Margaret C. Anderson

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Forbidden Fires by Margaret Anderson

Anderson (1886^-1973) founded and edited the famous Little Review, which gave chapters of Joyce's Ulysses their U.S. debut and thereby brought Anderson a conviction for publishing obscene literature. She wrote this fictionalized account of the early years of her romance with French actress and singer Georgette Leblanc in 1958. It consists of meetings and letters during a years-long cat-and-mouse game in which Audrey Leigh (Leblanc) puts off the fictionalized Margaret with claims of a religious devotion that keeps her from even mentioning, let alone acting on, lesbian love. Margaret's prizes for playing along are infrequent words of adoration circumspectly spoken. Some may find this a fascinating story of psychic seduction and obsession with the unattainable; others, a neurotic tease that makes them hope each woman would go find fulfillment elsewhere. Perhaps more interesting are Mathilda Hills' biographical introduction and her postscript about the quest, which involved interviewing Anderson's remaining friends and lovers, to find this very short novel for the sake of lesbian history and literature. Whitney Scott

Anderson, Margaret C. (1886-1973)

EDITOR/PUBLISHER

Anderson was born to a wealthy and cultured family in Indianapolis, attended college in Ohio and later moved to Chicago in search of intellectual outlets. In 1914 she started the magazine The Little Review which garnered a devoted cult-like following.

In 1916 Anderson met the outspoken, cross-dressing writer and painter Jane Heap who helped to guide The Little Review to its stature as a champion of experimentalism in the arts. Under Heap's hand The Little Review published the works of Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle, Hart Crane, T.S. Eliot and James Joyce. Joyce's Ulysses was serialized in the magazine an act which found Heap and Anderson guilty of obscenity and fined $100.

An article written by Anderson in the magazine's March 1915 issue which critiqued a lecture given by Edith Ellis, may be the first defense of same-sex love published by an American lesbian.

Joining other lesbian emigrants in Paris in 1923, Anderson and Heap published their magazine quarterly from that locale through 1929. After 1929 Anderson lived a more secluded life and penned the novel Forbidden Fires which was published posthumously in 1996. From 1923 to 1940 Anderson's lover was opera star Georgette Leblanc. After Leblanc's death Anderson shared her life with Dorothy Caruso, widow of Enrico Caruso.

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