Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake were two literate seamstresses who lived in Weybridge, Vermont, in the first half of the nineteenth century. What brings them to the fore as the subject of this beautifully written book is that they lived together as a couple in their own house and were regarded as joined in a marriage by contemporaries and posterity, including Charity’s nephew William Cullen Bryant. In telling their story, Cleves has written more than a work of recovery of a lesbian past. She offers an intriguing inquiry into the language of letters and poetry. Her close reading uncovers hidden meanings to reveal the private coded words of the same-sex female lovers. Cleves also explores the essential silence that shielded the women during their lifetime.
Bryant was the elder of the two, born in Massachusetts in 1777 to a consumptive mother who died soon after her birth. Her independent streak...