Elsa Gidlow
Encyclopedia
Elsa Gidlow 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
.
of Pearson's
, a magazine supportive of poets and unsympathetic to the war and England. Later, in 1927, she moved to San Francisco, and continued to live, write and love in the San Francisco Bay Area for the rest of her life. Her autobiography, Elsa, I Come With My Songs: The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow gives a personal and detailed account of her life seeking, finding and creating a life with other lesbians at a time when little was recorded on the topic.
, Alan Watts
, Ansel Adams
, Gary Snyder
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Neil Young
, Tom Robbins
, Catharine MacKinnon
, and Margo St. James
.
"From the first meeting Elsa enchanted me, a witch casting a spell."
-Alan Watts
Her publications include:
-- Constancy
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...
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
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
. 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
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York...
and feminist theorist Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher and activist.- Biography :MacKinnon was born in Minnesota. Her mother is Elizabeth Valentine Davis; her father, George E. MacKinnon was a lawyer, congressman , and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...
.
Life and Work
She was born "in Hull, Yorkshire, England on a dark afternoon on December 29, 1898." At a young age she sailed with her family to Montreal, Quebec. She was first employed by a contact of her father's in Montreal, a factory doctor, as assistant editor to Factory Facts, an in-house magazine. She moved to New York in 1920 at the age of 21. There she was employed by Frank HarrisFrank Harris
Frank Harris was a Irish-born, naturalized-American author, editor, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day...
of Pearson's
Pearson's Magazine
Pearson's Magazine was an influential publication which first appeared in Britain in 1896. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Maxim Gorky and H. G...
, a magazine supportive of poets and unsympathetic to the war and England. Later, in 1927, she moved to San Francisco, and continued to live, write and love in the San Francisco Bay Area for the rest of her life. Her autobiography, Elsa, I Come With My Songs: The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow gives a personal and detailed account of her life seeking, finding and creating a life with other lesbians at a time when little was recorded on the topic.
Luminary Friendships
As a consequence of Druid Heights and her other activities, Gidlow socialized with many famous artists, radical thinkers, mystics, and political activists, including Ella YoungElla Young
Ella Young was an Irish poet and Celtic mythologist active in the Gaelic and Celtic Revival literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Born in Ireland, Young was an author of poetry and children's books. She emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1925 as a temporary...
, Alan Watts
Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and popularizer of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York...
, Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams
Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....
, Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
, Tom Robbins
Tom Robbins
Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins Thomas Eugene "Tom" Robbins (born July 22, 1936 is an American author. His best-selling novels are serio-comic, often wildly poetic stories with a strong social and philosophical undercurrent, an irreverent bent, and scenes extrapolated from...
, Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher and activist.- Biography :MacKinnon was born in Minnesota. Her mother is Elizabeth Valentine Davis; her father, George E. MacKinnon was a lawyer, congressman , and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...
, and Margo St. James
Margo St. James
Margo St. James , a self-described prostitute and sex-positive feminist, founded the organization COYOTE , which advocates decriminalization of prostitution.-History:...
.
"From the first meeting Elsa enchanted me, a witch casting a spell."
-Alan Watts
Her publications include:
- On A Grey Thread (1923)
- Sapphic Songs: Seventeen to Seventy (San Francisco: Druid Heights Press, 1976)
- Sapphic Songs: Eighteen to Eighty, the Love Poetry of Elsa Gidlow (San Francisco: Druid Heights Press, 1982)
- Elsa, I Come With My Songs: The Autobiography of Elsa Gidlow (San Francisco: Druid Heights Press, 1986)
Quotations
- Life laid a flaming finger on my heart,
- Gave me an electric golden thread,
- Pointed to a pile of beads and said:
- Link me one more glorious than the rest.
-- Constancy