Florence Converse

Florence Converse (April 30, 1871 – February 13, 1967) was an American author. Throughout her career, she wrote a variety of pieces spanning many genres, including historical novels, mysteries, religious plays, and poetry. Converse had a Boston marriage with Vida Dutton Scudder.

Florence Converse
A middle-aged white woman wearing eyeglasses
Florence Converse, from a 1937 newspaper photo
BornApril 30, 1871
New Orleans, Louisiana
DiedFebruary 13, 1967
OccupationWriter
PartnerVida Dutton Scudder

Early life and education

Florence Converse was born in New Orleans in 1871. She attended Mrs. Charles's School in New Orleans,[1] and graduated from Wellesley College in 1893, and completed a master's degree at Wellesley in 1903.[2]

Wellesley College Archives. Shakespeare Society members performing A Midsummer Night's Dream in the woods. Florence Converse, 1893 (Puck); Mabel Wells 1896 (Oberon); Caroline Newman, 1893 (Bottom), 1893

Career

Converse gave a series of lectures on Percy Bysshe Shelley in New Orleans in 1896.[3] She taught English at Wellesley after graduating from the college,[4] and lived in Denison House, a Boston settlement house.[5] She was a member of the editorial staff of The Churchman from 1900 to 1908, when she joined the staff of the Atlantic Monthly.[2][6]

Converse wrote plays, poems, and several novels. These included Long Will, a novel about the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.[7] She also edited children's books at E. P. Dutton.[8] "Miss Converse is doubtless one of the most interesting of the minor poets," wrote a reviewer in 1937.[9]

Personal life and legacy

Converse was in a lesbian relationship known as a Boston marriage with Vida Dutton Scudder.[10][11] The couple lived together from 1912 until Scudder died in 1954.[12] Converse died in 1967, at the age of 95. Scudder and Converse are buried alongside each other at Newton Cemetery, Newton, Massachusetts.[13]

Publications

Converse wrote in various genres, including historical novels, mysteries, religious plays, and poetry. She also translated works from French, including Birds of a Feather (1919) by Marcel Nadaud.[14]

  • Diana Victrix (1897)[10][15]
  • The Burden of Christopher (1900)[16]
  • Long Will, A Romance (1903)[17]
  • The House of Prayer (1908)
  • A Masque of Sibyls (1910)[18]
  • The Children of Light (1912)[19]
  • The Story of Wellesley (1915)[20]
  • The Blessed Birthday (1917)[21]
  • Garments of Praise (1921)[22]
  • The Holy Night (1922)[23]
  • The Happy Swan (1925)
  • Into the Void (1926)[24]
  • Sphinx (1931)[25][26]
  • Efficiency Expert (1934)[27]
  • Collected poems of Florence Converse (1937)[28]
  • The Madman and the Wrecking Crew (Crux Ave, Spes Unica) (1939)
  • Wellesley College, a chronicle of the years 1875-1938 (1939)
  • Prologue to Peace: the Poems of Two Wars (1949)
  • "Pasquale's Easter Moon" (1956)[29]

References
  1. "Mrs. Charles's School; Annual Commencement and Graduation Exercises". The Times-Picayune. 1883-05-30. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Mrs. Friedewald Here Next Saturday". The Citizen. 1913-11-14. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Shelley as Interpreted by Miss Florence Converse". The Times-Picayune. 1896-02-25. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Labor Problem Presented in Play at Hull House". Chicago Tribune. 1906-02-08. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. Winslow, Helen M. (Helen Maria) (1902). Literary Boston of to-day. Internet Archive. Boston : L.C. Page & Company. pp. 353–354.
  6. "Wellesley in the World of Letters, Part 1" Wellesley Magazine 20 (): 19.
  7. Ortenberg, Veronica (1981). In Search of the Holy Grail: the Quest for the Middle Ages. London: Hambledon Continuum. (p.79) ISBN 978-1-85285-383-9. (p. 79).
  8. "Save This List for Christmas Shopping (advertisement)". The New York Times. 1915-11-28. p. 72. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Rochelle, W. R. (1937-04-25). "Collected Poems of Miss Converse Fit Into Trends". Nashville Banner. p. 54. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. McCullough, Kate (1997). "The Boston Marriage as the Future of the Nation: Queerly Regional Sexuality in Diana Victrix". American Literature. 69 (1): 67–103. doi:10.2307/2928169. ISSN 0002-9831. JSTOR 2928169.
  11. Bosmajian, Haig A. (2010). Anita Whitney, Louis Brandeis, and the First Amendment. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8386-4267-2.
  12. "Wellesley Friend is Left $90,000 by Vida Scudder". The Boston Globe. 1954-12-03. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America, Penguin Books Ltd, 1991, (pp. 23-24). ISBN 0-231-07488-3
  14. Nadaud, Marcel; Converse, Florence (1919). Birds of a feather. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.
  15. Converse, Florence (1897). Diana Victrix. Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and company.
  16. Converse, Florence (1900). The burden of Christopher. Boston: Houghton.
  17. Converse, Florence (1903). Long Will, a romance. Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin and company.
  18. Converse, Florence (1910). A masque of sibyls. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
  19. Converse, Florence, b. 1871 (1912). The Children of Light. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. Converse, Florence (1919). The story of Wellesley. Boston: Little, Brown.
  21. Converse, Florence (1917). The blessed birthday, a Christmas miracle play. New York: E. P. Dutton & company.
  22. Converse, Florence (1921). Garments of praise; a miracle cycle. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company.
  23. Converse, Florence (1922). The Holy night. Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, Inc.
  24. Converse, Florence (1926). Into the void: a bookshop mystery. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.
  25. "New Books at the Library". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1931-06-21. p. 17. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. Sherwood, Margaret (1931-03-07). "Lost--a Sphinx; Florence Converse Writes a Mystery without Blood and Thunder". The Morning Post. p. 14. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. Converse, Florence (1934). Efficiency expert: a poem. New York: J. Day.
  28. Converse, Florence (1937). Collected poems of Florence Converse. New York: E.P. Dutton & co., inc.
  29. Converse, Florence (1956-04-01). "Pasquale's Easter Moon". The Boston Globe. p. 123. Retrieved 2023-06-12 – via Newspapers.com.

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