Brown, Rita Mae (1944–)

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Brown, Rita Mae (1944–)

American poet and novelist. Born Nov 28, 1944, in Hanover, Pennsylvania; as an orphan, was adopted and raised by a poor family in York; attended public school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, then University of Florida at Gainesville; attended New York University; Institute for Policy Studies, PhD in English and Political Science (1976).

Participated in civil-rights movements (1960s) and helped found chapter of Student Homophile League; was an early member of NOW, but quit because of the discrimination she encountered as a lesbian; as a result, wrote the oft-quoted essay, "The Woman-Identified Woman"; published the semi-autobiographical Rubyfruit Jungle (1973), one of the 1st American novels with a liberated lesbian as its protagonist; other writings, which often celebrate the role of women in Southern history, include (poetry) The Hand That Cradles the Rock (1971), In Her Day (1974), (essays) A Plain Brown Rapper (1976), Six of One (1978), Southern Discomfort (1982), High Hearts (1986), Wish You Were Here (1990), Murder at Monticello (1994), and Murder, She Meowed (1996).

See also autobiography Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser (1997).

Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages

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Brown, Rita Mae (1944–)

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