotel for several decades.
• Poets Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) and Gregory Corso (1930-2001) chose it as a place for philosophical and artistic exchange.
• Brad Gooch (born 1952), writer. His 2015 memoir “Smash Cut” recounts life in 1970s and 1980s New York City, including the time Gooch spent as a fashion model, life with his then-boyfriend filmmaker Howard Brookner, living in the famous Chelsea Hotel and the first decade of the AIDS crisis.
• Herbert Huncke (1915-1996), writer and poet. In his last few years, he lived in room 828, where his rent came from financial support from Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead, whom Huncke never met. Herbert Huncke died in 1996 at age 81.
• Iggy Pop (born 1947), singer-songwriter, musician and actor. Pop’s career received a boost from his relationship with David Bowie when Bowie decided in 1972 to produce an album with Pop in England.
• Charles R. Jackson (1903-1968), author of “The Lost Weekend,” committed suicide in his room on September 21, 1968.
• Jasper Johns (born 1930), painter and printmaker. In 1954, after returning to New York, Johns met Robert Rauschenberg and they became long-term lovers. For a time they lived in the same building as Rachel Rosenthal. In the same period he was strongly influenced by the gay couple Merce Cunningham (a choreographer) and John Cage (a composer.)
• Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), who wrote “On the Road” there.
• Lance Loud (1951-2001), television personality, magazine columnist and new wave rock-n-roll performer. Loud is best known for his 1973 appearance in “An American Family,” a pioneer reality television series that featured his coming out, leading to his status as an icon in the gay community.
• Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), photographer, known for his sensitive yet blunt treatment of controversial subject-mater in the large-scale, highly stylized black and white medium of photography. The homoeroticism of this work fuelled a national debate over the public funding of controversial artwork.
• Larry Rivers (1923-2002), artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Poet Jeni Olin was his companion. Rivers also sustained a relationship with poet Frank O’Hara in the late 1950s and delivered the eulogy at O’Hara’s funeral in 1966.
• Patti Smith (born 1946), singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist. On November 17, 2010, she won the National Book Award for her memoir “Just Kids.” The book fulfilled a promise she had made to her former long-time roommate and partner, Robert Mapplethorpe.
• Virgil Thomson (1896-1989), composer and critic. In 1925 in Paris, he cemented his relationship with painter Maurice Grosser (1903-1986), who was to become his life partner and frequent collaborator. He and Grosser lived at Hotel Chelsea, where he presided over a largely gay salon that attracted many of the leading figures in music and art and theather, including Leonard Bernstein, Tennessee Williams, and many others. Virgil Thomson died on September 30, 1989, in his suite at the Hotel Chelsea in Manhattan, aged 92.
• Gore Vidal (1925-2012), writer and a public intellectual known for his patrician manner, epigrammatic wit, and polished style of writing.
• Rufus Wainwright (born 1973), lived in the Chelsea Hotel in New York City for six months, during which he wrote most of his second album.
• Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), playwright and author of many stage classics. Along with Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller he is considered among the three foremost playwrights in XX century American drama.
• Hotel Chelsea is often associated with the Warhol superstars, as Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey directed “Chelsea Girls” (1966), a film about his Factory regulars and their lives at the hotel. Chelsea residents from the Warhol scene included Edie Sedgwick, Viva, Ultra Violet, Mary Woronov, Holly Woodlawn, Andrea Feldman, Nico, Paul America, René Ricard, and Brigid Berlin.

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Published on January 09, 2017 01:08

Henry Blake Fuller (January 9, 1857 – July 28, 1929)

Henry Blake Fuller was a United States novelist and short story writer, born in Chicago, Illinois.
Born: January 9, 1857, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died: July 28, 1929, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Buried: Oak Woods Cemetery, 1035 E 67th St, Chicago, IL 60637

Henry Blake Fuller was an American novelist and short story writer, born in Chicago, Illinois. The controversial Bertram Cope's Year (1919) is a subtle novel about homosexuals. Fuller self-published the novel in Chicago after unsuccessfully making the rounds of several New York publishing houses. Fuller never married. His journals from his teenage days make it clear he was in love with some dormitory roommates at Allison Classical Academy. At the age of nineteen, he wrote in an imaginary personal advertisement: "I would pass by twenty beautiful women to look upon a handsome man". In 1924 Fuller embarked upon the last of his many European tours with William Emery Shepherd, a 24-year-old college student. Their letters do not indicate their relationship was anything but a friendship. Fuller died in Chicago on July 28, 1929, "at the home of Wakeman T. Ryan, with whom he had lived for the last three years." His death was ascribed to "heart disease, aggravated by the heat." In 2000, Fuller was posthumously inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame for his contributions to gay literature.
Together from 1926 to 1929: 3 years.
Henry Blake Fuller (January 9, 1857 – July 28, 1929)

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Published on January 09, 2017 01:02

Eva Palmer-Sikelianos (January 9, 1874 – June 4, 1952)

Evelina "Eva" Palmer-Sikelianos was an American woman notable for her study and promotion of Classical Greek culture, weaving, theater, choral dance and music.
Born: January 9, 1874, Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, United States
Died: June 4, 1952, Delphi, Greece
Spouse: Angelos Sikelianos (m. 1907–1934)
Children: Glafkos Sikelianos
Parents: Catherine Amory Bennett, Courtlandt Palmer
Siblings: Courtlandt Palmer Jr.
People also search for: Angelos Sikelianos, Glafkos Sikelianos, more
Lived: 4 Rue Chalgrin, 75116 Paris, France (48.87412, 2.28996)
Silkelianos Museum, 33054 Delphi , Parnassida, Greece (38.48005, 22.49406)
Studied: Bryn Mawr College
Buried: Delphi, Delphi, Regional unit of Phocis, Central Greece, Greece

As young adults in Paris, Natalie Clifford Barney and Eva Palmer-Sikelianos shared an apartment at 4, rue Chalgrin.
Address: 4 Rue Chalgrin, 75116 Paris, France (48.87412, 2.28996)
Type: Private Property
Place
It was during the family’s summer vacations at Bar Harbor in Maine that Eva Palmer became acquainted with Natalie Barney. The two shared an interest in poetry, literature and horseback riding. Barney likened Palmer to a medieval virgin, an homage to her ankle-length red hair and fair countenance. The two would become young lovers and later be neighbors in Paris. Rue Chalgrin is a street in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, in the neighborhood of Chaillot. Named after Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin (1739-1811), architect of the Arc de Triomphe and the church of Saint-Philippe du Roule (in the 8th arrondissement.)
Life
Who: Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) and Evelina "Eva" Palmer-Sikelianos (January 9, 1874 – June 4, 1952)
Eva Palmer-Sikelianos was an American woman notable for her study and promotion of Classical Greek culture, weaving, theater, choral dance and music. Palmer’s life and artistic endeavors intersected with numerous noteworthy artists throughout her life. She was both inspired by or inspired the likes of dancers Isadora Duncan and Ted Shawn, the French literary great Colette, the poet and author Natalie Barney and the actress Sarah Bernhardt. She would go on to marry Angelos Sikelianos, a Greek poet and playwright. Together they organized a revival of the Delphic Festival in Delphi, Greece. Embodied in these festivals of art, music and theater she hoped to promote a balanced sense of enlightenment that would further the goals of peace and harmony in Greece and beyond.

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Published on January 09, 2017 00:53

Ellen Drew Braysher (April 9, 1804 – January 9, 1892)

Lived: The Larches, 22 Eastfield, Westbury-on-Trym
Buried: St Mary the Virgin, Church Close, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7QF

Amelia Blandford Edwards (1831-1892) was a novelist, explorer, travel writer and scholar. She co-founded the Egypt Exploration Fund. John Addington Symonds dedicated his poetry collection “Old and New” to Edwards. Symonds shared many poetic works with Edwards, and his poem “To a Friend Leaving England in September” is originally dedicated “To A.B.E.” Discussing the collaboration on “Sexual Inversion,” Symonds told Havelock Ellis that Edwards “made no secret to me of her Lesbian tendencies”, and formed a menage with an “English lady” and her clergyman/school inspector husband. “Miss Edwards told me that one day the husband married her to his wife at the altar of his church – having full knowledge of the state of affairs.” These were probably Mr and Mrs Byrne – a clergyman and his wife, whose departure from the area was “like a death-blow” to Edwards. Local census records show Ellen Gertrude Byrne living at 7 Cambridge Park, with her husband John Rice Byrne, a clergyman and school inspector. Among Edwards’ close friends and companions was Symonds’ sister-in-law, the artist and traveller Marianne North. The pair were frequent correspondents, and some of Edwards’ letters apparently ardent enough for North to respond “What love letters you do write, what a pity you waste them on a woman!” The two remained close friends for several decades, sharing news of North’s travels and Edwards’ literary career. Edwards is buried together with Ellen Drew Braysher (1804–1892), with whom she shared a home at The Larches for the last three decades of ther life; the house was destroyed by bombing in 1941, although its site is marked by a stone plaque on the front garden wall of 22 Eastfield, Westbury-on-Trym, which occupies part of the site. Braysher’s daughter had been buried in the same grave twenty-eight years earlier at St Mary the Virgin (Church Close, Henbury, Bristol, BS10 7QF), and on Edwards’ death the grave was covered with a large Egyptian ankh.

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Published on January 09, 2017 00:48

Countee Cullen (May 30, 1903 – January 9, 1946)

Countee Cullen, born as Coleman Rutherford, was an African American poet, author and scholar who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He pronounced his name "Coun-tay", not "Coun-tee".
Born: May 30, 1903
Died: January 9, 1946, New York City, New York, United States
Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada
Education: New York University
Harvard University
DeWitt Clinton High School
Plays: St. Louis Woman
Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, Bronx County, New York, USA

Although located in Woodlawn, Bronx and one of the largest cemeteries in New York City, it has the character of a rural cemetery.
Address: 517 E 233rd St, Bronx, NY 10470, USA (40.89006, -73.87425)
Type: Cemetery (open to public)
Hours: Monday through Sunday 8.30-16.30
Phone: +1 718-920-0500
National Register of Historic Places: 11000563, 2011 Also National Historic Landmarks.
Place
Woodlawn Cemetery opened in 1863, in what was then southern Westchester County, in an area that was later annexed to New York City in 1874. It is notable in part as the final resting place of some great figures in the American arts, such as authors Countee Cullen and Herman Melville, and musicians Irving Berlin, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Max Roach. “Memorial To A Marriage” has been erected by Patricia Cronin and her partner Deborah Kass. Sculptor Cronin did the original sculpture of Carrara marble in 2002, to address what she considered a Federal failure: not allowing gay Americans the right to marry. It has been replaced with a bronze casting, installed on the couple’s burial plot in 2011. Since 2002 when the marble was first installed, the memorial has become one of the most visited of Woodlawn. After 18 years together, Patricia Cronin and Deborah Kass went to City Hall on the morning of July 24, 2011, with nearly 900 other New York City couples, waiting for three hours in the heat to get legally married on the first day.
Notable queer burials at Woodlawn Cemetery:
• Diana Blanche Barrymore Blythe (1921-1960), known professionally as Diana Barrymore, was a film and stage actress. She was the daughter of renowned actor John Barrymore and his second wife, poet Blanche Oelrichs.
• Frances (Fannie) Evelyn Bostwick (died in 1921) was the mother of Marion “Joe” Carstairs. Bostwick was an American heiress who was the second child of Jabez Bostwick and his wife Helen. Joe Carstairs' legal father was Scottish army officer Captain Albert Carstairs. At least one biographer has suggested that the Captain may not have been Joe's biological father. Carstairs' mother, an alcoholic and drug addict, later married Captain Francis Francis. She divorced Captain Francis to marry French count Roger de Périgny in 1915, but eventually left him because of his infidelity. Her fourth and last husband, whom she married in 1920, was Serge Voronoff, a Russian–French surgeon who become famous in the 1920s and 1930s for his practice of transplanting monkey testicle tissue into male humans for the claimed purpose of rejuvenation. For some years Evelyn had believed in Voronoff's theories, and she funded his research and acted as his laboratory assistant at the Collège de France in Paris. Voronoff arrived in New York with his wife's body on the ship "S.S. France" in May, 1921.
• Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was a women’s suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920. She was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York alongside her longtime companion, Mary Garrett Hay, a fellow New York state suffragist, with whom she lived for over 20 years. Under a single monument inscribed in block letters: "Here lie two, united in friendship for 38 years through constant service to a great cause."
• Countee Cullen (1903-1946) born as Countee Porter, was a poet, author and scholar who was a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. It is rumored that Cullen was a homosexual, and his relationship with Harold Jackman ("the handsomest man in Harlem"), was a significant factor in his divorce. The young, dashing Jackman was a school teacher and, thanks to his noted beauty, a prominent figure among Harlem’s gay elite. Van Vechten had used him as a character model in his novel “Nigger Heaven” (1926.)
• Joseph Raphael De Lamar (1843-1918), a prominent mine owner and operator in the western United States and Canada, as well as a financier and speculator, from the late 1870s until his death in 1918. De Lamar married Nellie Virginia Sands, a direct descendant of John Quincy Adams, on 8 May, 1893, and they had one daughter together, Alice DeLamar.
• Marjory Lacey-Baker (died in 1971), actress, she was the long-time companion of Dr. Lena Madesin Phillips, founder of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs. They met in 1919 and together until Ms Philipps’ death in 1955. Ms Phillips is buried at Maple Grove Cemetery (500 N Main St, Nicholasville, KY 40356).
• Joseph Christian “J.C.” Leyendecker (1874-1951) was one of the preeminent illustrators of the early XX century.
• George Platt Lynes (1907-1955) was a fashion and commercial photographer.
• Elisabeth "Bessie" Marbury (1856–1933) was a pioneering American theatrical and literary agent and producer who represented prominent theatrical performers and writers in the late XIX and early XX centuries and helped shape business methods of the modern commercial theater. She was the longtime companion of Elsie de Wolfe (later known as Lady Mendl), a prominent socialite and famous interior decorator.
• Herman Melville (1819-1891) was a novelist, short story writer, and poet from the American Renaissance period.
• Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs (October 1, 1890 – November 5, 1950) was a poet, playwright and theatre actress known by the pseudonym "Michael Strange.” Starting in the summer of 1940 until her death, Oelrichs was in a long-term relationship with Margaret Wise Brown, the author of many children’s books. The relationship began as something of a mentoring one, but became a romantic relationship including co-habitating at 10 Gracie Square beginning in 1943.
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton (November 12, 1815 – October 26, 1902) was a suffragist, social activist, abolitionist, and leading figure of the early women’s rights movement.
• John William Sterling (May 12, 1844 – July 5, 1918) was a founding partner of Shearman & Sterling LLP and major benefactor to Yale University. In Sterling's will, he directs: "no interment other than my own and that of my sister, Cordelia, shall ever take place" in his Mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery. An exception is made, however, "in case my said friend, James O. Bloss (September 30, 1847 – December 18, 1918), who has lived with me for more than forty years, should desire to be interred in the said Mausoleum and should die without ever having been married." Cordelia Sterling is burried with her brother. Bloss died less than six months after Sterling, according to his sister, of a broken heart, and is not buried with his friend, though the reason is unknown. He is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester. Sterling's obituary in the New York Times referred to "his lifelong friend, James O. Bloss, a retired cotton broker, who made his home with the testator for more than forty years." James Orville Bloss died suddenly in New York City, on December 15, 1918.
• Bert Williams (1874-1922), was one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era. He married Charlotte ("Lottie") Thompson, a singer with whom he had worked professionally, in a very private ceremony. Lottie was a widow eight years Bert's senior. The Williamses never had children biologically, but they adopted three of Lottie's nieces. In 1919 their niece Lottie Tyler met blues singer Alberta Hunter. In August 1927, Hunter sailed for France, accompanied by Lottie. Their relationship lasted until Ms. Tyler's death, many years later.

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Published on January 09, 2017 00:44

January 8, 2017

Winnaretta Singer (January 8, 1865 – November 26, 1943)

Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac was a musical patron and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Born in America, she lived most of her adult life in France.
Born: January 8, 1865, Yonkers, New York, United States
Died: November 26, 1943, London, United Kingdom
Spouse: Prince Edmond de Polignac (m. 1893–1901), Louis de Scey-Montbéliard (m. 1887–1892)
Siblings: Mortimer Singer, Washington Singer, more
Parents: Isabella Eugénie Boyer, Isaac Singer
Grandparents: Ruth Benson, Louis Noel Boyer, Adam Singer, Pamilla Boyer
Lived: Oldway Mansion, Torquay Rd, Paignton, Torbay TQ3 2TY, UK (50.44304, -3.56768)
Fondation Singer-Polignac, 43 Avenue Georges Mandel, 75116 Paris, France (48.8634, 2.28158)
Buried: Torquay Crematorium, Torquay, Torbay Unitary Authority, Devon, England

Prince Edmond Melchior Jean Marie de Polignac was a French composer. Polignac, inept with money and impoverished through investments in a series of get-rich-quick schemes, was destitute; the solution was marriage to a woman of appropriate means. Élisabeth Greffulhe, cousin of his friend Comte Robert de Montesquiou, suggested the name of Winnaretta Singer. Although known within private social circles to be lesbian, Winnaretta had married at the age of 22 to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard. The marriage was annulled in 1892 by the Catholic church, five years after a wedding night that reportedly included the bride's climbing atop an armoire and threatening to kill the groom if he came near her. Polignac and Winnaretta married on December 15, 1893. Although it was a mariage blanc (unconsummated marriage), or indeed a lavender marriage, it was based on profound love, mutual respect, understanding, and artistic friendship. Among Winnaretta’s lovers, history counts: Violet Trefusis, Romaine Brooks, Renata Borgatti, Olga de Meyer, and Alvilde Chaplin. Edmond was interred in the Singer crypt in Torquay.
Together from 1893 to 1901: 8 years.
Edmond Melchior Jean Marie de Polignac (April 19, 1834 – August 8, 1901)
Winnaretta Eugenie Singer (January 8, 1865 – November 26, 1943)

Days of Love edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
ISBN-10: 1500563323
Release Date: September 21, 2014
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The Singer-Polignac Foundation, created in 1928 in Paris through a donation by Winnaretta Singer, is a public administrative establishment under the supervision of the Ministère de Interior, dedicated to the patronage of the arts, letters and science. The foundation receives no assistance from the state and its activities are financed by its own funds. Its current president is Yves Pouliquen, of the French Academy .
Address: 43 Avenue Georges Mandel, 75116 Paris, France (48.8634, 2.28158)
Type: Private Property
Phone: +33 1 47 27 38 66
Place
Built in 1890
On the death of Winnaretta Singer, the Singer-Polignac Foundation inherited her mansion, located at 43, avenue Georges-Mandel, Paris, and moved there in 1945. In 1926 Winnaretta Singer, Princess Edmond de Polignac, wanted to support the work of the Collège de France and planned to bequeath her fortune to them. After seeking advice from Maurice Palaeologus, and with the support of Raymond Poincaré and Joseph Bedier, she chose to create a corporation named Singer-Polignac Foundation which takes its legal form in 1928. This creation is accompanied by an endowment of 300,000 francs. Since the death of Winnaretta Singer, the foundation received from the Royal Trust Co. in Montreal an amount ranging from 150 000-180 000 Canadian dollars and presented as an anonymous donation “in memory of Winnaretta Singer, Princess Edmond de Polignac.”
Life
Who: Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac (January 8, 1865 – November 26, 1943)
In 1894 Winnaretta Singer and her husband Prince Edmond de Polignac established a salon in Paris in the music room of their mansion on Avenue Henri-Martin (today, Avenue Georges-Mandel.) The Polignac salon came to be known as a haven for avant-garde music. First performances of Chabrier, d’Indy, Debussy, Fauré, and Ravel took place in the Polignac salon. The young Ravel dedicated his piano work, “Pavane pour une infante défunte,” to the Princesse de Polignac. Many of Marcel Proust’s evocations of salon culture were born during his attendance at concerts in the Polignac drawing room. After her husband’s death, Winnaretta Singer-Polignac used her fortune to benefit the arts, sciences, and letters. She decided to honor his memory by commissioning several works of the young composers of her time, amongst others Igor Stravinsky’s “Renard,” Erik Satie’s “Socrate” (by her intercession Satie was kept out of jail when he was composing this work), Darius Milhaud’s “Les Malheurs d’Orphée,” Francis Poulenc’s “Concerto for Two Pianos” and “Organ Concerto,” Jean Françaix’s “Le Diable boîteux” and “Sérénade pour douze instruments,” Kurt Weill’s “Second Symphony,” and Germaine Tailleferre’s “First Piano Concerto.” Manuel de Falla’s “El retablo de maese Pedro” was premiered there, with the harpsichord part performed by Wanda Landowska. In addition to Marcel Proust and Antonio de La Gandara, the Princesse de Polignac’s salon was frequented by Isadora Duncan, Jean Cocteau, Claude Monet, Serge Diaghilev, and Colette. She was also patron to many others, including Nadia Boulanger, Clara Haskil, Arthur Rubinstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Armande de Polignac, Ethel Smyth, Le Corbusier, Adela Maddison, the Ballets Russes, l’Opéra de Paris, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris. In addition to performing as pianist and organist in her own salon, she was an accomplished painter who exhibited in the Académie des Beaux-Arts. One canvas eventually appeared in the showcase of an art gallery, advertised as being a Manet.

Queer Places, Vol. 3 edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1532906695
ISBN-10: 1532906692
Release Date: July 24, 2016
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Oldway Mansion is a large house and gardens in Paignton, Devon. It was built as a private residence for Isaac Merritt Singer, and rebuilt by his third son Paris Singer in the style of the Palace of Versailles.
Address: Torquay Rd, Paignton, Torbay TQ3 2TY, UK (50.44304, -3.56768)
Type: Museum (open to public)
Phone: +44 1803 207933
English Heritage Building ID: 383869 (Grade II, 1951)
Place
Design by George Soudon Bridgman (1839-1925)
Around 1871 the Fernham estate in Paignton was purchased by Isaac Merritt Singer, the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. The old buildings on the site were demolished and he built a new mansion as his home. Isaac Merritt Singer died on 23 July, 1875, shortly before work on the original mansion was completed. Paris Eugene Singer, Isaac Singer’s third son, supervised the alterations at Oldway Mansion between 1904 and 1907. The rebuilding work was modelled on the Palace of Versailles, and the eastern elevation of the building was inspired by the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The interior of the building is noted for its grand staircase made from marble and balusters of bronze. The ceiling of the staircase is decorated with an ornate painting based on an original design for the Palace of Versailles by the French painter and architect Joseph Lebrun. The ceiling is a replica painted by Carl Rossner. Above the grand staircase there is a reproduction of the first version of Jacques-Louis David’s painting “The Crowning of Josephine by Napoleon.” The original was purchased by Paris Singer in the late XIX century. The painting was sold to the French government in 1946 and now hangs in the Palace of Versailles. The reproduction at the mansion, which is in the same place as the original, is a colour photocopy and was unveiled in 1995. The gallery on the first floor is a reproduction of the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, and is floored in parquet. The gallery leads into the ballroom, which contains walls of gilt panelling and mirrors. Above the fireplace there is an oil painting of Louis of Bourbon dating from 1717. Oldway Mansion is set in 17 acres (69,000 m2) of gardens, which are laid out on an Italian theme by the French landscape gardener Achille Duchesne. Beneath the eastern elevation of the building is the maze, which consists of dwarf box hedging and flower beds. To the south of the mansion there is the grotto garden where a waterfall passes over a rocky cave into a pool below. The grounds of the mansion contain many sub-tropical plants and shrubs. Opposite the main entrance to the mansion is a large round building known as The Rotunda. This was built in 1873, and was used originally as a horse riding pavilion and exercise area. Isaac Merritt Singer gave this building the nickname of "The Wigwam.” Following the end of an affair with the dancer Isadora Duncan in 1917, Paris Singer became an American citizen and went to live in the United States. This was done partly for tax reasons, and after 1918 Oldway Mansion was no longer the permanent home of the Singer family. During the period of WWI from 1914 to 1918, Oldway Mansion was transformed into the American Women’s War Relief Hospital. The Rotunda was converted to house rows of beds for the wounded soldiers being brought back to England from the trenches of France and Belgium. Oldway Mansion became the Torbay Country Club in 1929. During this period tennis courts and a bowling green were added to the grounds. Torbay Golf & Country Club opened in 1933. Oldway Mansion was used as the club house, with the course in the hills above the Mansion. The course closed in the mid 1950s. During WWII from 1939 to 1945, Oldway was used in the war effort by housing RAF cadets training to be aircrew. In 1943 Oldway was damaged in an air raid, along with many other buildings in Paignton. Paignton Urban District Council purchased Oldway Mansion from the Singer family in 1946 for £45,000. It is estimated that around £200,000 was spent on building the mansion. Until 2013, the building was used as council offices and for civil marriage ceremonies. On April 30, 2012, plans for Oldway Mansion to be converted into a luxury hotel and sheltered retirement flats were approved by Torbay Council. On December 21, 2005, the ballroom at Oldway Mansion was the location for Devon’s first civil partnership. The registration was officially witnessed by the Mayor of Torbay and his dignitaries.
Life
Who: Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac (January 8, 1865 – November 26, 1943)
Winnaretta Singer was a musical patron and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune. She was the twentieth of the 24 children of Isaac Singer. Her mother was his Parisian-born second wife, Isabella Eugenie Boyer. Winnaretta was born in Yonkers, New York. After the American Civil War, the Singer family moved to Paris, where they remained until the Franco-Prussian War. The family then settled in England, first in London, and then to Paignton, Devon where they moved to Oldway Mansion a 115-room palace built by her father. After Isaac Singer’s death in 1875, Isabelle and her children moved back to Paris. Although known within private social circles to be lesbian, Winnaretta married at the age of 22 to Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard. The marriage was annulled in 1892 by the Catholic church, five years after a wedding night that reportedly included the bride’s climbing atop an armoire and threatening to kill the groom if he came near her. In 1893, at the age of 29, she stepped companionably into an equally chaste marriage with the 59-year-old Prince Edmond de Polignac (1834-1901), a gay amateur composer. Although it was a mariage blanc (unconsummated marriage), it was based on profound love, mutual respect, understanding, and artistic friendship, expressed especially through their love of music. She had affairs with numerous women, never making attempts to conceal them, and never going for any great length of time without a female lover. She had these affairs during her own marriage and afterward, and often with other married women. The affronted husband of one of her lovers once stood outside the princess’s Venetian palazzo, declaring, "If you are half the man I think you are, you will come out here and fight me." Singer had a relationship with painter Romaine Brooks (1874-1970), which had begun in 1905, and which effectively ended her affair with Olga de Meyer (1871-ca. 1930), who was married at the time and whose godfather (and purported biological father) was Edward VII. Composer and conductor Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) fell deeply in love with her during their affair. In the early 1920s Singer became involved with pianist Renata Borgatti (1894-1964.) From 1923 to 1933 her partner was the British socialite and novelist Violet Trefusis (1894-1972), with whom she had a loving but often turbulent relationship. Alvilde Chaplin (1909-1994), future wife of the author James Lees-Milne (1908-1997), was involved with Singer from 1938 to 1943; the two women were living together in London at the time of Winnaretta’s death. Winnaretta and her husband are buried together at Torquay Cemetary (Torquay, Torbay TQ2).

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Published on January 08, 2017 03:42

Sighsten Herrgård (January 8, 1943 – November 20, 1989)

Sighsten Herrgård was a Finnish-born Swedish fashion designer and major trendsetter in Stockholm. Herrgård was the first Swedish celebrity with AIDS to go public about it, "giving AIDS a face".
Born: January 8, 1943, Helsinki, Finland
Died: November 20, 1989
Buried: Bromma kyrkogård, Stockholm, Stockholms kommun, Stockholms län, Sweden, Plot: FB/377

Sighsten Herrgård was a Swedish fashion designer. Herrgård was the first Swedish celebrity with AIDS to go public about it, "giving AIDS a face". He received his fashion education at Beckmans School of Design in Stockholm and at the pattern development academies in Stockholm and Copenhagen. His career took off in 1966 when he won the Courtauld International Design Competition with a collection of unisex clothing. In the 1970s, Herrgård established internationally in Paris and North America; he also started a company in Stockholm and worked with television, magazines and shows. Herrgård wrote his memoirs with Carl Otto Werkelid just before he died. In 1969 he was one of the world's ten best-dressed men. The saddest thing in Herrgård's memoirs, Sighsten, is the portrayal of Roar, the man who lived with Herrgård for a number of years. Roar, who was a monogamous type like Herrgård, was the one who first succumbed to the virus, which eventually ended also Sighsten's life. Klingenberg was the first Swedish patient to be diagnosed with AIDS, even though he was not the first to die due to it.
Together from (around) 1970 to 1984: 14 years.
Roar Klingenberg (died on September 21, 1984)
Sighsten Herrgård (January 8, 1943 – November 20, 1989)

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Published on January 08, 2017 03:33

Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (February 22, 1857 – January 8, 1941)

Lieutenant General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, OM GCMG GCVO KCB DL, also known as B-P or Lord Baden-Powell, was a British Army officer, writer, author of Scouting for ...
Born: February 22, 1857, Paddington, London, United Kingdom
Died: January 8, 1941, Nyeri, Kenya
Buried: Saint Peter's Cemetery, Nyeri, Nyeri, Kenya
Education: Charterhouse School
Lived: 9 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, London SW7 5DH, UK

Virginia Woolf was born Adeline Virginia Stephen at 22 Hyde Park Gate in Kensington, London. Her parents were Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904) and Julia Prinsep Duckworth Stephen (née Jackson, 1846–1895.)
Address: Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, London SW7 5DH, UK
Type: Historic Street (open to public)
Place
Hyde Park Gate is a street in central London, which applies to two parallel roads in Kensington on the southern boundary of Kensington Gardens. It is probably most famous for having the former residence and death place of Sir Winston Churchill. It is in a picturesque part of London and a very expensive place to live.
Notable queer residents at Hyde Park Gate:
• English Heritage Blue Plaque: 9 Hyde Park Gate, SW7 Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), “Chief Scout of the World lived here.”
• English Heritage Blue Plaque: 22 Hyde Park Gate, SW7 Sir Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), “Scholar and writer lived here.”
Life
Who: Adeline Virginia Woolf, née Stephen (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941)
Leslie Stephen was a notable historian, author, critic and mountaineer. He was a founding editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, a work that would influence Virginia Woolf’s later experimental biographies. Julia Stephen was born in British India to Dr. John and Maria Pattle Jackson. She was the niece of the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron and first cousin of the temperance leader Lady Henry Somerset. Julia moved to England with her mother, where she served as a model for Pre-Raphaelite painters such as Edward Burne-Jones. Julia named her daughter after the Pattle family: Adeline after Lady Henry’s sister, who married George Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford; and Virginia, the name of yet another sister (who died young) but also of their mother, Julia’s aunt. Woolf was educated by her parents in their literate and well-connected household. Her parents had each been married previously and been widowed, and, consequently, the household contained the children of three marriages. Julia had three children by her first husband, Herbert Duckworth: George, Stella, and Gerald Duckworth. Leslie had first married Harriet Marian (Minny) Thackeray (1840–1875), the daughter of William Thackeray, and they had one daughter: Laura Makepeace Stephen, who was declared mentally disabled and lived with the family until she was institutionalised in 1891. Leslie and Julia had four children together: Vanessa Stephen (later known as Vanessa Bell) (1879), Thoby Stephen (1880), Virginia (1882), and Adrian Stephen (1883.) Sir Leslie Stephen’s eminence as an editor, critic, and biographer, and his connection to William Thackeray, meant that his children were raised in an environment filled with the influences of Victorian literary society. Henry James, George Henry Lewes, and Virginia’s honorary godfather, James Russell Lowell, were among the visitors to the house. Julia Stephen was equally well connected. She came from a family of beauties who left their mark on Victorian society as models for Pre-Raphaelite artists and early photographers, including her aunt Julia Margaret Cameron who was also a visitor to the Stephen household. Supplementing these influences was the immense library at the Stephens’ house, from which Virginia and Vanessa were taught the classics and English literature. Unlike the girls, their brothers Adrian and Julian (Thoby) were formally educated and sent to Cambridge, a difference that Virginia would resent. The sisters did, however, benefit indirectly from their brothers’ Cambridge contacts, as the boys brought their new intellectual friends home to the Stephens’ drawing room. After the death of their parents and Virginia’s second nervous breakdown, Vanessa and Adrian sold 22 Hyde Park Gate and bought a house at 46 Gordon Square in Bloomsbury.

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Published on January 08, 2017 03:28

Paul Verlaine (March 30, 1844 – January 8, 1896)

Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.
Born: March 30, 1844, Metz, France
Died: January 8, 1896, Paris, France
Spouse: Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville (m. 1870)
Education: Lycée Condorcet
Children: Georges Verlaine
Lived: Rue Haute Pierre, 57000 Metz, France (49.11712, 6.17148)
Buried: Batignolles Cemetery, Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France, Plot: Division 11

Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet born in Charleville, Ardennes. Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. Rimbaud sent Verlaine two letters containing several of his poems. Verlaine, who was intrigued by Rimbaud, sent a reply that stated, "Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you." Rimbaud arrived in late September 1871. Rimbaud and Verlaine began a short and torrid affair. Their stormy relationship eventually brought them to London in September 1872. In late June 1873, Verlaine returned to Paris alone, but quickly began to mourn Rimbaud's absence. On 8 July, he telegraphed Rimbaud, asking him to come to the Hotel Liège in Brussels. On the morning of 10 July, 1873, Verlaine bought a revolver. That afternoon Verlaine fired two shots at Rimbaud, wounding him. Rimbaud and Verlaine met for the last time in Mar. 1875, in Stuttgart, Germany. Rimbaud travelled extensively on three continents before his death from cancer just after his 37th birthday.
Together from 1871 to 1875: 4 years.
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (October 20, 1854 – November 10, 1891)
Paul-Marie Verlaine (March 30, 1844 – January 8, 1896)

Days of Love edited by Elisa Rolle
ISBN-13: 978-1500563325
ISBN-10: 1500563323
Release Date: September 21, 2014
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The House of Verlaine, Verlaine’s birthplace in Metz, is a museum dedicated to the poet’s life and artworks.
Address: Rue Haute Pierre, 57000 Metz, France (49.11712, 6.17148)
Type: Museum (open to public)
Phone: +33 06 34 52 22 34
Life
Who: Paul-Marie Verlaine (March 30, 1844 – January 8, 1896)
Paul Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry. In September 1871 Verlaine received the first letter from Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1896.) Verlaine was intrigued by Rimbaud, and replied, "Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you," sending him a one-way ticket to Paris. Rimbaud arrived in late September 1871 and resided briefly in Verlaine’s home. Verlaine’s wife, Mathilde Mauté, was seventeen years old and pregnant, and Verlaine had recently left his job and started drinking. In later published recollections of his first sight of Rimbaud at the age of seventeen, Verlaine described him as having "the real head of a child, chubby and fresh, on a big, bony, rather clumsy body of a still-growing adolescent,” with a "very strong Ardennes accent that was almost a dialect.” His voice had "highs and lows as if it were breaking." By 1872, they were lovers. Rimbaud and Verlaine’s stormy affair took them to London in September 1872, a period over which Rimbaud would later express regret. During this time, Verlaine abandoned his wife and infant son (both of whom he had abused in his alcoholic rages.) In England they lived in considerable poverty in Bloomsbury and in Camden Town, scraping a living mostly from teaching, as well as an allowance from Verlaine’s mother. Rimbaud spent his days in the Reading Room of the British Museum where "heating, lighting, pens and ink were free.” The relationship between the two poets grew increasingly bitter. In late June 1873, Verlaine returned to Paris alone, but quickly began to mourn Rimbaud’s absence. On July 8, he telegraphed Rimbaud, asking him to come to the Hotel Liège in Brussels. The reunion went badly, they argued continuously, and Verlaine took refuge in heavy drinking. On the morning of July 10, Verlaine bought a revolver. About 16:00, "in a drunken rage,” he fired two shots at Rimbaud, one of them wounding the 18-year-old in the left wrist. Rimbaud initially dismissed the wound as superficial but had it dressed at the St-Jean hospital nevertheless. He did not immediately file charges, but decided to leave Brussels. About 20:00, Verlaine and his mother accompanied Rimbaud to the Gare du Midi railway station. On the way, by Rimbaud’s account, Verlaine "behaved as if he were insane.” Fearing that Verlaine "might give himself over to new excesses,” Rimbaud "ran off" and "begged a policeman to arrest him.” Verlaine was charged with attempted murder, then subjected to a humiliating medico-legal examination. He was also interrogated about his correspondence with Rimbaud and the nature of their relationship. The bullet was eventually removed on July 17, and Rimbaud withdrew his complaint. The charges were reduced to wounding with a firearm, and on August 8, 1873 Verlaine was sentenced to two years in prison. Rimbaud and Verlaine met for the last time in March 1875, in Stuttgart, after Verlaine’s release from prison and his conversion to Catholicism. By then Rimbaud had given up writing in favour of a steady, working life. Some speculate he was fed up with his former wild living, or that the recklessness itself had been the source of his creativity. Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet born in Charleville, Ardennes. He influenced modern literature and arts, and prefigured surrealism. He started writing poems at a very young age, while still in primary school, and stopped completely before he turned 21. He was mostly creative in his teens (17–20.) the critic Cecil Arthur Hackett wrote that his "genius, its flowering, explosion and sudden extinction, still astonishes.” Rimbaud was known to have been a libertine and for being a restless soul. He traveled extensively on three continents before his death from cancer just after his thirty-seventh birthday.

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Published on January 08, 2017 03:23

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