Being the Steel Drummer - a Maggie Gale Mystery
Page 35
And say with a fervor born of the South
That your body and soul are mine.
Clasp me close in your warm young arms,
While the pale stars shine above,
And we’ll live our whole young lives away
In the joys of a living love.
“It’s kind of a sappy poem, but the point is, I love you, Kathryn,” I said softly.
She said gently in a high sweet whisper, “I love you too, Maggie.”
The Poems
The poems appearing in this book were all written and published before 1923 and so are in the public domain. The author is deeply grateful for the creation of these poems and to the brilliant women and men who created them. The reader is encouraged to read more of each of these poets’ works.
Love Song For Alice B
Written by Gertrude Stein
A Darting Fear—A Pomp—A Tear—
Written by Emily Dickinson
Dim Eden of Delight
Written by Anne Whitney
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock...
from Othello
Written by William Shakespeare
And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy!
from The Merchant of Venice
Written by William Shakespeare
I Dreamed An Angel, Angel Twice, Through Death...
Written by Anne Whitney
I Love You
Written by Ellen Wheeler Wilcox
Author’s Notes
The author firmly believes that the words Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender represent a culture of people, not simply an immutable orientation and identity, and so throughout this book those words are capitalized in the same way one would capitalize Latino, African-American, Hispanic, or Black, which each similarly represent much more than an accident of birth.
The author thanks real life people Bolton Winpenny and Marc Freligh, who both generously bid at a charity silent auction to benefit Pennsylvania Diversity Network, for the opportunity to have their names as characters in this book. Neither of them are in the profession of their character and their characters’ actions and behaviors are a product of the author’s imagination. Both of them in real life are active supporters and leaders in the GLBT community.
There are references to real historical figures, events, and places in this novel. While Victoria Willomere Snow and Evangeline Lavender Fen and all their families and circumstances are the complete invention of the author’s imagination, the author has made an effort to fit their stories into the historical timelines of real women artists and poets of the late 1800s and early 1900s, many of whom were Lesbians.
The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the bank panic of the 1870s and the sailing of the Bothnia and Scotia referenced in Victoria’s journals did take place, however the interaction of the characters in them is a product of the author’s imagination.
Charlotte Cushman, the brilliant Shakespearian actor who played Hamlet and other men’s and women’s classical roles, was a real person who lived in Rome and the United States in the late 1800s. She was a Lesbian and wealthy patron of the arts. She was in historically documented long-term relationships with writer Matilda Hays, artist Emma Stebbins, and actor Emma Crowe, and quite a few other women. Hays actually sued Cushman for support when Cushman began her secret affair with Emma Stebbins. Cushman died of breast cancer when she was 59 years old.
Laura Keene was a contemporary of Charlotte Cushman. She established, for the first time, regular matinees that ladies could attend without the company of a man. Keene’s theater company was performing when President Lincoln was shot. Lincoln’s head did rest in her lap as he died. Her blood-stained petticoat continues to travel the world as part of exhibitions about Abraham Lincoln’s life and death, long after people remember Keene’s work. In other words, her underwear is now more famous than she is. Charles Busch’s play Our Leading Lady is a fictionalized account of how this event affected Keene. Actor Kate Mulgrew played the part of Laura Keene in the play’s first production.
Lesbian sculptor Harriet Hosmer wooed Charlotte Cushman’s partner of ten years, Matilda Hays, away from her in Rome in 1854, which created quite a drama between the three women. Hosmer was one of the premiere sculptors of her day whose primary patron was Wayman Crow, the father of Emma Crow, who was one of the two Emmas with Charlotte Cushman at the end of her life. Many young male and female apprentices learned their trade in Hosmer’s sculpture studio in Rome.
Edmonia Lewis, who was of African, Haitian, and Ojibwe decent, really did study art at Oberlin College in the 1860s and worked in Harriet Hosmer’s studio in Rome. She also had a studio in the same building as Anne Whitney in Boston. She did have a major piece in the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia titled Death of Cleopatra that was lost for over one hundred years and then found, restored, and now resides in the Smithsonian.
Sculptor and poet Anne Whitney and her life partner Abbey Manning were also part of the circle of women artists in Rome. They lived in Boston in later years. Whitney really did apply for a commission to do a monument of abolitionist Charles Sumner by presenting drawings and sculptural studies. Whitney was awarded the commission, but it was revoked when the judges found out she was a woman. She did indeed do the sculpture of Sumner anyway and it is still in place on the grounds of Harvard University.
History does indicate that Edgar Allen Poe married his wife Virginia Clem when she was thirteen years old, and he was twenty-seven. They were first cousins.
Gertrude Stein regularly sold drawings and paintings by Matisse, Picasso, and other famous artists to Etta and Claribel Cone, often for just a few dollars. The Cone sisters’ collection is a major feature of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Historical sources hint that Gertrude Stein was fascinated by Dr. Claribel Cone and had a romantic affair with Etta, which ended when Gertrude began to live with Alice B. Toklas in 1910. In 1921 Gertrude Stein wrote the poem Love Song For Alice B, in reference to the woman she referred to as her wife for the rest of her life.
Mannerbach, the coin silver spoonmaker who created urn-back and bird-back spoons, practiced his craft in Reading, Pennsylvania, in the early 1800s.
Shakespeare coined dozens of sayings and phrases that are part of today’s everyday speech; a list of some of those phrases can be found at the end of these notes.
Actor Larry Storch, who lives in New York City as of the writing of this book, really did the voices of Cool Cat and Col. Rimfire and was Corporal Agarn on F-Troop in the 1960s. He began his career in 1949 and is still working today.
In 1986 the author boarded a subway car in New York City and at the next stop Larry Storch and a woman got on. Soon after, a reeling, Bible-spouting drunk came into the train car, followed soon after by a steel drummer. The author remembers it well and wonders if Larry Storch does too. They both gave the steel drummer some money.
The term Coordinative Biography was coined by this author who firmly believes that one’s life cannot be separated from one’s work. The author also firmly believes that to end homophobia, bullying, and intolerance, students must be taught about the important contributions that Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender people have made to history.
The author encourages the reader to seek more information about these important figures in history and their interesting lives, especially the Lesbian artists, poets, and actors. For extensive information about Charlotte Cushman and the Lesbian artists and writers in Europe in the second half of the 1800s, the reader may find interesting: Across the Untried Seas: Discovering Lives Hidden in the Shadow of Convention and Time by Julia Markus (Knopf - 2000) and/or other works about Charlotte Cushman’s life, including her collected letters to Emma Stebbins.
Footnotes
[1] "Good afternoon, beloved sister."
"Do you want to go over to Thai Kitchen for dinner? I'm starving."
"Where's your habañero girlfriend? Why won't she eat with
you? Are you treating her right or is she available now? Give me her number and I'll show her a good time!"
Sara looked up and wiggled her eyebrows but then stared at me. "What's wrong?" she asked sharply.
[2] "Get lucky, did you?" I teased as I closed the door.
Sara was dressed for court in a dark tailored suit and white silk blouse. She swiveled toward me in her chair and smiled.
"Not lucky in the sense you mean, potty brain."
"Oh c'mon, you didn't even kiss her?"
[3] "Wait, Rafael, let me give you a tip," I said.
"No, Maggie, you don't have to. It's OK."
"But I want you to have it, please. You need this to save up for... things."
"It's OK really, and I give all the tips to Mariana, anyway."
"Well take this to give to her then."
an incomplete list of everyday
phrases coined by shakespeare
A dish fit for the gods
A fool’s paradise
A foregone conclusion
A ministering angel shall my sister be
A rose by any other name...
...would smell as sweet
A sorry sight
All corners of the world
All the world’s a stage
All’s well that ends well
And thereby hangs a tale
As cold as any stone
As dead as a doornail
As good luck would have it
As merry as the day is long
As pure as the driven snow
At one fell swoop
Bag and baggage
Come what come may
Discretion is the better part...
... of valour
Eaten out of house and home
Exceedingly well read
Fair play
Fancy free
Fight fire with fire
For ever and a day
Foul play
Good riddance
Green eyed monster
Heart’s content
High time
Hoist by your own petard
I bear a charmed life
I have not slept one wink
In a pickle
In my mind’s eye,
In stitches
In the twinkling of an eye
It is meat and drink to me
Lay it on with a trowel
Lie low
Love is blind
Make your hair stand on end
Milk of human kindness
More fool you
Much Ado about Nothing
Mum’s the word
My salad days
Neither a borrower nor a lender be
Night owl
Off with his head
Out of the jaws of death
Pound of flesh
Primrose path
Rhyme nor reason
Screw your courage to the sticking place
Send him packing
Set your teeth on edge
Short shrift
Shuffle off this mortal coil
Star crossed lovers
Stiffen the sinews
Stony hearted
Such stuff as dreams are made on
The crack of doom
The Devil incarnate
The game is afoot
There’s method in my madness
Thereby hangs a tale
This is the short and the long of it
To-morrow, and to-morrow...
...and to-morrow
To sleep: perchance to dream:
...aye, there’s the rub
Too much of a good thing
Truth will out
Vanish into thin air
Wear my heart upon my sleeve
We have seen better days
Wild goose chase
Woe is me
Liz Bradbury
(photo by the author)
About the Author
Besides her work as the author of the critically acclaimed Maggie Gale Mystery series, Liz Bradbury has written and had published over 400 nonfiction articles and essays on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender issues. She has had regular columns in several publications and web sites including the Valley Gay Press, PA Diversity Network’s web site: www.padiversity.org, Panzee Press, Diversity Rules, and Gaydar Magazine. She is a founder of the Medusa Literary Society for Fiercely Independent Lesbian Publishers, has been a co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Magazine, and was a judge in the 2012 Kissed by Venus short story competition.
Liz Bradbury is also a founder and the Executive Director of Pennsylvania Diversity Network, the largest GLBT advocacy organization in PA. She has been the publisher of the Valley Gay Press newspaper for 14 years. As an advocate for the GLBT community, she has worked to successfully pass pro-GLBT legislation. She speaks frequently on GLBT rights and is an expert on same-sex marriage equality (and the lack of it) in Pennsylvania.
Her earlier careers include teaching woodworking, furniture design, and art history at State University of New York, and antique dealer.
She lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Amelia Island, Florida with her spouse Dr. Patricia J. Sullivan.
Liz is currently at work on her next Maggie Gale Mystery:
C-notes and ski nose
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