Heterodox Heroines
Karen Blixen aka Isak Dinesen (1885-1962). One of Denmark's greatest writers, or story-teller as she called herself. Mzuri sana! With Seven Gothic Tales and her fantastic autobiography Out of Africa she achieved fame in USA and eventually throughout most of the world. "Man bringer ikke børnevogn med når man tager ud for at søge den hellige gral!" ("You don't bring along a baby carriage when you go searching for the Holy Grail!")
Karen Blixen - Isak Dinesen Information Site
Karen Blixen Literary Society
Karen Blixen Museum, Kenya
Karen Blixen Museet
Books by Karen Blixen
Out of Africa Film Links
Karin Boye (1900-1941) One of the leading poets of Scandinavian modernism. Influenced by Nietzsche. Her bitter-sweet poems never cease to fascinate and move.
Karin Boye Sällskapet
(The site has poems by Boye in Swedish and English.)
Translations of Karin Boye's Complete Poems
I rörelse (from "Härdarna")
Den mätta dagen, den är aldrig störst.
Den bästa dagen är en dag av törst.
Nog finns det mål och mening i vår färd -
men det är vägen, som är mödan värd.
Det bästa målet är en nattlång rast,
där elden tänds och brödet bryts i hast.
På ställen, där man sover blott en gång,
blir sömnen trygg och drömmen full av sång.
Bryt upp, bryt upp! Den nya dagen gryr.
Oändligt är vårt stora äventyr.
Maria Callas (1923-1977). One of the greatest and most versatile operatic singers of our time. Praised for the distinctive colour of her voice, her dramatic
presence, and her careful musicianship. "Singing for me is not an act of pride, but an effort to elevate towards those heavens where everything is harmony."
The official Maria Callas Site
Serendipity: Maria Callas
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886). Perhaps the most fascinating North-American poet. Her response to poetry was a sensual one: "If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry." The staying power of Dickinson's poetry bear witness to this powerful, even unheimlich, seductiveness of great art.
The Bartleby Project
Dickinson Electronic Archives Devoted to the study of Emily Dickinson, her writing practices, writings generated by her work, and writings directly influencing her work.
The Emily Dickinson International Society A forum for scholarship on Dickinson.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) On
Isle of Lesbos where you will also find
Historical Lesbian Poetry
The Single Hound Poems of a lifetime by Emily Dickinson. Boston : Little, Brown & Co., 1914. On Celebration of Women Writers
Selected poetry of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) On The Poetry Archives.
The Virtual Emily Facts about the life and work of Emily Dickinson.
The Emily Dickinson Journal
The Dickinson List An e-mail
subscription list devoted to discussion of the work of Emily Dickinson.
The Dickinson Homestead Home of Emily Dickinson, a National Historic Landmark
owned by the Trustees of Amherst College.
Emily Dickinson biography From the American Academy of Poets.
Isadora Duncan (1878-1927). Inspired by Walt Whitman's poetry, Renaissance art, and ancient Greek vase-paintings, Isadora redefined the art of dance as a philosophy of life,
and the body as center of the universe. Her spiritual vision encompassed her whole life:
she was radical, courageous and unconventional - and had to pay the prize.
Isadora Duncan Foundation for Contemporary Dance
Isadora Duncan - by Samuel Dickson
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652), widely regarded as the most important woman artist before the modern period, was a major Italian Baroque painter of the seventeenth century. Artemisia was born in Rome on July 8, 1593 and displayed a remarkable artistic talent from early childhood. She received formal training from her father, the famed painter Orazio Gentileschi, and became a part of the artistic circles that he frequented. She felt a particular affinity with Caravaggio, and her work would be permanently influenced by his style. Among the artists who worked with Orazio Gentileschi was Agostino Tassi. In 1612, Tassi was tried for raping Artemisia. She was tortured under oath to prove her testimony. Even though Tassi had been sent to prison in the past for incest, and was believed to have planned the murder of his wife, he served only eight months in prison for Artemisia's rape. After that incarceration, the charges were dismissed. After the trial, Artemisia married an artist named Pietro Antonio di Vicenzo Stiattesi and moved to Florence. She quickly emerged as a leading painter in a city known for its artists. Her work was sought after and celebrated across Italy. Judith Slaying Holofernes dates from the time of the rape trial. The subject is taken from the Apocrypha: Judith was a devout Israelite widow; when her village of Bethulia came under siege by the Assyrians, she and her maid were captured and
brought to Holofernes, the attacking general: Judith decapitated him.
Artemisia Gentileschi - A Biography
Billie Holiday (1915-1959). By many regarded as the most
preeminent jazz singer of all times, reknown for her lyrical interpretations.
With her, the vocalist's singing of the lyrics became as much a solo
as the instrumentalist's improvisations. Like so many geniuses,
her life was turbulent and unhappy.
The Official Site of Billie Holiday
The Unofficial Billie Holiday Website
Aleksandra Kollontaj (1872-1952)
The only (?) humane Communist politician.
Individualist, democrat, and a first-class rhetorician - warmhearted, sensual and brave.
She witnessed all her hopes for the revolution, her aspirations for a social, feminist and sexual liberation,
thrown aside by her male chauvinist, authority-licking comrades.
In 1922 Kollontaj was appointed the world's first woman ambassador, to Norway.
Recommended books by Kollontaj
Camille Paglia (1947- ) Wild and brilliant - original art critic, feminist fatale, extraordinary stylist, motormouth, and culture queene. "Pornography and art are identical for me ... I think Michelangelo is a pornographer."
Dorothy Parker (1893-1967). Poet, short-story writer, theater critic and screenwriter. Best remembered for her wit: "You know, that woman speaks 18 languages, and she can't say "no" in any of them."
Annie Sprinkle (1954- )
Reknowned performance artist, author and photographer who makes
use of her lifetimes of experience in the sex industry and in spiritual learning
to teach others her uniquely humorous and affirming way of sexual healing. "Let there be pleasure on earth, and let it begin with me."
Edith Södergran (1892-1923) Groundbreaking Finnish-Swedish poet. She abandoned rhyme and meter, and wrote poetry in a modernistic style never before seen in Scandinavia. Influenced by Nietzsche and Rudolf Steiner, Södergran's poetry dwells upon ecstatic feelings of life, death and love. "Det anstår mig icke att göra mig mindre än jag är ..."
Simone Weil
Project Runeberg Nordic authors. In English.
Presented by Kuusankoski Public Library in Finland Some info in English on Södergran.
Simone Weil Home Page
Introduction and bibliography
An Introduction
Another introduction
Simone Weil quotations 2
Simone Weil quotations
Yim Wing Chun (Beautiful Springtime Yim) Born in Canton, China in the 17th century. Fifteen and beautiful, Wing Chun attracted the unwanted attentions of a local bully, who tried to rape her and force her to marry him. She went up into the Mountain of Tai Leung, where she was taught the secrets of the martial art of Shaolin Kung Fu by the Buddhist nun Ng Mui. Wing Chun studied Mui's techniques night and day, and together the two women developed The Wing Chun system - a short range style of boxing that enables a practitioner to get inside the reach of a larger opponent. Later Yim Wing Chun returned to her village, defeated her perpetrator and married a man of her own choosing. Her ultra-deadly martial art spread across China, was later lost, then rediscovered by Bruce Lee who adopted this Yin-centered philosophy and built his technique Jeet Kung Do directly from Wing Chun.
Find more outstanding, outrageous and uppity women and women icons, from Greta Garbo to Gertrude Stein, at Heroine Worship (New York Times Magazine)
