Frances V. Rummell

File:Diana The Story of a Strange Love by Diana Fredericks – Berkley Books G-50 1955.jpg

Frances Virginia Rummell was born in Brookfield, Missouri on November 14, 1907. She was the daughter of Lander Warfield Rummell and Minnie Alice Roberts. She was the second youngest of five children, though her sister Maurine died before Frances was born.{{Cite web|title=Ancestry Person: Frances Virginia Rummell|url=https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/family-tree/person/tree/7680279/person/6689729792/facts|access-date=2020-07-21|website=Ancestry Library}} She grew up in Missouri and lived with her paternal grandmother, Josephine McCoy, her parents, two brothers, and her grandmother's housekeeper. Her father, Lander, owned a clothing store"Frances V Rummell" in the 1910 United States Federal Census (Year: 1910; Census Place: Brookfield Ward 1, Linn, Missouri; Roll: T624_795; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 0069; FHL microfilm: 1374808). until he committed suicide in 1918, when Frances was only ten years old. He died by taking poison.{{Cite news|date=9 May 1918|title=L.W. RUMMELL DEAD AFTER TAKING POISON|work=The Evening Missourian|url=https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2012/158/83297657_133909180224.jpg|access-date=21 Jul 2020}}

In 1917, Rummell moved to Columbia, Missouri with her grandmother, mother, older brother, and younger sister."Frances V Rummell" in the 1930 United States Federal Census (Year: 1930; Census Place: Columbia, Boone, Missouri; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0018; FHL microfilm: 2340912). She attended Hickman High School in Columbia. According to her book Diana: A Strange Biography it was at 16 when she first realized she was a lesbian by reading a medical book.{{cite book|first=Diana|last=Frederics|publisher=Citadel Press|year=1939|title=Diana: A Strange Autobiography}}

Rummell graduated from the University of Missouri. Her master's thesis was "The status of women in the plays of Molière.”{{Cite web|title=The status of women in the plays of Moliere.|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/35069608|access-date=2019-01-27|website=ResearchGate|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Rummell|first=Frances Virginia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CZTBtgAACAAJ|title=The Status of Women in the Plays of Moliere|date=1930|language=en}}

After college, Rummell traveled to Paris to study at the Sorbonne in 1931. Supposedly, on her return she smuggled a copy of Ulysses into the U.S.{{Cite web|title=Episode 806, Story 2: Diana|url=http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2011-05-25/806_diana.pdf|access-date=2019-01-27|archive-date=2020-02-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202231451/http://www-tc.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/static/media/transcripts/2011-05-25/806_diana.pdf|url-status=dead}}"Frances Rummell" in the New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 (Year: 1931; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 16; Page Number: 41)

Rummell taught French{{Cite web|title=1930|url=http://stephenslookback.blogspot.com/2014/01/stephens-look-back-1930.html|access-date=2019-01-27|website=Stephens: A Look Back|date=8 January 2014 |language=en}} at Stephens College in the 1930s.{{Cite book|last=Howard|first=Joan E.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YM9ZDwAAQBAJ&q=frances+rummell+stephens+college|title="We Met in Paris": Grace Frick and Her Life with Marguerite Yourcenar|date=2018-05-31|publisher=University of Missouri Press|isbn=9780826274045|language=en}}

In 1939, Rummell published her book Diana: A Strange Autobiography using the pseudonym Diana Fredericks. The autobiography details one young woman’s, Diana, discovery of her lesbian sexuality. The book ends positively, with Diana and her female partner happily together. This sympathetic and positive-portrayal of lesbianism was shocking for the time in which it was first published.{{Cite book|last=Rohy|first=Valerie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aB5lBAAAQBAJ&q=frances+rummell+stephens+college|title=Lost Causes: Narrative, Etiology, and Queer Theory|date=2014-10-03|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199340217|language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Frederics|first=Diana|date=1961|title=Diana|url=https://msvulpf.omeka.net/items/show/577|access-date=2020-07-21|website=msvulpf.omeka.net|language=en}} The autobiography was published with a note saying, "The publishers wish it expressly understood that this is a true story, the first of its kind ever offered to the general reading public".[https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/investigations/806_diana.html History Detectives . Investigations – Diana]. PBS. Retrieved on 30 November 2010. However, Rummell's niece Jo Markwyn said in an interview that she believes Diana: A Strange Autobiography is not purely autobiographical: "The general family background is similar, but rather than having three brothers, she had two brothers and a younger sister...I don’t think it’s an autobiography. I think it is a novel based upon her life." During her life, Rummell was never known for being the author of Diana.

The book has been translated into several languages. A new, commented German edition was published in 2023.Frances V. Rummell: Diana.. Eine befremdliche Autobiographie. (Berlin 2023) ISBN 978-3-945980-83-5. [https://autonomie-und-chaos.de/images/pdf/auc-170-rummell.pdf PDF]

Rummell gave up teaching in 1940 and moved to Beverly Hills, California to work as a non-fiction education writer, using her own name.{{Cite book|last=International|first=Rotary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEAEAAAAMBAJ&q=Frances+V.+Rummell+Biography|title=The Rotarian|date=1956|publisher=Rotary International|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Today in LGBT History – August 1 {{!}} Ronni Sanlo|url=https://ronnisanlo.com/today-in-lgbt-history-august-1/|access-date=2019-01-27|language=en-US|archive-date=2019-01-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190128082904/https://ronnisanlo.com/today-in-lgbt-history-august-1/|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|last=Bendery|first=Jennifer|date=2017-04-29|title=The First 100 Gays|language=en-US|work=Huffington Post|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/first-100-gays_us_59039dcce4b05c39767f71ae|access-date=2019-01-27}} She was a contributor to The Rotarian, Good Housekeeping, and The Saturday Evening Post.{{Cite web|date=1950|title=Consumer Education: Do Students Need It?|url=http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_195003_bahr.pdf}}{{Cite web|date=2009-09-08|title=1942-05 Good Housekeeping Magazine Contents|url=https://magawiki.com/662/good-housekeeping-magazine/1942-05-3/|access-date=2019-01-27|website=magawiki|language=en-US}}

In 1960, Rummell published an illustrated novel, Aunt Jane McPhipps And Her Baby Blue Chips, written under her own name.{{Cite web|title=Titusville Herald Newspaper Archives, Jan 14, 1961, p. 4|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/titusville-herald-jan-14-1961-p-4/|access-date=2019-01-27|website=newspaperarchive.com|date=14 January 1961 |language=en}}{{Cite web|title=AUNT JANE MCPHIPPS AND HER BABY BLUE CHIPS. by Rummell, Frances V. aka Diana Frederics (1907-1969): (1960) Signed by Author(s) {{!}} Bookfever, IOBA (Volk & Iiams)|url=https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/AUNT-JANE-MCPHIPPS-BABY-BLUE-CHIPS/22466844393/bd|access-date=2020-07-21|website=www.abebooks.com|language=en}}

While working as an educator, Rummell sometimes traveled to New York City. In the summer of 1939, she met Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt wrote of their meeting in her "My Day" column.{{Cite web|title=My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, August 25, 1939|url=https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydoc.cfm?_y=1939&_f=md055354|access-date=2019-01-27|website=www2.gwu.edu}}

The PBS show History Detectives had an episode on Diana: A Strange Autobiography, in which the host, Tukufu Zuberi, attempted to unearth the author of Diana. This episode seems to be the first time it was made publicly known that Diana Fredericks was a pseudonym of Frances V. Rummell.{{Cite web|title=Major LGBT History Discovery Brings Veteran's Life Story to Light|url=https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2014/October/LGBT-History-Discovery-WWII-Veteran-Allen-Bernstein/|access-date=2019-01-27|website=DrexelNow|date=10 October 2014 |language=en}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XSUhAQAAIAAJ&q=Frances+Virginia+Rummell&pg=PA2608|title=Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1966: July-December|date=1969|publisher=Copyright Office, Library of Congress|language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Jonathan Ned Katz: Analyzing Allen Bernstein's "MILLIONS OF QUEERS (Our Homo America)" · 1940 Defense of Homosexuality: "MILLIONS OF QUEERS (Our Homo America)" · outhistory.org|url=http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/1940-defense/katz-bernstein|access-date=2019-01-27|website=outhistory.org}}{{Cite book|last=Leon|first=Lionel De|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bIq7AwAAQBAJ&q=Frances+V+Rummell+lesbian&pg=PA44|title=United States Facts and Dates|date=2012|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=9781105748486|language=en}} Also in the episode, Zuberi found Rummell’s niece, Jo Markwyn. Markwyn has fond memories of her aunt, saying “She was a very bright woman. I think she enjoyed life. She was a big personality. She came into the room, you knew she was there. I was very fond of her.”

Markwyn, when asked if Rummell was a lesbian, said: “Yes. I do know. And she was. My parents never said anything about it. But, observation told me when I got old enough, and I know of a couple of relationships she was in that were long term.”

Rummell passed away in California in 1969.

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Category:1969 deaths

Category:Writers from Missouri

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Category:Hickman High School alumni

Category:University of Missouri alumni

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Category:American lesbian writers

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Category:1907 births

Category:20th-century American LGBTQ people