Beasley, Gertrude, 1892-1955

Gertrude Beasley (June 20, 1892 – July 25, 1955) was an American writer and memoirist. She became a teacher and obtained a teaching degree; she left Texas to pursue a master's in education at the University of Chicago. She also worked as a journalist in Chicago. While there, she became involved in organizing for the National Women's Party. By 1920, Beasley was in Tokyo, where she wrote for The Far East and also for National Geographic. She later worked as a writer in China and in Moscow.

Beasley's autobiography, My First Thirty Years, was published in Paris in 1925. The book included frank coverage of incest and bestiality in addition to rape, advocated for birth control, and praised socialism and the Soviet Union. A large number of copies were destroyed by US Customs, and the Texas legislature later investigated the acquisition of a copy by the University of Texas. In 1927 she sailed for America. A few days after her arrival in New York, she was committed to the state asylum, later known as, Central Islip Psychiatric Center, where she died decades later in 1955.