Marlene Wagman-Geller

"As far back as I can remember, it was always on my bucket list, even before the term bucket list was coined,
to be a writer. It was a natural progression to want to go from reading books to writing one."
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Round Midnight (1913)

Round Midnight (1913)
Oct 10, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

 

          While viewing the Palatial Chateau Ferrilres outside Paris, Wilhelm I commented, “Kings couldn’t afford this. It could only belong to a Rothschild!” The anecdote illustrates the wealth of the family whose coffers surpass that of royalty. In a move that shocked her milieu, one of the dynasty’s daughters turned her back on her rarified life seduced by a siren song.

It Tolls For Thee

It Tolls For Thee
Oct 04, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
RANT TIME. Customarily, my Facebook posts concern the women I write about in my books that are on the platform of women’s studies. However, on some occasions, I am prompted to discuss different topics when I feel passionate about a subject. The last time I was moved to do so was the mandate that state run schools in the South were required to post the Ten Commandments on every classroom wall. For those who know me, there is little doubt where I stand on the issue. I will leave a link at the bottom of the page for my blog on the cohabiting of religion and state. This morning another topic sounded my interior alarm bell.

Black and White Gold

Black and White Gold
Oct 03, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

     

(Being a great photojournalist is) “a matter of getting out on a damn limb and sawing it off behind you.” –Lee Miller 

 

Farleys House & Gallery (opened 2006) 

East Sussex, England 

 

 

William Shakespeare in his play As You Like It wrote, “One man in his time plays many parts….” And one woman who played many parts was Lee Miller whose intrepid spirit lives on in her country retreat, a music box that recalls its chatelaine and the era of surrealism is a Sussex setting.   

       

 

Any Thing But

Any Thing But
Sep 30, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Louisa May Alcott

 

“I would rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe.”—Louisa May Alcott

 

Some of America’s greatest authors, Hawthorne, Emerson, and Thoreau, slumber in Sleepy Hollow, a Concord cemetery. A notable grave belongs to the mother of young adult fiction, Louisa May Alcott. If, in Spoon River Anthology fashion, Louisa spoke from the afterlife, her story would involve her family, immortalized in her novel, Little Women.

The Bumblebee (1916?)

The Bumblebee (1916?)
Sep 13, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Pink is the signature color for a number of celebrities: the plastic princess Barbie, the too-cute feline of Hello Kitty fame, the teenaged ladies from Grease. Yet, one lady predated these bright hued females, and her relationship with pink left her rolling in the green.

Beautiful

Beautiful
Sep 12, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Casa Guidi (opened 1995)

Florence, Italy

 

An immortal sonnet begins, “How do I love thee?/Let me count the ways.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s grande amore was her husband, Robert, and their Florence home. To tread the halls of the literary couple, take a gondola ride to Casa Guidi.

                

A Little Footprint (1970)

A Little Footprint (1970)
Sep 06, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
Since the dawn of civilization, there has always existed a bond between man and horse: the ancient Greeks and the centaur, Emperor Caligula and Incitatus, the Confederate Generals and their steeds. A magical connection also exists between a woman and a horse as illustrated by the life of Diane Crump, the first female jockey to compete in the Kentucky Derby. 

Wrong for Women

Wrong for Women
Sep 03, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Wrong for Women

Sarah Orne Jewett

 

“Love isn’t blind; it’s only love that sees.”—Sarah Orne Jewett

 

Sarah Orne Jewett House (opened 1931)

 

Sarah Orne Jewett observed, “We unconsciously catch the tone of every house in which we live.” The quotation rang true for the author, whose ancestral home formed the bedrock of her soul. To catch the author’s tone, travel to the Sarah Orne Jewett House.

Checkmate (1991)

Checkmate (1991)
Sep 01, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
The only piece on a chessboard that symbolizes a woman is the queen-its most powerful player-able to move in any direction. Ironically, females are treated as second-class citizens in the male-dominated game. A blow to sexism arrived when Susan Polgar became the first female grandmaster of chess.

Lily of the North

Lily of  the North
Aug 28, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Lillian Nordica

 

“People have voices equal to mine, plenty have talents equal to mine; but I have worked.”

 —Lillian Nordica  

 

Opera’s heroines storm across the stage, howling anguish born from betrayal, jealousy, vengeance. In a nod to life imitating art, Lillian Nordica’s days were as tempestuous as those of the women she portrayed. To understand the saga of the Yankee diva, peek behind the curtain at the Nordica Homestead Museum.

I Am Unworthy (1910)

I Am Unworthy (1910)
Aug 26, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  In “Starry, Starry Night,” Don McLean’s paean to Vincent van Gogh, McLean sang of the doomed artist, “But I could’ve told you Vincent/This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.”  The lyrics could also describe a woman whose wrinkled visage and shrunken body paved a light in a darkened sky.

An Unexpected Life (1951)

An Unexpected Life (1951)
Aug 23, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
   Sultan Shahrayar, enraged at his first wife’s betrayal, married a virgin each night and had her beheaded in the morning so he would never again be deceived. To escape a similar fate, on her wedding night to the king, Scheherazade wove a fantastical tale that ended with a cliffhanger. A curious Shahrayar thus postponed her execution. After a thousand and one nights, the king fell in love, and they lived a happily ever after. Scheherazade’s stories, The Arabian Nights, included “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp,” “Ali Baba and the Seven Thieves,” the “Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor.” Equally fantastic is the tale of a contemporary Persian princess. 

Nevermore

Nevermore
Aug 11, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

 

Lee Krasner

 

“I don’t feel I sacrificed myself.”—Lee Krasner

 

The Pollock-Krasner House (opened 1988)

 

       A well-known trope postulates, “Behind every great man is a great woman.” History tends to forget these ladies, as great men can be reluctant to provide spousal credit. Ultimately, the artist formerly known as Mrs. Pollock became Lee Krasner. To experience Lee’s paint-bedecked studio, follow the turpentine fumes to The Pollock-Krasner House.

 

Let No Man Drag Me Down (1948)

Let No Man Drag Me Down (1948)
Aug 07, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
One of the most iconoclastic moments in Olympic history occurred in 1936 Berlin where, in a stadium draped with red and black swastika banners, Jesse Owens’ historic victory signified the triumph of sportsmanship over tyranny. Adolph Hitler did not appreciate the African-American, the sharecropper’s son from Alabama, the grandson of slaves, best his Aryan athletes. In contrast to Owens’ immortal chapter, Alice Coachman, the first African-American woman to compete and win a gold medal, became a forgotten footnote in Olympic lore.

A Larger Circle (1977)

A Larger Circle (1977)
Jul 29, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
In Langston Hughes’ poem, a mother tells her son, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” One who could well have related to the metaphor was a woman who had to combat the trifecta of racism, sexism, and homophobia.  Despite the societal handicaps, Pauli Murray became the first African-American woman ordained as an Episcopal minister.

Mother Courage (1920)

Mother Courage (1920)
Jul 24, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

“We are coming down from our pedestals and up from the laundry room.”

       No domestic goddess of today could hold a candle to the 1950s Happy Days sitcom mom, Mrs. Cunningham, whose advice could slay any crisis. She would have been appalled with the 1980s Roseanne Barr who boasted, “As a housewife, I feel that if the kids are still alive when my husband gets home from work, then hey, I’ve done my job.” Bella Abzug was more Roseanne than Mrs. C. as she blazed a fiery trail.

The Contemporary Cleopatra

The Contemporary Cleopatra
Jul 23, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller
  King Farouk presciently proclaimed, “Soon there will be only five Kings-the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts, the King of Diamonds.” His prophecy came to pass, at least in regard to his kingdom that made his consort the last queen of the Nile. 

Worth Fighting For (1934)

Worth Fighting For (1934)
Jul 14, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

“The greatest danger to our future is apathy.”

     From the trenches of France in 1920, Hugh Lofting wrote to his sons about a British physician, John Doolittle. Despite the apathetic-sounding surname, the doctor possessed the most remarkable gift: he could talk to animals. The letters transformed to a beloved children’s classic and inspired one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the twentieth century.

Queen of Sugar Hill

Queen of Sugar Hill
Jul 10, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Eliza Jumel

 

“Vice Queen of the United States” (How Eliza Jumel introduced herself in Paris)

 

Morris- Jumel Mansion (opened 1904)

 

 

            If walls could indeed talk, Manhattan’s ’s oldest remaining home would provide a tantalizing tale. And one would be of Eliza Jumel who defeated Aaron Burr in a duel. To experience the historic house that doubled as a nineteenth-century soap opera, head over to the Morris- Jumel Mansion.

Deeds Not Words

Deeds Not Words
Jul 09, 2024 by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Alice Paul

 

“The thing I think that was the most useful thing I ever did, was having

a part in getting the vote for all the women.”–Alice Paul

 

Alice Paul Institute (Paulsdale) (opened 2002)

 

Which historic figure ended up behind bars several times for acts of civil disobedience and protested through fasting? The answer is not only the dhoti-clad Hindu Mohandas Gandhi; it is also the Victorian-garbed Quaker Alice Paul. To experience the home of the firebrand, make your way to her former farm, Paulsdale.