Elsa Gidlow (1898–1996)

Offered for review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, Mint Editions' description of Elsa Gidlow's On a Grey Thread as the first collection of lesbian love poetry to be released in North America immediately caught my attention. More specifically, when it was first published in 1923, it was the first such collection to not be released anonymously or under a pseudonym. I wasn't previously familiar with Elsa Gidlow or her work, but after reading On a Grey Thread I am very curious to learn more about her. (Serendipitously, Gidlow has connections to other authors whose works I've recently started exploring, such as Allen Ginsberg and Alan Watts.) As a volume, On a Grey Thread collects more than lesbian love poems. But while it ranges in theme, Gidlow's poetry is frequently feminist and philosophical. In addition to the queer content, I also particularly appreciated Gidlow's explorations of art as a concept and an act of creation. I am very glad to have had the opportunity to read On a Grey Thread and am happy that the collection is once again available in print.… (plus d'informations)

As with any collection, I liked some entries better than others. This heart was full to overflowing with emotion: joy, longing, tenderness, lust. Gidlow's poems are rich with sensory experience - sight, sound, touch - full of color, texture, and movement so that we are almost in the scene as well. "Episode," "As Usual," and "To a Young Dancing Girl" are exquisitely vivid in this way. They are more like master paintings or stage plays than written words. We can smell the roses, hear the click of the beads, feel the weight of the shoes on our own feet. I kept thinking about the songs of Chavela Varga as I read, the depth of her feeling and her expression were similar. She and Gidlow are one of a kind. I must read more.

Thank you to LibraryThing Early Reviewers and the publisher for providing me a copy of this work in exchange for my review.… (plus d'informations)

Two reasons I got this: (1) I don’t often see writings about lesbianism that explicitly state they are philosophical and; (2) I’m building a collection and reference library on American women philosophers and, given the title and Elsa Gidlow’s history, I had reason to believe she and the book qualified.

The argument is not especially clear but she makes a number of points, all loosely based on a combination of The Symposium (Diotima esp) and evolutionary theory. More specially, she says at various points that:
- the fact that there are still lesbians after all these thousands and thousands of years means they have a purpose.
- from The Symposium, some people try to live forever and exercise their creativity energy through the creation of children. Others want to have different sorts of creative ‘children’. These are the poets, artists, etc.
- [here it gets muddy] Lesbians, unless they want to, don’t want to have children. (Basically, she wants to say lesbians don’t have the urge to have children like women who want to be with men do)
- lesbians, instead, are meant to be creative artist-types
- lesbians are kept around by nature to fulfill the above role

She also suggests lesbians are good because the world is over populated.

Another point she makes but doesn’t really develop is a shortened version of Margaret Fuller’s earlier claim that people aren’t fully male or female but on a spectrum with more or less of each. She doesn’t really use this idea to further her main argument though. Nor does she consider the possibility that lesbians may want children at the same rates as straight women (bi isn’t addressed, except to say that maybe women over time go through different phases of sexual orientation).

In any event, interesting to those curious about the evolution of lesbian self-understanding (here in 1974 this is way way beyond the view that they are ‘sick’ and society should help them in that light). The view that what is ‘natural’ cannot be wrong is present here, as we also see it doing well today.

And finally, I thought all the photos were beautiful. Taken by Ruth Mountaingrove

Signing off, Heather Moonflower


… (plus d'informations)