How a Missouri Teacher secretly wrote the first lesbian autobiography in the United States. [in the 1930s!]
Click link to read full article, written by an excellent MU J School undergrad.
It was the summer of 1939, just weeks before the Nazi invasion of Poland that launched World War II. Frances Rummell, a Hickman High School teacher, spent her days in New York City, working away at a manuscript that many of her close friends and family members didn't even know existed. She stayed in the apartment of a famous author, worked with a respected publisher and was represented by one of the most high-profile literary agents in the country. What she created would be scandalous for its time and groundbreaking in its exploration of a genre that barely existed until decades later. But a team of people stood willing to support her and disguise her identity. Her book was the culmination of a life marked by depression, exploration and eventually joy: her experience as a lesbian growing up in the Midwest. When Diana: A Strange Autobiography was published in September 1939 under the pseudonym Diana Frederics, its rapid popularity led to publication in countries across the world. Within a genre of novels that typically ended in tragic deaths, it was one of the only explicitly lesbian stories Where two women ended up happy together at the end. For over 70 years after its publication, no one knew about Rummell's accomplishment. But in 2010, a team of PBS researchers on the show History Detectives launched an investigation into the real author of the book, using a Library of Congress copyright message as their guide. The truth behind the author's life was astonishing. Rummell graduated from Hickman High School and the University of Missouri. She taught as an assistant professor of French at Stephens College before teaching French and creative writing at Hickman. She was an accomplished journalist, author and educator from Columbia who interacted with a litany of well-known historical figures. And she, like the main character of Diana, was a lesbian who had several long-term relationships with women throughout the 20th century. Much of Rummell's memory has been lost to time. Yet, Vox tracked down substantial information about her life - not just from archived letters and newspaper clippings, but also through stories by someone who knew her. Rummell's niece, Jo Markwyn, was born in Columbia and is, by her own account, one of the last living people who still remembers Rummell. Markwyn didn't know Rummell was a lesbian until after she died, and she didn't know about Diana until she was contacted for the PBS episode. But she remembers her aunt as a firm Democrat who traveled often, loved The Beatles and wrote articles about celebrities of the time. Markwyn admired Rummell for her independence and the way she redefined ideas about women's roles. "She was a different form of womanhood, and that's ignoring the sexual aspect," Markwyn says. "I suppose it made me realize that not everybody married and had kids, which was exactly what I wanted to do - and did. But she also encouraged me that I could go to graduate school and do things like that." So, who was the author of Diana? Here's what we know..... Read the rest at VoX magazine.