Edith Mary Oldham Ellis née Lees (1861 – 1916) was a British writer and women's rights

Women's rights

Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...

 activist. She was married to the famous sexologist Havelock Ellis

Havelock Ellis

Henry Havelock Ellis, known as Havelock Ellis , was a British physician and psychologist, writer, and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He was co-author of the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality in 1897, and also published works on a variety of sexual practices and...

.

Edith Lees married Havelock Ellis in November 1891. From the beginning, their marriage was unconventional; she was openly lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

 and at the end of the honeymoon

Honeymoon

-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...

 he went back to his bachelor rooms. She had several affairs with women, which Ellis was aware of. Their "open marriage

Open marriage

Open marriage typically refers to a marriage in which the partners agree that each may engage in extramarital sexual relationships, without this being regarded as infidelity. There are many different styles of open marriage, with the partners having varying levels of input on their spouse's...

" was the central subject in Havelock Ellis's autobiography

Autobiography

An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...

, My Life (1939).

Her first novel, Seaweed: A Cornish Idyll, was published in 1898. Her biography of surgeon James Hinton was published posthumously.

Works

• Seaweed: A Cornish Idyll (1898)
• My Cornish Neighbours (1906)
• Kit's Woman (U.S. title: Steve's Woman) (1907)
• The Subjection of Kezia (1908)
• Attainment (1909)
• Three Modern Seers (1910)
• The Imperishable Wing (1911)
• The Lover's Calendar: An Anthology (ed) (1912)
• Love-Acre (1914)
• Love in Danger (1915)
• James Hinton
  James Hinton (surgeon)
  James Hinton was an English surgeon and author. He is the father of mathematician Charles Howard Hinton.-Life:...
  
  : A Sketch (1918)
• The New Horizon in Love and Life (1921)

Further reading

• Grosskurth, Phyllis
  Phyllis Grosskurth
  Phyllis M. Grosskurth, is a Canadian biographer.Born in Toronto, Ontario, she received a Bachelor of Arts degree, honours English from the University of Toronto and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Ottawa...
  
  (1980). Havelock Ellis: A Biography. New York: Random House.

External links