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Alyse Gregory
American-British suffragist and writer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Alyse Earle Gregory (July 19, 1882 – August 27, 1967) was an American-British suffragist and writer.[1] Gregory worked as a woman's suffrage advocate in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York. She became an editor of the literary magazine, The Dial, and was a published author of novels and essays.
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Gregory was born as Alice Earle Gregory in Norwalk, Connecticut on July 19, 1882.[2][3] Later, she and the family would spell her name as "Alyse."[2] Gregory's father, James G. Gregory, was a doctor and the two had a close relationship.[2] Dr. Gregory was supportive of his daughter even in her most non-conformist ways, which she started displaying at an early age.[4] Gregory ran away from school twice as a young girl, hating the tedium of lessons.[5] Gregory also showed early musical talent and was sent to Paris in 1899 to receive a musical education with famous concert singer Katherine Tanner Fisk.[6][7] For four years she took singing lessons in Paris and in New York City.[8] Gregory disliked singing in public and didn't have the stature for opera singing, so she returned to the United States.[9]
In 1912, Gregory became the leader of the Norwalk Civic League and became involved with worker's rights.[10] Through her experiences in the league came to feel that women's suffrage would help promote labor reforms.[11] Gregory went on to become a key leader in the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association (CWSA) through which she directed activities such as meetings, plays, and parades alongside Cromwell native Emily Miller Pierson.[12] In 1913, Gregory teamed up with Pierson for a Connecticut state automobile speaking tour to support women's suffrage.[13] She later worked as assistant state organizer for the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association during a referendum on woman suffrage in 1915 and was also active for the cause in the State of New York.[12] Gregory was involved with the National Woman's Party protests (NWP) in New York City.[12] In July 1916, she published a national article about women laborers in The Woman Voter, entitled, "Women and the Garment Workers."[14] In working on the article, she used her abilities to speak Italian and French fluently in order to connect with immigrant labor workers.[15] Gregory also used her fluency with languages during Connecticut woman's suffrage campaigns.[16] She would translate speeches given by Pierson into Italian, French or German.[17] From April to October 1915, Gregory worked with Pierson on suffrage campaigns in New Jersey.[18] In 1919, Gregory protested in Washington, D.C. in favor of woman's suffrage with the National Woman's Party (NWP) and Elsie Hill.[19]
Gregory lived in New York City starting in 1916.[20] Around this time, she began contributing articles to such publications as The Freeman, The New Republic and The Dial.[21] She wrote articles in favor of social justice.[22] Early in 1918, Gregory opened her own tea shop in Greenwich Village and the shop became a gathering place where writers and artists would gather.[23] When her friend, Randolph Bourne died in 1918, Gregory lost a close friend and an "intellectual sparring partner."[24] Also in 1918, Gregory visited Denmark and Scotland, staying in Glasgow with Florida Scott-Maxwell.[25] Gregory moved to Patchin Place in 1921.[20]
While Gregory was living in Greenwich Village, Scofield Thayer was recruiting her to become an editor for The Dial, starting in 1922.[26][27] The offer at The Dial would mean that she would be paid $25 more per week than Gilbert Seldes, the current editor.[28] She eventually accepted. From 1923 to 1925, Gregory worked as the first woman managing editor of The Dial.[29] Her name was first included on the masthead of the magazine in February 1924.[28] While Powys worked for the magazine, she helped keep things on "an even keel."[30]
In 1921, she met writer Llewelyn Powys.[31] Gregory helped expand Powys' literary network and he also relied on her advice as an editor.[32] Initially, Gregory had been against marriage.[33] However, on September 30 1924, Gregory married Powys.[34][35][36] Gregory didn't tell her parents until after the wedding.[37] Two reasons she gave her father for marrying Powys were that he wanted to get married and that his health was poor.[38] In April 1925, Gregory retired from The Dial to move to England with her husband.[39] Powys was involved in persuading her to leave the position.[40] Despite leaving formally, Gregory continued to write literary reviews for The Dial through 1929.[29]
Powys and Gregory both visited Sigmund Freud in Vienna in 1926.[30] In 1927, Powys had an affair with Gamel Woolsey.[41] Gregory and her husband visited Palestine in 1928 so Powys could do research for an upcoming book.[42] During this trip, Powys found out that Woolsey had a miscarriage.[41] After returning from Palestine, Woolsey arrived to move near Powys and during this time, Gregory was involved with the affair which she both "encouraged" and "suffered exquisitely."[43] The love triangle between Gregory, Powys and Woolsey was complicated, especially because Gregory believed in free love.[44] Gregory and Powys spent the winter of 1930 in a house in the Berkshire Mountains lent to them by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Eugen Boissevain.[36] After Llewelyn Powys' death from tuberculosis in 1939, Gregory continued to live on the Dorset coast in England.[45]
In 1956, Alyse presented the author Rosemary Manning with a copy of Wheels on Gravel inscribed with a quotation from George Santayana: 'To understand oneself is the classic form of consolation, to elude oneself is the romantic'.[46] In 1957, Alyse Gregory moved into Velthams Cottage, Morebath, Devon.[47] After the sudden death of her landlady on May 12, 1958, Velthams was bought at auction in 1960 by the writer Oliver Stonor, who had known Alyse previously; they were both present at local celebrations in East Chaldon on 7 or 8 May 1945, for the end of the Second World War in Europe, which took the form of a large bonfire near the Five Marys, a local group of prehistoric barrows.
In her last years, many friends visited her, in spite of the rural isolation of Morebath, which had a railway station until 1966. Alyse had long been an advocate of voluntary euthanasia, and planned her own, careful death.[48] She died from a barbiturate overdose on 27 August 1967.[48] Her last visitor on the day of her death was the author Rosemary Manning who described the visit in her autobiography A Corridor of Mirrors.[49]
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Writing
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Gregory helped turn The Dial into "a first rate magazine of the fine arts," according to E. E. Cummings.[50] As an editor at The Dial, Gregory was considered a "powerful arbiter of literary style."[23] Gregory created a set of general instructions for the editorial department at The Dial which continued to be used after she retired.[51] While she was married to Llewellyn Powys, she edited his works.[52]
Her first published novel was She Shall Have Music (1926) which explored themes of sexual awakening and individual freedom.[53] The story follows the life and intellectual longings of a wealthy young woman, Sylvia Brown, who experiences life in Long Island and Greenwich Village.[54] The New Yorker described She Shall Have Music as a story that that captures the modern speech and mores of her characters.[55] The New Republic wrote that the story had all the elements it needed to be complete, but that it ended up flat and somewhat boring.[56]
King Log and Lady Lea (1929) is a tragic novel that deals with marriage and infidelity and the relationship between a wife and her husband's lover.[57][52] The Bystander called the novel "interesting and peculiar."[58]
Gregory's novel, Hester Craddock (1931), uses many of her own personal experiences to develop the two main characters.[59][60] The story is set in the English Downs and focuses on two sisters and the men in their lives.[61] The eponymous character is neurotic and in love with an artist, who in turn, loves her sister.[62] One of the story's characters was based on her friend, Randolph Bourne where she explores how disability can affect a person's sexuality.[24] The New York Times remarked that in this story, her prose was "sober and economical."[62]
Wheels on Gravel (1938) was a series of eleven published essays on various topics, including marriage.[63][64] Much of the subject matter in the essays was "sensitive, original, if rather bleakly pessimistic."[65]
During World War II Gregory had trouble publishing her work while she lived in England.[66] The Day is Gone (1948) is Gregory's autobiography, published in 1948.[45] The autobiography covers her time working towards woman's suffrage in the United States and her relationship with other literary figures.[67] She also reminisced about individuals who worked with her at The Dial.[68] The autobiography ends just before her marriage to Powys, who she never mentions by name in the book.[69]
In 1973, selections from her journals were published under the title The Cry of a Gull 1923-1948.[70]
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