Grace Constant Lounsbery | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1876 |
| Died | 1964 |
| Occupation | author |
Grace Constant Lounsbery (1876 – 1964)[1] was an American author, poet and playwright. She also founded a Buddhism society in France.
Her mother named her Grace Constant. She adopted the last name Lounsbery from a prestigious branch of her family, writing as G. Constant Lounsbery.[2] She graduated from Bryn Mawr College.[3] Lounsbery was friends with Gertrude Stein and often hosted gatherings at the family home in Baltimore.[4]
Lounsbery's play L'Escarpolette (in English, The Swing) opened at Sarah Bernhardt's playhouse in Paris in 1904. The play is based upon an 18th-century painting of the same name, which depicts a flirtation between a young man and a woman on a swing.[3] Bernhardt played the young man. The play was a benefit for Jews in Russia.[5]
Her doings in Paris were reported back to the United States by gossip columnists. They found her fascinating and often remarked on her masculine manner of dress and behavior,[3][2] with one reporter calling her "an out-door lady of manly sports" who used the initial G to obscure her feminine name.[5] Lounsbery moved in a circle of lesbians in Paris.[6][7][8] Gertrude Stein wrote of an early romantic relationship with Lounsbery in Q.E.D. (Quod Erat Demonstrandum), written in 1903 but not published until 1950.[9] Lounsbery also hosted literary and artistic salons; Stein and Ernest Hemingway met Ezra Pound at one of these evenings.[10]
In the poem Satan Unbound Lounsbery advocated for a spirit of rebellion embodied by the figure of Satan. She reminded the reader that the American Revolution was a rebellion, and felt that a similar rebellion was needed to bring about socialism.[11] She was inspired to write about Satan and rebellion by the work of Percy Bysshe Shelley.[12]
In 1929 Lounsbery founded a Buddhism society in France which was influential in popularizing Buddhism for French and Western people.[13]
