A Queen of 19th-Century Opera Gets New Attention (Published 2021)
Reading about Historical Muses
Started this research project after reading about Georgina Weldon. She’s notorious for having a litigation addiction but I’m obsessed with the time Gounod asked for his sheet music back after their divorce and she sent it with her name written across every page. When he attempted to have her committed, she escaped and... See more
Samia
Molly Snowden added
One of the reasons we haven’t heard much about Pejačević until recently is because of her untimely death at the age of thirty-eight, just a month after giving birth to her only child. Given medical provision in the 1920s, it was always a risk for a woman to be pregnant in her late thirties. Perhaps with this in mind, Pejačević wrote a poignant lett... See more
Leah Broad • An introduction to Dora Pejačević
Faith Hahn added
“Paula was the ex-wife of Irish rock star Sir Bob Geldof, late of the Boomtown Rats, and the ex-consort of Australian rock star Michael Hutchence, late in a more permanent sense, and was widely admired by many distinguished Americans, including Andy Warhol, who hailed her first book-a collection of photographs entitled Rock Stars In Their Underpant... See more
Terence Faircloth added
Paula Yates
What they saw was a woman who constantly transformed herself before their eyes, a one-woman spectacle. Her dress and makeup changed from day to day, but always gave her a heightened, goddesslike appearance. Her voice, which all writers talk of, was lilting and intoxicating.
Robert Greene • The Art of Seduction
Rather than mocking her for sticking around past her supposed sell-by date, online audiences — even on teenager-heavy TikTok — love her for it. She is, in fact, one of a handful of over-50 fashion mentors on social media to attract an all-ages crowd.
New York Times • The Rise of the Over-50 Fashion Mentors (Published 2022)
Keely Adler added
I’d never met a woman like Pauline and had met her at a time when I feared not one woman like her existed in all the world. In some way I had never known how to express, I’d feared I would have to become the first of my kind, whatever my kind was, should I be allowed to survive—that which history has never seen before. Instead, here Pauline lived;
... See moreAlexander Chee • The Queen of the Night
Sara Campbell added
Maria Popova, who writes the popular site The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings), spends her days reading old books and essays. She’s passionate about finding ideas, beauty, and wisdom in these texts and then connecting them in her own unique conversation with the world.
Paul Millerd • The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life
“It is never as often as we would like that a beautiful and brilliant woman steps away from her assigned role of helpmeet, of mother, of daughter and muse. So we celebrate the ones who we believe – on some artistic plane – were set free.”