11-10 and 11-1994 Women of Achievement and Herstory I will be out of town November 11-14 and so am posting ahead. NOTICE: Those who would like to receive a feminist newsletter are requested to write me. It would be a read-only limited to 1.5 pages or less per day and consist of NOW, LDEF, Feminist Majority, etc., as well as news items. It would NOT contain the WOA. 11-10 Anniversaries -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- B. 11-10-1856, Mabel Loomis Todd, prepared Emily Dickinson's poems for publication and saved them from the hands of Thomas. W. S. Higginson who wanted to rewrite them into good poetry. Emily was her aunt. B. 11-10-1858, Selma Lagerlof, Swedish writer, winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909 although her crowning achievement, the powerful Lowenskolds trilogy wasn't written until the 1920's. She authored Antikrists Mirakler (1897) and Jerusalem (2 vols, 1901-2) among other works leading to the Nobel. She published three volumes of memoirs and autobiography. B. 11-10-1893, Mabel Ethelreid Normand, popular film star of the early years in Hollywood whose career was destroyed by being the suspected murderer of William Desmond Taylor and drug addiction. 11-11 Anniversaries -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- B. 11-11-1744, Abigail Smith Adams{X}, wife of the second president of the US and mother of the sixth, she won celebrity as a gifted letter- writer and was a feminist. She managed the farm and business matters while her husband spent much of his time away during and after the Revolutionary War. Because of her astute management, John was on a sound financial footing (along with Washington who married money). John often extolled his wife's wisdom and claimed she would make an ideal politician. B. 11-11-1846, Ann Katharine Green{X}, her The Levenworth Case (1878) is considered the first detective story written by a woman and is considered the developer of the scientific detective novel. Her Ebenezer Gryce's scientific and deductive reasoning investigator predates Sherlock Holmes. Although her writing was of the age, her plotting and adherence to factual legal maneuvering is admirable today. Event 11-11-1865: President Andrew Johnson presented Dr. Mary Edwards Walker{X} the US Congressional Medal of Honor at the personal recommendation of General Sherman for her heroism in treating wounded in hospitals and on the battle fields. She was taken prisoner for several months by the Confederates. She had angered many officers because she insisted on wearing an Army uniform when she had been refused an Army commission, but allowed to served as a volunteer. She had been married in trousers and refused to take the vows of honor and obey or her husband's name. After the war she continued her ways by wearing trousers and speaking out about suffrage and dress reform and found it more and more difficult to make a living as she became more and more eccentric. She eventually became a sideshow attraction. On June 3, 1917 an Army review board revoked the medal saying she had not warranted it and that there was no existing proof that she actually was awarded it. She refused to give it up. She died several years later. On June 10, 1977, the medal was formally restored by an act of the US Congress. Event, 11-11-1922: the Women's Overseas Service League published the names of 162 women known to have been killed in military service during World War I. Quote du jour -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- "I just can't stop laughing, I can't stop crying." -- Helen Cunliffe, longtime advocate of the women's priest lobby when the Church of England voted to ordain women as priests, November 10, 1992. The first women priests were ordained March 11, 1994 and performed their first priestly duties Sunday May 13, 1994, Mother's Day in England. (C) 1994 Irene Stuber, PO Box 6185, Hot Springs National Park, AR 71902, irenestuber@delphi.com. Distribute verbatim copies freely with copyright notice for non-profit use.