The Sexuality of Maude Adams

There has been speculation about the sexuality of Maude Adams, whether or not she was a lesbian.

First of all, it doesn't matter to me, personally, whether she was a lesbian, bisexual, heterosexual or asexual. She was a beautiful woman physically and, from what I have read, equally beautiful as far as her actions went.

Circumstantial Evidence

There are various items which I would consider to be circumstantial evidence about her sexuality. No one item by itself would be a very strong indicator, but grouping all the items together, the case for her being a lesbian is strengthened.

1. She never married.

2. She was never engaged.

3. She kept strictly to herself, did not appear in public hardly at all, and when she did it was sort of in disguise. She didn't grant interviews. Her behavior overall was quite reclusive.

4. Most of her correspondence was burned upon her death. This is fairly strong evidence, in that such an extreme act is usually not undertaken unless someone wants something kept secret.

5. She is buried next to Louise Boynton, her secretary and companion for many years. This is also fairly strong evidence.

Specific Persons she was associated with

I sort of accidentally stumbled onto a page about actresses that ebay has (1), and it linked Maude Adams to Mercedes de Acosta, Katharine Cornell, Spring Byington, Eva la Gallienne and Alla Nazimova. I also came across two other names in different sources. Although they listed five actresses, there was no reference at all to Maude Adams on the pages of three of the actresses. This is an example of how easy it is to claim something in an article, but to have inadequate evidence to back it up.

What I will do now is put what I have found by each person's name, and note the source of that information.

Louise Boynton

“From 1905 to 1951, her “lifelong love” was Louise Boynton. They are buried side-by-side.” (2)

Spring Byington

“ Byington was also linked in an affair with actress/writer Maude Adams.” (3)

Katharine Cornell

“She is noted for her major Broadway roles in serious dramas, often directed by her husband, Guthrie McClintic. Theirs was a tandem marriage as he was a homosexual and she a lesbian, having had a long on-again off-again affair with Mercedes de Acosta, another relationship with actress Maude Adams, as well as other noted women of her time.” (4) (I found exactly the same entry on the site Homostory 101.)

Mercedes de Acosta

ebay did not have a page on this actress, even though they had her listed as having a connection with Maude Adams.

“While in her early twenties, Acosta became involved in the lesbian theatrical circles of Broadway, particularly the salon of Bessie Marbury, a powerful producer and literary agent, and Marbury's lover Elsie de Wolfe, the prominent interior decorator. Among Acosta's early lovers were actresses Maude Adams, Alla Nazimova, and Katherine Cornell, as well as dancer Isadora Duncan.” (6)

“Mercedes de Acosta (March 1, 1893 - May 9, 1968) was a Spanish-American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite best known for her lesbian affairs with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, Katharine Cornell, Maude Adams, Ona Munson (”Belle Watling” in the movie Gone with the Wind), Adele Astaire, and others.” (7) (Note; I saw exactly the same entry, word-for-word, in various other sources.)

“She never married and there have always been rumors that she preferred the company of women; and she was linked romantically to Mercedes de Acosta (although who wasn’t!)” (8)

Lillie Florence

”While the actress apparently never involved herself romantically with a man, she engaged in two long-term same-sex domestic partnerships, which endured in each case until the beloved's death. the first, dating from the early 1890s until 1901, was with Lillie Florence...” (13)

Eva la Gallienne

Although the ebay page listed her as being connected with Maude Adams, it contained no actual information on Maude Adams and her. Nor could I find anything else anywhere directly tying her and Maude Adams together.

Alla Nazimova

Although the ebay page listed her as being connected with Maude Adams, it contained no actual information on Maude Adams and her. As with the above person, I could find no information linking her with Maude Adams.

General and Circumstantial References

The book Strange Duets by Kim Marra refers to the “closeted homosexuality of Charles Froman and Maude Adams.” That's what one review says, anyhow; I have not been able to get a copy of the book to see what it specifically says.

The ebay actors page on Maude Adams: “She was a lesbian, a well known fact in acting circles, but well concealed as was the way in those days. Allegedly preferring women younger than she, Adams had a brief affair with actress Spring Byington , another more meaningful relationship with actress Katharine Cornell and a reportedly passionate yet brief affair with actress Eva Le Gallienne. Two of her most noted lovers was poet and writer Mercedes de Acosta, and actress Alla Nazimova.”

A source labeled Lespedia lists Maude as a lesbian: “Maude Adams (Salt Lake City, Utah, 1872 – Tannersville, New York, 1953), attrice” (9)

Maude Adams lived near Mercedes de Acosta for a while. “The de Acostas lived in a house on Forty-seventh Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues...Maude Adams, famous for the spiritual quality of her acting, for never marrying, and, in the parlance of the time, for exhibiting a calculated coolness toward men, lived for a while on the street.” (10)

Maude Adams was a co-founder of a women's club. “Rita [de Acosta] had joined the Colony Club, the first social club for women in New York, which had been founded by Marbury and Morgan in 1907 and whose founding members included Maude Adams, Amy Lowell, Emily Post, and Jane Addams.” (11)

The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era, 2005:

”While the actress apparently never involved herself romantically with a man, she engaged in two long-term same-sex domestic partnerships, which endured in each case until the beloved's death. the first, dating from the early 1890s until 1901, was with Lillie Florence, and the second, from 1905 to 1951, was with Louise Boynton. Because Adams burned all of her personal papers except her correspondence with J.M. Barrie, 'hard' evidence from the principals about the nature of their relationships is elusive.

”Like other Boston marrieds of the period, Adams's relationships with her partners transpired within a close circle of women friends who also led homosocial lives.”

References saying she was not a lesbian

“...she had no known romantic relationships with women, either.” (5)

“...the audiences she granted to Mercedes de Acosta were nothing more than the grudging indulgence of a gushing, and pesky, fan.” (12)

Sources

(Yes, I know the references above are not in the exact order they should be. I'm putting this together piece by piece and will be adding things, so it's just easier to use the next number available rather than renumbering everything every time I add anything.)

(1) http://listing-index.ebay.com/actors/Maude_Adams.html
(2)Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example; 2001; D. Michael Quinn, p.135.
(3) http://listing-index.ebay.com/actors/Spring_Byington.html (ebay)
(4) http://listing-index.ebay.com/actors/Katharine_Cornell.html (ebay)
(5) http://www.geocities.com/bidtimereturnmp/ma.html (Bid Time Return, a Somewhere in Time Website)
(6) http://www.glbtq.com/arts/acosta_m.html (GLBTQ; an encyclopedia of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer culture)
(7) http://www.femmenoir.net/new/content/view/229/155/ (FemmeNoir)
(8) http://www.brookspeters.com/index.php?s=maude+adams&Submit=Search (Brook Peters)
(9) http://lexiamberson.blogspot.com/2007_03_01_archive.html
(10)The Sewing Circle: Sappho's Leading Ladies; Madsen, Axel, 1995, p.42.
(11) That Furious Lesbian: The Story of Meredes de Acosta; Schanke, Robert A., 2003, p.36
(12) Outcyclopedia, the free and queer encyclopedia.
(13)The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era, 2005:

Note: this is sort of an on-going project, and other material will be added if and when I find any.