Florence Converse

{{Infobox person

| name = Florence Converse

| image = FlorenceConverse1937.png

| alt = A middle-aged white woman wearing eyeglasses

| caption = Florence Converse, from a 1937 newspaper photo

| birth_date = April 30, 1871

| birth_place = New Orleans, Louisiana

| death_date = February 13, 1967

| occupation = Writer

| partner = Vida Dutton Scudder

}}

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.

Early life and education

Florence Converse was born in New Orleans in 1871. She attended Mrs. Charles's School in New Orleans,{{Cite news |date=1883-05-30 |title=Mrs. Charles's School; Annual Commencement and Graduation Exercises |pages=8 |work=The Times-Picayune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-mrs-charless-school/126280379/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} and graduated from Wellesley College in 1893, and completed a master's degree at Wellesley in 1903.{{Cite news |date=1913-11-14 |title=Mrs. Friedewald Here Next Saturday |pages=4 |work=The Citizen |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-citizen-mrs-friedewald-here-next-sa/126281486/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}File:Shakespeare Society members performing A Midsummer Night's Dream in the woods.jpg

Career

Converse gave a series of lectures on Percy Bysshe Shelley in New Orleans in 1896.{{Cite news |date=1896-02-25 |title=Shelley as Interpreted by Miss Florence Converse |pages=3 |work=The Times-Picayune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times-picayune-shelley-as-interprete/126281244/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} She taught English at Wellesley after graduating from the college,{{Cite news |date=1906-02-08 |title=Labor Problem Presented in Play at Hull House |pages=3 |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-labor-problem-presented/126282705/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} and lived in Denison House, a Boston settlement house.{{Cite book |last=Winslow |first=Helen M. (Helen Maria) |url=http://archive.org/details/literarybostonof0000unse |title=Literary Boston of to-day |date=1902 |publisher=Boston : L.C. Page & Company |others=Internet Archive |pages=353–354}} She was a member of the editorial staff of The Churchman from 1900 to 1908, when she joined the staff of the Atlantic Monthly.[https://books.google.com/books?id=_MYEAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Florence%20Converse%22%20Wellesley&pg=RA9-PA19 "Wellesley in the World of Letters, Part 1"] Wellesley Magazine 20 (): 19.

Converse wrote plays, poems, and several novels. These included Long Will, a novel about the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.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). She also edited children's books at E. P. Dutton.{{Cite news |date=1915-11-28 |title=Save This List for Christmas Shopping (advertisement) |pages=72 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-times-save-this-list-for-ch/126280241/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} "Miss Converse is doubtless one of the most interesting of the minor poets," wrote a reviewer in 1937.{{Cite news |last=Rochelle |first=W. R. |date=1937-04-25 |title=Collected Poems of Miss Converse Fit Into Trends |pages=54 |work=Nashville Banner |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-collected-poems-of-miss/126281014/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Personal life and legacy

Converse was in a lesbian relationship known as a Boston marriage with Vida Dutton Scudder.{{Cite book |last=Bosmajian |first=Haig A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppQULwvM8JoC&dq=%22Florence+Converse%22+Wellesley&pg=PA41 |title=Anita Whitney, Louis Brandeis, and the First Amendment |date=2010 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press |isbn=978-0-8386-4267-2 |pages=41 |language=en}} The couple lived together from 1912 until Scudder died in 1954.{{Cite news |date=1954-12-03 |title=Wellesley Friend is Left $90,000 by Vida Scudder |pages=3 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-wellesley-friend-is-lef/126282207/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}} Converse died in 1967, at the age of 95. Scudder and Converse are buried alongside each other at Newton Cemetery, Newton, Massachusetts.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}}

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.{{Cite book |last1=Nadaud |first1=Marcel |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006545138 |title=Birds of a feather |last2=Converse |first2=Florence |date=1919 |publisher=Doubleday, Page & Company |location=Garden City, New York}}

Diana Victrix (1897){{Cite journal |last=McCullough |first=Kate |date=1997 |title=The Boston Marriage as the Future of the Nation: Queerly Regional Sexuality in Diana Victrix |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928169 |journal=American Literature |volume=69 |issue=1 |pages=67–103 |doi=10.2307/2928169 |jstor=2928169 |issn=0002-9831|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007656263 |title=Diana Victrix |date=1897 |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin and company |location=Boston, New York}}
The Burden of Christopher (1900){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007655015 |title=The burden of Christopher |date=1900 |publisher=Houghton |location=Boston}}
Long Will, A Romance (1903){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008928057 |title=Long Will, a romance |date=1903 |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin and company |location=Boston, New York}}
The House of Prayer (1908)
A Masque of Sibyls (1910){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100613153 |title=A masque of sibyls |date=1910 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Co. |location=Boston}}
The Children of Light (1912){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence, b. 1871 |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102965620 |title=The Children of Light. |date=1912 |publisher=J. M. Dent & Sons |location=London}}
The Story of Wellesley (1915){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007123557 |title=The story of Wellesley. |date=1919 |publisher=Little, Brown |location=Boston}}
The Blessed Birthday (1917){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009572081 |title=The blessed birthday, a Christmas miracle play |date=1917 |publisher=E. P. Dutton & company |location=New York}}
Garments of Praise (1921){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008654557 |title=Garments of praise; a miracle cycle |date=1921 |publisher=E.P. Dutton & Company |location=New York}}
The Holy Night (1922){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009589470 |title=The Holy night |date=1922 |publisher=The Atlantic Monthly Press, Inc. |location=Boston}}
The Happy Swan (1925)
Into the Void (1926){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100955967 |title=Into the void: a bookshop mystery |date=1926 |publisher=Little, Brown & Company |location=Boston}}
Sphinx (1931){{Cite news |date=1931-06-21 |title=New Books at the Library |pages=17 |work=The Honolulu Advertiser |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-honolulu-advertiser-new-books-at-the/126280779/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |last=Sherwood |first=Margaret |date=1931-03-07 |title=Lost--a Sphinx; Florence Converse Writes a Mystery without Blood and Thunder |pages=14 |work=The Morning Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-post-lost-a-sphinx-florenc/126281559/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}
Efficiency Expert (1934){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004742477 |title=Efficiency expert: a poem |date=1934 |publisher=J. Day |location=New York}}
Collected poems of Florence Converse (1937){{Cite book |last=Converse |first=Florence |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003980877 |title=Collected poems of Florence Converse. |date=1937 |publisher=E.P. Dutton & co., inc. |location=New York}}
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){{Cite news |last=Converse |first=Florence |date=1956-04-01 |title=Pasquale's Easter Moon |pages=123 |work=The Boston Globe |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-boston-globe-pasquales-easter-moon/126282013/ |access-date=2023-06-12 |via=Newspapers.com}}