Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England Paperback – January 22, 2007
by Sharon Marcus
Partner Kate Field
Queer Places:
520 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116, USA
Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge, MA 02138, Stati Uniti
Emily Lilian Whiting (October 3, 1847 - April 30, 1942) was a prominent American journalist, editor, and author known for her extensive body of work in poetry, travel
writing, and essays on spiritualism.
Born in Niagara Falls, New York, she was the daughter of Lorenzo D. Whiting, an Illinois State Senator. She was largely educated privately by her parents before attending the Mount Carroll Seminary (later Shimer College) in Illinois.
Whiting moved to St. Louis in 1876 to break into journalism. By 1880, she relocated to Boston, where she made a name for herself as a pioneering woman editor. She served as the literary editor for the Boston Evening Traveller (1880–1890) and subsequently became the editor-in-chief of the Boston Budget.
Whiting wrote heavily on literature, art, and mysticism. She was deeply involved in the New Thought and spiritualist movements. Her multi-volume series, The World Beautiful, and her poetry collection, From Dreamland Sent, were widely read in her time.
Lilian Whiting’s most significant personal relationship was with the famous independent journalist, lecturer, and actress Kate Field.
The two women met around 1880 while Whiting was on a journalism assignment. They formed a profound romantic and domestic partnership—often analyzed by historians within the context of 19th-century same-sex "Boston marriages" and queer networks—which lasted until Field's death in 1896.
Field, who fiercely protected her independence and frequently wrote about her aversion to traditional marriage, found a dedicated companion in Whiting. During periods of separation, the two exchanged private letters on a daily basis. Whiting dedicated a volume of her poetry to Field in 1895, calling her the "magnetic centre" and the central interest of her life.
The precise home address for the two women was The Hotel Brunswick, located in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts (right at Copley Square, at the corner of Boylston and Clarendon Streets). During the late 19th century, it was highly fashionable for affluent writers, intellectuals, and unmarried professionals to reside long-term in residential luxury hotels rather than leasing traditional houses. Lilian Whiting famously kept her rooms at the Brunswick for over forty years, and it served as the home base where she and Kate Field lived together whenever Field was not away on her frequent travel assignments. The historical address of the Hotel Brunswick was 520 Boylston Street, Boston, Massachusetts. The grand, multi-story Victorian Gothic/Renaissance Revival hotel building was built in 1874 and stood until it was demolished in 1957. Today, the site at 520 Boylston Street is occupied by a modern glass and stone office and retail building, located directly across the street from the historic Trinity Church and a block away from the Boston Public Library.
When Kate Field died unexpectedly of pneumonia in Honolulu in 1896, Whiting was devastated. She inherited all of Field's personal papers, journals, and possessions.
In the wake of her grief, Whiting authored two major works dedicated to her late partner:
The Story of a Summer (1897) is a spiritualist memoir in which Whiting detailed her intense grief and documented the telepathic and mediumistic communications she believed she was sharing with Field’s spirit to prove that love transcends physical death.
Kate Field: A Record (1899) is the first comprehensive biography of Field. Operating under strict 19th-century biographical conventions, Whiting kept herself invisible in the text, referring to herself only as "the biographer," despite drawing heavily from their intimate daily correspondence.
The permanence of their bond is reflected in their final arrangements. Upon Whiting’s death in 1942 at the age of 94, her ashes were buried directly beside Kate Field at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England Paperback – January 22, 2007 by Sharon Marcus |
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