A Celebration of Creative Crones
March Birthdays
(pictured from left to right)
March
5
Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840 - 1894), American writer
and poet
Lucy
Larcom (1824 -1893), American Poet
March
6
1944 ~ Kiri Te Kanawa, born in Gisborne, New Zealand, operatic soprano
1944 ~ Mary Wilson, born in Detroit, Michigan, vocalist, The Supremes
1944 ~ Kiri Te Kanawa, born in Gisborne, New Zealand, operatic soprano
1944 ~ Mary Wilson, born in Detroit, Michigan, vocalist, The Supremes
Constance
Fenimore Woolson (March 5,
1840 – January 24, 1894) was an American novelist and short story
writer. She was a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, and is best
known for fictions about the Great Lakes region, the American South,
and American expatriates in Europe.
In 1880 she met Henry James, and the relationship between the two writers has prompted much speculation by biographers, especially Lyndall Gordon in her 1998 book, A Private Life of Henry James. Woolson’s most famous story, Miss Grief, has been read as a fictionalization of their friendship, though she had not yet met James when she wrote it.
Woolson published her first novel Anne in 1880, followed by three others: East Angels (1886), Jupiter Lights (1889) and Horace Chase (1894). In 1883 she published the novella For the Major, a story of the postwar South that has become one of her most respected fictions. In the winter of 1889–1890 she traveled to Egypt and Greece, which resulted in a collection of travel sketches, Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (published posthumously in 1896).
“Theories are like scaffolding: they are not the house, but you cannot build the house without them.”
“Into the father's grave the daughter, sometimes a gray-haired woman, lays away forever the little pet names and memories which to all the rest of the world are but foolishness.”
I was at work that morning. Someone came riding like mad
Over the bridge and up the road—Farmer Rouf's little lad.
Bareback he rode; he had no hat; he hardly stopped to say,
"Morgan's men are coming, Frau, they're galloping on this way.
On like the wind they hurried, and Morgan rode in advance;
Bright were his eyes like live coals, as he gave me a sideways glance;
And I was just breathing freely, after my choking pain,
When the last one of the troopers suddenly drew his rein.
But, after the war was over, just think what came to pass—
A letter, sir; and the two were safe back in the old Bluegrass.
The lad had got across the border, riding Kentucky Belle;
And Kentuck she was thriving, and fat, and hearty, and well;
He cared for her, and kept her, nor touched her with whip or spur:
Ah! we've had many horses, but never a horse like her!
~ Constance Fenimore Woolson, Kentucky Belle
In 1880 she met Henry James, and the relationship between the two writers has prompted much speculation by biographers, especially Lyndall Gordon in her 1998 book, A Private Life of Henry James. Woolson’s most famous story, Miss Grief, has been read as a fictionalization of their friendship, though she had not yet met James when she wrote it.
Woolson published her first novel Anne in 1880, followed by three others: East Angels (1886), Jupiter Lights (1889) and Horace Chase (1894). In 1883 she published the novella For the Major, a story of the postwar South that has become one of her most respected fictions. In the winter of 1889–1890 she traveled to Egypt and Greece, which resulted in a collection of travel sketches, Mentone, Cairo and Corfu (published posthumously in 1896).
“Theories are like scaffolding: they are not the house, but you cannot build the house without them.”
“Into the father's grave the daughter, sometimes a gray-haired woman, lays away forever the little pet names and memories which to all the rest of the world are but foolishness.”
I was at work that morning. Someone came riding like mad
Over the bridge and up the road—Farmer Rouf's little lad.
Bareback he rode; he had no hat; he hardly stopped to say,
"Morgan's men are coming, Frau, they're galloping on this way.
On like the wind they hurried, and Morgan rode in advance;
Bright were his eyes like live coals, as he gave me a sideways glance;
And I was just breathing freely, after my choking pain,
When the last one of the troopers suddenly drew his rein.
But, after the war was over, just think what came to pass—
A letter, sir; and the two were safe back in the old Bluegrass.
The lad had got across the border, riding Kentucky Belle;
And Kentuck she was thriving, and fat, and hearty, and well;
He cared for her, and kept her, nor touched her with whip or spur:
Ah! we've had many horses, but never a horse like her!
~ Constance Fenimore Woolson, Kentucky Belle
Lucy
Larcom was born in Beverly,
Massachusetts, on March 5, 1824, the ninth of ten children. She left
Beverly in 1835 to work in the cotton mills in Lowell from the ages
of 11 to 21. As a mill girl she hoped to earn some extra money for
her family. While working in the mills, Lucy made a huge impact. She
wrote and published many of her songs, poems, and letters describing
her life at the mills. Her idealistic poems caught the attention of
John Greenleaf Whittier. Larcom served as a model for the change in
women's roles in society.
In the 1840s (circa 1846), she taught at a school in Illinois before returning to Massachusetts. From 1865 to 1873, she was the editor of Our Young Folks, later renamed St. Nicholas Magazine.
Larcom penned one of the best accounts of New England childhood of her time, A New England Girlhood (1889), commonly used as a reference in studying early American childhood.
“I went back to my work, but now without enthusiasm. I had looked through an open door that I was not willing to see shut upon me. I began to reflect upon life rather seriously for a girl of twelve or thirteen. What was I here for? What could I make of myself? Must I submit to be carried along with the current, and do just what everybody else did?”
In the 1840s (circa 1846), she taught at a school in Illinois before returning to Massachusetts. From 1865 to 1873, she was the editor of Our Young Folks, later renamed St. Nicholas Magazine.
Larcom penned one of the best accounts of New England childhood of her time, A New England Girlhood (1889), commonly used as a reference in studying early American childhood.
“I went back to my work, but now without enthusiasm. I had looked through an open door that I was not willing to see shut upon me. I began to reflect upon life rather seriously for a girl of twelve or thirteen. What was I here for? What could I make of myself? Must I submit to be carried along with the current, and do just what everybody else did?”
“It
is a conquest when we can lift ourselves above the annoyances of
circumstances over which we have no control; but it is a greater
victory when we can make those circumstances our helpers,—when we
can appreciate the good there is in them. It has often seemed to me
as if Life stood beside me, looking me in the face, and saying, “Child, you must learn to like me in the form in which you see
me, before I can offer myself to you in any other aspect.”
“We might all place ourselves in one of two ranks—the women who do something, and the women who do nothing; the first being of course the only creditable place to occupy.”
“ In the older times it was seldom said to little girls, as it always has been said to boys, that they ought to have some definite plan, while they were children, what to be and do when they were grown up. There was usually but one path open before them, to become good wives and housekeepers. And the ambition of most girls was to follow their mothers' footsteps in this direction; a natural and laudable ambition. But girls, as well as boys, must often have been conscious of their own peculiar capabilities,—must have desired to cultivate and make use of their individual powers.”
“We might all place ourselves in one of two ranks—the women who do something, and the women who do nothing; the first being of course the only creditable place to occupy.”
“ In the older times it was seldom said to little girls, as it always has been said to boys, that they ought to have some definite plan, while they were children, what to be and do when they were grown up. There was usually but one path open before them, to become good wives and housekeepers. And the ambition of most girls was to follow their mothers' footsteps in this direction; a natural and laudable ambition. But girls, as well as boys, must often have been conscious of their own peculiar capabilities,—must have desired to cultivate and make use of their individual powers.”
“I defied the machinery to make me its slave. Its incessant discords could not drown the music of my thoughts if I would let them fly high enough.”
“He who plants a tree
Plants a hope.”
This is a haunted world. It hath
no breeze
But is the echo of some voice beloved:
Its pines have human tones; its billows wear
The color and the sparkle of dear eyes.
Its flowers are sweet with touch of tender hands
That once clasped ours. All things are beautiful
Because of something lovelier than themselves,
Which breathes within them, and will never die. —
Haunted,—but not with any spectral gloom;
Earth is suffused, inhabited by heaven.
These blossoms, gathered in familiar paths,
With dear companions now passed out of sight,
Shall not be laid upon their graves. They live,
Since love is deathless. Pleasure now nor pride
Is theirs in mortal wise, but hallowing thoughts
Will meet the offering, of so little worth,
Wanting the benison death has made divine.
Oh, her heart’s adrift with one
On an endless voyage gone!
Night and morning
Hannah’s at the window binding shoes.
~ Lucy Larcom
But is the echo of some voice beloved:
Its pines have human tones; its billows wear
The color and the sparkle of dear eyes.
Its flowers are sweet with touch of tender hands
That once clasped ours. All things are beautiful
Because of something lovelier than themselves,
Which breathes within them, and will never die. —
Haunted,—but not with any spectral gloom;
Earth is suffused, inhabited by heaven.
These blossoms, gathered in familiar paths,
With dear companions now passed out of sight,
Shall not be laid upon their graves. They live,
Since love is deathless. Pleasure now nor pride
Is theirs in mortal wise, but hallowing thoughts
Will meet the offering, of so little worth,
Wanting the benison death has made divine.
Oh, her heart’s adrift with one
On an endless voyage gone!
Night and morning
Hannah’s at the window binding shoes.
~ Lucy Larcom
March 6
(pictured from left to right)
March 6
1937 ~ Valentina Tereshkova-Nikolayev, 1st woman in space, Vostok 6
Sarah Caldwell (1924 -2006), American conductor/opera director
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 - 1861 ), English poetess
Anna Claypoole Peale (1791 - 1878 ), miniaturist
of the Peale family of artists
“How
do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Sonnets
from the Portuguese: A Celebration of Love
(pictured from left to right)
March
7
1938 ~ Janet Guthrie, race car driver, 1st woman in
Indianapolis 500 (1978)
March 9
1957 ~ Faith Daniels, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Anchor, CBS News
Vita Sackville-West
(1892 -1962), British novelist and poet
Marie-Suzanne
Roslin née Giroust (1734-1772), French miniaturist
(pictured from left to right)
March
10
1934 ~ Judith Jamison, artistic director, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
Nancy Cunard (1896 -1965), writer, publisher, political activist
Lillian D. Wald (1867 -1940), U.S., sociologist/organizer, Visiting Nurses
March 11
Dorothy Schiff (1903 -1989), publisher, New York Post
1934 ~ Judith Jamison, artistic director, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater
Nancy Cunard (1896 -1965), writer, publisher, political activist
Lillian D. Wald (1867 -1940), U.S., sociologist/organizer, Visiting Nurses
March 11
Dorothy Schiff (1903 -1989), publisher, New York Post
(pictured from left to right)
March
11
Dorothy Gish (1898 -1968), silent film actress, Orphans of the Storm
Dorothy Gish (1898 -1968), silent film actress, Orphans of the Storm
March
12
1949 ~ Mary Alice Williams, news reporter, NBC-TV
Jane Delano (1862-1919), U.S., nurse, teacher and founder, Red Cross
1949 ~ Mary Alice Williams, news reporter, NBC-TV
Jane Delano (1862-1919), U.S., nurse, teacher and founder, Red Cross
Marguerite de Angeli (1889-1987), children's writer and illustrator
March 14
Diane Arbus (1923 -1971), photographer and innovator, New York City
Lucy Hobbs Taylor (1833 -1910) , 1st U.S. woman dentist, 1866
March 15
Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852 - 1932), Irish playwright, poet, folklorist
Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838 - 1923),
ethnologist of Native American culture
Isabella
Augusta, Lady Gregory (15 March 1852 – 22 May 1932), born Isabella
Augusta Persse, was an Irish dramatist and folklorist. With William
Butler Yeats and Edward Martyn, she co-founded the Irish Literary
Theatre and the Abbey Theatre, and wrote numerous short works for
both companies. Lady Gregory produced a number of books of retellings
of stories taken from Irish mythology. Born into a class that
identified closely with British rule, her conversion to cultural
nationalism, as evidenced by her writings, was emblematic of many of
the political struggles to occur in Ireland during her
lifetime.
Lady Gregory is mainly remembered for her work behind the Irish Literary Revival. Her home at Coole Park, County Galway, served as an important meeting place for leading Revival figures, and her early work as a member of the board of the Abbey was at least as important for the theatre's development as her creative writings. Lady Gregory's motto was taken from Aristotle: “To think like a wise man, but to express oneself like the common people.”
Lady Gregory is mainly remembered for her work behind the Irish Literary Revival. Her home at Coole Park, County Galway, served as an important meeting place for leading Revival figures, and her early work as a member of the board of the Abbey was at least as important for the theatre's development as her creative writings. Lady Gregory's motto was taken from Aristotle: “To think like a wise man, but to express oneself like the common people.”
“If
I had not married I should not have learned the quick enrichment of
sentences that one gets in conversation; had I not been widowed I
should not have found the detachment of mind, the leisure for
observation necessary to give insight into character, to express and
interpret it. Loneliness made me rich - full, as Bacon says.”
“It is the old battle, between those who use a toothbrush and those who don't.”
“Well, there's no one at all, they do be saying, but is deserving of some punishment from the very minute of his birth.”
“It is the old battle, between those who use a toothbrush and those who don't.”
“Well, there's no one at all, they do be saying, but is deserving of some punishment from the very minute of his birth.”
March
16
Contessa Marie Madeleine La Fayette (1634 - 1693),
author of La Princesse de Clèves, France's first historical novel
and one of the earliest novels in literature
Rosa Bonheur (1822 - 1899) , French painter, most notably of animals,
The Horse Fair
1933 ~ Ruth Bader Ginsberg, justice, U.S. Supreme Court
author of La Princesse de Clèves, France's first historical novel
and one of the earliest novels in literature
Rosa Bonheur (1822 - 1899) , French painter, most notably of animals,
The Horse Fair
1933 ~ Ruth Bader Ginsberg, justice, U.S. Supreme Court
1948 ~
Margaret Weis, U.S., science fiction author,
Dragons of Spring Dawning
Dragons of Spring Dawning
(pictured from left to right)
March
16
1952 ~ Alice Hoffman, born in New York City, New York,
author
March
17
Kate
Greenaway (1846
– 1901),
English
author and illustrator 1955 ~ Cynthia McKinney, Atlanta, Georgia,
U.S. House of Representatives 1993 - 2003, 2005 - 2007
March 19
1947 ~ Glenn Close, American actress
(pictured from left to right)
March
20
1920 ~ Marian McPartland, jazz pianist
1940 ~ Mary Ellen Mark, American Photographer
1940 ~ Mary Ellen Mark, American Photographer
March
21 (or 22)
Phyllis McGinley (1905 -1978), U.S., poet, Pulitzer 1961, Love Letters
Phyllis McGinley (1905 -1978), U.S., poet, Pulitzer 1961, Love Letters
Ellin MacKay, Mrs. Irving Berlin, (1902 -1988), writer, Lace Curtain
(pictured from left to right)
March
23
1953
~ Chaka Khan, American singer and composerMarch 25
Flannery O'Connor (1925 – 1964), American author
1934 ~ Gloria Steinem, American feminist, journalist,
social and political activist
1942 ~ Aretha Franklin, American singer, songwriter, and pianist
1942 ~ Aretha Franklin, American singer, songwriter, and pianist
(pictured from left to right)
March
26
1930
~ Sandra Day O'Connor, first female justice,
U.S. Supreme Court, retired
1942~ Erica Jong, American novelist, Fear of Flying
U.S. Supreme Court, retired
1942~ Erica Jong, American novelist, Fear of Flying
1944~
Diana Ross,
born Detroit, Michigan, American singer and actress
Mar
30
Anna
Sewell
(1820-1878), English writer, author of Black
Beauty
~
