Fembio Special: Famous Lesbians
Amy Lowell
born on February 9, 1874 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States
died on May 12, 1925 in Boston, Massachusetts/ United States
US-American poet, salonière, critic and book collector
150th birthday on February 9, 2024
Biography
Amy Lowell, a prominent American Imagist poet in the first quarter of the last century, came from a prestigious Boston family. It is said of the elite Boston Brahmins that “the Cabots speak only to the Lowells, and the Lowells speak only to God.” In addition to being filthy rich, Amy was a very astute businesswoman; she succeeded in placing her texts in important literary journals and anthologies and her expressive oral renditions of the works attracted huge audiences. Stocky and suffering from obesity all her life, she was unable to pursue a career as an actress and instead brought her considerable acting talents to the stage for her readings. Like the Pennsylvanian Gertrude Stein, Amy Lowell was clever, well-read, witty, self-confident, passionate and eccentric. The two mothers of modernism were born six days apart in the same year, but Amy Lowell — who otherwise knew “everyone who was anyone” in the American and European literary scenes and promoted, hosted and entertained them all royally — actually never met Gertrude Stein.
Gertrude Stein is an icon of the women's movement primarily because she was free of all patriarchal patterns of thought and rules of behavior. Yet Amy Lowell — unfortunately almost completely unknown in Germany and largely forgotten even in the United States — is no less impressive as a feminist role model. She too was a rebellious and independent spirit. She and her life-partner Ada Russell, whom Amy had celebrated in over a hundred erotic poems, lived out their relationship openly and unassailed in puritannical New England. Of course, Amy's distinguished lineage and financial power were an important advantage given such a “challenging” lifestyle.
Up to her 38th year Amy had devoted herself to her education, her beloved garden, the expansion of a superb collection of valuable books and manuscripts, and the management of her wealth. Her first volume of poetry was published in 1912; the reserved reaction plunged her into a deep crisis. In the same year, she met Ada Russell, a beautiful, warm-hearted, gentle and humorous divorced actress who was eleven years her senior. Amy soon invited Ada on vacation, and she also attended to her after a serious operation. In effect, she wooed her so passionately that Ada finally relented and moved to her large estate “Sevenels” in Brookline. The two remained inseparable until Amy's untimely death (she died of a stroke at the age of 51).
Amy Lowell's time with Ada Russell was her most productive and successful period as a poet, salonière and driving force in the Anglo-American literary scene. She was determined to establish a literary home for Imagism in the United Staes and to play a central role in it.
Imagism was a revolutionary counter-movement to the Victorian poetry of the time (to which Amy also contributed). Setting the tone for literary modernism, it rejected overly long, “dramatic” rhyming verses penned in strict meters and instead aspired to the opposite: succinct language, precise images, and a free form.
Lowell also wrote an 1100-page biography of her favorite poet, John Keats, which was considered authoritative for the following 40 years. Despite all her contributions as a pioneer of literary modernism in the United States, the general public probably remembered her more for her eccentricities. Amy Lowell rarely got up before 1 p.m. from a bed that always had to be padded with exactly 16 pillows, and she smoked cigars in public. She was so overweight that she avoided the sight of herself and - even in her hotel suites - had all the mirrors covered. She kept seven female German shepherds and called their puppies her “babies.”
Amy Lowell’s poems to Ada Russell — incredibly modern and as timeless as Sappho's verses — are recommended to readers who wish to experience her poetry.
Aubade
As I would free the white almond from the green husk
So I would strip your trappings off, Beloved.
And fingering the smooth and polished kernel
I should see that in my hands glittered a gem beyond counting.
Decade
When you came, you were like red wine and honey,
And the taste of you burnt my mouth with its sweetness.
Now you are like morning bread,
Smooth and pleasant.
I hardly taste you at all for I know your savour,
But I am completely nourished.
(Text from 1998, translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2024.)
Please consult the German version for additional information (pictures, sources, videos, bibliography).
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