Gidlow, Elsa, 1898-1986

Editor, publisher, journalist, poet, and author; one of the first openly lesbian writers in the United States.

Biography

Shortly after Elsa Gidlow's death Phyllis Matyi, Elsa's friend, attorney and executrix of the Gidlow estate, issued a press release presenting a biographical summary of Elsa's life. The text of that release is printed below.

Poet-philosopher Elsa Gidlow died peacefully in her mountain home retreat, "Druid Heights," near Muir Woods, Mill Valley, California on June 8, 1986.

Born in Yorkshire, England in 1898, six-year-old Elsa Gidlow immigrated with her family of nine to the French Canadian village of Tetreauville. She was mainly self- educated, being allowed what she called, "the untutored space to be."

Gidlow's editor, Celeste West of Booklegger Press, says "We always joked that Elsa was born avant garde: North American's first published writer of a lesbian poetry volume (1923); radical feminist of the "first wave;" protest-poet attacked by McCarthyites; member of San Francisco's bohemian, psychedelic, then New Age and women's spirituality circles. Elsa fought life-long against class privilege, organized religion, and sexism, while fighting for all varieties of love and beauty."

Gidlow led the precarious career of a freelance journalist. She created a rich vein of protest and love poetry, while supporting her family and others. She also created, in the fifties, one of the renown garden-retreats of the coast redwoods. Gidlow insisted her life was her art: "We consider the artist a special sort of person. It is more likely that each of us is a special sort of artist."

Gidlow left Montreal for New York in 1920, where she became poetry editor for Frank Harris' progressive, much censored Pearson's Magazine. She sailed to San Francisco in 1926 with her long-time companion Violet Henry-Anderson. In San Francisco, she became friends with Ansel Adams, Robinson Jeffers, Kenneth Rexroth, Lou Harrison, Ella Young, Del Martin, Phyllis Lyon, Margo St. James, Clarkson Crane, Clyde Evans, and zen philosopher Alan Watts, who dedicated his autobiography to her.

In 1962, Gidlow co-founded, with Alan and Jano Watts, the Society of Comparative Philosophy, one of the first organizations to bring eastern wisdom to the west. Of Elsa Gidlow's thirteen books, five are in print, including her recently released autobiography, ELSA: I Come With My Songs (Booklegger Press), and her luminous love poetry, Sapphic Songs: Eighteen To Eighty (Booklegger Press). The ELSA autobiography has been called "A magnificent portrait of the artist as an old woman, of the esprit libre," who wrote, "Let none speak sadly of October, / I, Elsa, from the peak of years, / Say this: I have loved all seasons."

Elsa Gidlow is survived by her sister Thea Gidlow in Santa Rosa. Memorial donations may be made to "The Druid Height Trust for Women Artists,".....

On a personal note, Elsa Gidlow at the age of eighteen met her first lover, Marguerite Desmarais, at a party given by a mutual friend, Roswell Mills, in Montreal. On that same occasion Elsa also encountered a married woman, Louise Estelle Cox, with whom she quickly fell in love. Elsa's infatuation with Estelle soon came to an abrupt end when she rightfully suspected Estelle was having an affair with another mutual friend, Harcourt Farmer, and possibly other men. However, both women over time became very good friends and corresponded with each other for nearly thirty-three years after Elsa's departure from Canada.

In 1924 while living in New York City, Elsa met and informally married an older woman, Violet Henry-Anderson, who was known to friends as "Tommy." Their relationship lasted for thirteen years until Tommy's death. Their life together was interrupted on one occasion for a year while Elsa fulfilled a lifelong dream. In September 1928 she sailed for Europe to live, travel and meet other artists and writers, including Radclyffe Hall, who was residing in Paris at the time.

Around 1945, Elsa was introduced indirectly to Isabel Grenfell Quallo at the insistence of Roswell Mills. Everthing was done by mail at first. Elsa was in California and Isabel and Roswell lived in New York City. The friendship and love relationship of these two women began with an extended period of correspondence before they finally met in San Francisco. Eventually Isabel came to live permanently at Madrona, the name Elsa gave to the residence she owned in Fairfax, California. In 1954 they moved to Elsa's new Mill Valley property, named Druid Heights, which she purchased with Roger and Mary Somers. After ten years Isabel had to return to live in New York, due to personal family problems.

In her autobiography Elsa describes many intriguing encontures with other women over the years. In one of the final chapters, entitled "Young Moon in the Old Moon's Arms", Elsa, then in her seventies, poignantly describes her May-December relationship with Gretchen Muller, who was in her twenties. They lived together for about two years. Looking back Elsa states, "Some of my later love poems grew out of this friendship."

An initial reading of Elsa Gidlow's autobiography, ELSA: I Come With My Songs (1986), will certainly bring her Papers into focus. Copies of this book can be found in many libraries in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as this collection.