Florence Converse

Florence Converse (April 30, 1871 – February 13, 1967) was an American author. Throughout her career, she wrote a variety of pieces spanning many genres, including historical novels, mysteries, religious plays, and poetry. Converse had a Boston marriage with Vida Dutton Scudder.

Florence Converse
Florence Converse, from a 1937 newspaper photo
Born	(1871-04-30)April 30, 1871 New Orleans, Louisiana
Died	February 13, 1967(1967-02-13) (aged 95)
Occupation	Writer
Partner	Vida Dutton Scudder

Early life and education

Florence Converse was born in New Orleans in 1871. She attended Mrs. Charles's School in New Orleans,^[1] and graduated from Wellesley College in 1893, and completed a master's degree at Wellesley in 1903.^[2]

Wellesley College Archives. Shakespeare Society members performing A Midsummer Night's Dream in the woods. Florence Converse, 1893 (Puck); Mabel Wells 1896 (Oberon); Caroline Newman, 1893 (Bottom), 1893

Career

Converse gave a series of lectures on Percy Bysshe Shelley in New Orleans in 1896.^[3] She taught English at Wellesley after graduating from the college,^[4] and lived in Denison House, a Boston settlement house.^[5] She was a member of the editorial staff of The Churchman from 1900 to 1908, when she joined the staff of the Atlantic Monthly.^[2][6]

Converse wrote plays, poems, and several novels. These included Long Will, a novel about the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.^[7] She also edited children's books at E. P. Dutton.^[8] "Miss Converse is doubtless one of the most interesting of the minor poets," wrote a reviewer in 1937.^[9]

Personal life and legacy

Converse was in a lesbian relationship known as a Boston marriage with Vida Dutton Scudder.^[10][11] The couple lived together from 1912 until Scudder died in 1954.^[12] Converse died in 1967, at the age of 95. Scudder and Converse are buried alongside each other at Newton Cemetery, Newton, Massachusetts.^[13]

Publications

Converse wrote in various genres, including historical novels, mysteries, religious plays, and poetry. She also translated works from French, including Birds of a Feather (1919) by Marcel Nadaud.^[14]

• Diana Victrix (1897)^[10][15]
• The Burden of Christopher (1900)^[16]
• Long Will, A Romance (1903)^[17]
• The House of Prayer (1908)
• A Masque of Sibyls (1910)^[18]
• The Children of Light (1912)^[19]
• The Story of Wellesley (1915)^[20]
• The Blessed Birthday (1917)^[21]
• Garments of Praise (1921)^[22]
• The Holy Night (1922)^[23]
• The Happy Swan (1925)
• Into the Void (1926)^[24]
• Sphinx (1931)^[25][26]
• Efficiency Expert (1934)^[27]
• Collected poems of Florence Converse (1937)^[28]
• The Madman and the Wrecking Crew (Crux Ave, Spes Unica) (1939)
• Wellesley College, a chronicle of the years 1875-1938 (1939)
• Prologue to Peace: the Poems of Two Wars (1949)
• "Pasquale's Easter Moon" (1956)^[29]