Elsa: I Come With My Songs

by Elsa Gidlow

Autobiography of a Poet-Warrior. Many know eighty-seven year-old Elsa Gidlow as an honored feminist poet, a philosophical anarchist and Taoist bon vivant. This is her radical and loving story. The triumph over long poverty, lack of education, and family tragedy, her joy as a word weaver and as an irrepressible free spirit, free heart.

Genres: Autobiography, Poetry, Memoir, Nonfiction, Lesbian, LGBT

Paperback

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

Elsa Gidlow (29 December 1898 – 8 June 1986) was a poet, who in 1923 published the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry in the United States, On a Grey Thread. She promoted alternative spiritualities including Buddhism and Goddess Worship. In the 1940s she founded a rural retreat center, the Druid Heights Artists Retreat, in Marin County, California. She lived there until her death in 1986. Other residents at Druid Heights have included well-known figures such as her close friend Alan Watts and feminist theorist Catharine MacKinnon.

Reviews

[Leilani Clark]

Elsa Gidlow's autobiography is the inspiring story of a woman who lived her life exactly the way she wanted to in a time when it wasn't okay for women to be individuals. Freedom, love and creativity are just a few of the subjects that Elsa brings to the table. A brilliant book.

[Stephy]

Elsa Gidlow is an honored feminist poet, a philosophical anarchist and a Taoist bon vivant. This is her radical and loving story. The triumph over long poverty, lack of education, and family tragedy; her joy as a word weaver and as an irrepressible free spirit, free heart. Her survival of terrifying Abuse wrapped in psychology covers. TRIBUTE TO SUCESS.

In 1921 Elsa Gidlow wrote the first openly Lesbian Literature in the United states. Gidlow kept her sanity and wrote all her beautiful poetry in spite of the fact that she was incarcerated in a mental institution because she declared openly that she was a lesbian. There, she received uncounted applications of electroshock therapy to "convert" her to heterosexuality. A lot of the circuits in her brain were wounded by this barbaric treatment, but she always knew who she was, and that she loved women. They never took the fire out of her heart, so we are fortunate to have her mighty words to inform us about her true self.

[Tabitha O’Connell]

Available to borrow online at https://archive.org/details/elsaicome...

[Benjamin Thompson]

astounding chronicle of a wondrous life

s/o Lucretia little history room

[Brie A.]

What a beautiful life. Elsa records the complexities and beauties of queer existence throughout the 20th century in quietly stunning prose. Her voice is rich with a wisdom that transcends her era; her autobiography is a profound historical resource & addition to literature.

[Andrea]

This book is great because she comments on poverty, feminism, her sexual orientation, and poetics.

[Chrissy]

The number one book in my life. You won't meet a more fabulous woman.