Vida Dutton Scudder

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Vida Dutton Scudder (born December 15, 1861 in Madurai, India; died October 9, 1954 in Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S.) was an educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement. She was among the Scudders in India who devoted more than 1,100 combined years to Christian mission service by 42 members of 4 generations of the family.

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[edit] Biography

After the death of Scudders father, David Coit Scudder, a Congregationalist missionary, she and her mother, Harriet Louisa (Dutton), moved to Boston. In 1884, Scudder graduated from Smith College, then studied English literature at Oxford university, where she was influenced by the lectures of John Ruskin.

Scudder taught English literature at Wellesley College where she became associate professor in 1892 and professor in 1910.[1] Retired in 1928.

She was in a lesbian relationship with Florence Converse[1].

Vida was one of the founders in 1892, along with Helena Dudley and Emily Greene Balch, of Denison House in Boston, the third settlement house in the United States. Vida was its primary administrator for twenty years. She was a member of William Dwight Porter Bliss' Society of Christian Socialists, which later became an Episcopal mission.

[edit] Works

  • How the Rain Sprites Were Freed. Boston: D. Lothrop, 1883.
  • Mitsu-Yu-Nissi; or, The Japanese Wedding. Chicago: T.S. Denison 1887.
  • Macaulay's Essay on Lord Clive. Boston: Sibley and Ducker, 1889.
  • An Introduction to the Writings of John Ruskin. Boston: Leach, Shewell and Sanborn, 1890.
  • Topical Outlines for the Study of Modern English Literature. Boston: Frank Wood, 1892.
  • The Witness of Denial. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1895.
  • The Life of the Spirit in the Modern English Poets. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1895.
  • Socialism and Spiritual Progress: A Speculation. Boston: Church Social Union, 1896.
  • Social Ideals in English Letters. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1898.
  • Christian Simplicity. Boston: Christian Social Union, 1898.
  • Introduction to the Study of English Literature. 1901
  • A Listener in Babel: Being a Series of Imaginary Conversations held at the Close of the Last Century and Reported. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1903.
  • Saint Catherine of Siena as Seen in Her Letters. London: J.M. Dent, 1905; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1905.
  • The Disciple of a Saint, Being the Imaginary Biography of Raniero di Landoccio dei Pagliaresi. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1907.
  • Socialism and Character. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912.
  • English Poems. 1915, a compilation.
  • The Church and the Hour: Reflections of A Socialist Churchwoman. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1917.
  • Social Teachings of the Christian Year: Lectures Delivered at the Cambridge Conference, 1918. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1921.
  • Brother John: A Tale of the First Franciscans. Boston: Little, Brown, and company, 1927.
  • The Franciscan Adventure: A study in the first hundred years of the order of St. Francis of Assisi. London and Toronto: J.M. Dent, 1931; New York: E.P. Dutton, 1931.
  • The Christian Attitude toward Private Property. Milwaukee: Morehouse, 1934.
  • On Journey. London: J.M. Dent and Sons, 1937.
  • The Privilege of Age: Essays Secular and Spiritual. New York: Dutton, 1939.
  • Father Huntington, Founder of the Order of the Holy Cross. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1940.
  • My Quest for Reality. Wellesley: The Author, 1952.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America, Penguin Books Ltd, 1991, pages 23-24

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Scudder, Vida Dutton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION educator, writer, and welfare activist
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Madura, India
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 1954
PLACE OF DEATH Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S.