Outlaw Marriages

Description

Celebrate LGBTQIA+ history with the untold stories of 15 prominent same-sex couples who defied cultural norms and made significant contributions to the arts, social change, and more.
 
For more than a century before gay marriage became a hot-button political issue, same-sex unions flourished in America. Pairs of men and pairs of women joined together in committed unions, standing by each other “for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health” for periods of 30 or 40—sometimes as many as 50—years. In short, they loved and supported each other every bit as much as any husband and wife.

In Outlaw Marriages, cultural historian Rodger Streitmatter reveals how some of these unions didn’t merely improve the quality of life for the 2 people involved but also enriched the American culture. Among the high-profile couples are:

• Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith
• Literary icon Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
• Author James Baldwin and Lucien Happersberger
• Artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg
• Legendary poet Walt Whitman and Peter Doyle
• Classic Hollywood star Greta Garbo and Mercedes de Acosta
 
While no partnership is the same—some were tumultuous, while others were more supportive and long-lasting—all changed the course of American history.Prologue
 
Chapter 1
Walt Whitman & Peter Doyle
1865–1892
Revolutionizing American Poetry
 
Chapter 2
Martha Carey Thomas & Mamie Gwinn
1878–1904
Opening Graduate Education to American Women
 
Chapter 3
Ned Warren & John Marshall
1884–1927
Building the Collections of America’s Art Museums
 
Chapter 4
Mary Rozet Smith & Jane Addams
1891–1934
Breaking New Ground in Social Reform and Global Peace
 
Chapter 5
Bessie Marbury & Elsie de Wolfe
1892–1933
Founding the Field of Interior Design
 
Chapter 6
J. C. Leyendecker & Charles Beach
1901–1951
Taking the Art of Illustration to a New Level
 
Chapter 7
Alice B. Toklas & Gertrude Stein
1907–1946
Expanding the Dimensions of American Literature
 
Chapter 8
Janet Flanner & Solita Solano
1919–1975
Pioneering a New Style of Journalism
 
Chapter 9
Greta Garbo & Mercedes de Acosta
1931–1960
Making Hollywood the Celebrity Capital of the World

Chapter 10
Aaron Copland & Victor Kraft
1932–1976
Inventing a Distinctly American Style of Music
 
Chapter 11
Frank Merlo & Tennessee Williams
1948–1963
Lifting American Theater to New Heights
 
Chapter 12
James Baldwin & Lucien Happersberger
1949–1987
Attacking Racism through Literature
 
Chapter 13
Robert Rauschenberg & Jasper Johns
1954–1962
Expanding the Definition of Art
 
Chapter 14
Ismail Merchant & James Ivory
1961–2005
Turning Literary Works into Sumptuous Films
 
Chapter 15
Frances Clayton & Audre Lorde
1968–1988
Raising a Voice for Women of Color
 
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Photography/Illustration Credits
“Outlaw Marriages gloriously outs same-sex couples through history and celebrates their love and impact in theater, arts, and social change. If you love the guilty pleasure of reading People magazine for your celebrity-couple news, you’ll love this book. And the fact-checking is flawless!”
—Kate Clinton, humorist

“The volume will have particular appeal to readers of gender studies, but these stories ultimately prove that true partnership is gender blind.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A thoroughly interesting look at gay and lesbian love, life and relationships.”
—EDGE

“Fifteen love marriages that dared not speak their name defied laws and mores, flouted conventions, and live today in Streitmatter’s essential, well-documented history.”
—Booklist

“A nice gift for just the right couple.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“An engaging and well-researched volume with broad appeal to the LGBTQ crowd (especially couples) as well as social historians.”
—Library Journal

“In Outlaw Marriages he distills a wealth of information down to a lively and effective series of double portraits.”
—The Gay and Lesbian Review

“…Streitmatter expertly threads together the historical backgrounds and incredible courage of these couples… it’s a damn good bunch of stories told in a very approachable 160-ish pages.”
—The Stranger

Rodger Streitmatter, a former newspaper reporter, is a member of the School of Communication faculty at American University. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his husband, Tom Grooms.From the Prologue

The couples who come to life in the following chapters were social insurgents.
That is, each pair of men and each pair of women defied the social order by
creating sub-rosa same-sex marriages long before such relationships were
legally sanctioned.

Tennessee Williams and Frank Merlo, for example, began their outlaw
marriage in 1948—spending every day and night together, while loving and
supporting each other to a degree fully comparable to that of any husband
and wife. Their partnership continued until Merlo died of cancer in 1963.

Outlaw Marriages tells Williams and Merlo’s story, along with those of
fourteen other same-sex couples who combined their lives either as husband
and husband or wife and wife during eras when no legal institution and no
church approved of such a union.

The other trait that these renegade couples have in common is that they all
fully qualify as, in a word, extraordinary.

In many instances, that powerful adjective fits because of the remarkable
contributions a particular couple made to the culture—the fields ranging
from literature to modern art to filmmaking. The achievements of other couples
include opening graduate education to American women and pioneering
a new form of journalism in the pages of the New Yorker magazine.

With Williams and Merlo, their gift was creating some of the most memorable
plays in the history of American theater. Williams was addicted to
drugs and promiscuity when he met the rock-solid Merlo. The World War
II vet then saw to it that the playwright regained his emotional and physical
equilibrium, allowing him to write such theatrical masterpieces as the
Pulitzer Prize–winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

A few of the other extraordinary contributions that unfold in this book are

• Walt Whitman and Peter Doyle reinventing American poetry

• Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith revolutionizing the field of social
work

• Greta Garbo and Mercedes de Acosta taking the lead in transforming
Hollywood into the celebrity capital of the world

When reading the statements above, you probably recognized only one of
the two names in the pairings. That’s because the achievements of one partner
often became widely known, while those of the other partner stayed
hidden—until the publication of this book.

Outlaw Marriages is an apt title on two levels.

First, all fifteen couples created unions that defied the laws and mores
of their day. Many of these de facto partnerships survived and thrived, despite
their lack of support by church or state, for thirty or forty years—in
some cases, fifty.

Second, these couples flouted convention. Aaron Copland was thirtytwo
years old when he met and instantly fell in love with a drop-dead gorgeous
violinist named Victor Kraft, who was only seventeen. The composer’s
friends and family didn’t take the relationship seriously, convinced the couple
wouldn’t survive the dramatic age difference. Copland and Kraft proved
them wrong. The men not only stayed together but also jointly created a distinctly
American style of music that critics today, eighty years later, are still
praising.

That the couples were willing to bend the marital rules doesn’t mean they
all succeeded in creating relationships that were made in heaven—far from
it. A regrettable scenario that plays out in several chapters begins with the
lesser-known partner being absolutely essential to the better-known partner’s
rise to success, but then . . . the high-achieving partner getting what might be
called the “twenty-year itch.” Martha Carey Thomas set the standard back in
the 1890s, summarily dumping her partner of two decades, Mamie Gwinn,
for another woman. Janet Flanner went a similar route in the 1930s, as did
Audre Lorde in the 1980s.

In the instances listed above as well as in others where the outlaw marriage
eventually falls apart, readers hear the whole story—which typically includes
infidelity, deceit, and betrayal. These unfortunate factors are revealed
in full detail, as they’re the realities that often confront any long-term relationship,
gay or straight.

To help the various outlaw marriages come alive in the reader’s mind,
I’ve included photos of all fifteen couples. Tracking down these images was
often a challenge, especially in the instances when one or both members of
a couple—as with Greta Garbo and Mercedes de Acosta—didn’t publicly acknowledge
their relationship. And so, in some cases, I’ve had to use two separate photos of the partners, since a single photo of them together either didn’t exist or wasn’t available. There are also instances—as with Jane Addams and Mary Rozet Smith—when I’ve used a photo of poor quality because it shows the partners together, even though higher-quality photos of the two individuals separately could have been used.

Whether a chapter begins with a single image or a pair of them, each story
that follows is a page-turner. Sometimes the most compelling element in it is
the contribution the couple made; other times, it’s the internal dynamics of
their relationship. But one theme runs through them all:

Two people joining together to create an outlaw marriage plays a central
role not only in the couple’s extraordinary achievements, but also in each individual
partner’s very being.US

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