Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Papers 1920-2001 LSC.1945
Finding aid prepared by Stacy Wood, 2011; Sabrina Ponce, 2017; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 16 November 2017.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1575
(310) 825-4988
spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Title: Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde papers
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1945
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
2.0 linear feet
(5 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1920-2001
Abstract: Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde were both authors and lovers for over forty years. Their correspondence documents the changing political
landscape of the twentieth century as well as their intellectual development and personal relationships. For most of their
relationship Kent Hyde, a woman, passed as a man. This collections consists mostly of correspondence, but also includes unpublished
novels, poetry, drawings, and interviews.
Physical Location: Stored off-site at SRLF. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button
located on this page.
Creator:
Hyde, Kent
Creator:
Reid, Ruth, 1903-1981
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. All requests to access special collections material must be made in
advance using the request button located on this page.
Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
[Identification of item], Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde Papers (Collection 1945). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young
Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Provenance unknown.
This collection is part of an outreach and collection-building partnership between the
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the
UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the
UCLA Library .
The
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA is an outreach and collection-building partnership between the
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the
UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the
UCLA Library . These collections expand the pool of primary source materials available to researchers and to the community at large. This
partnership was initiated by CSW and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to inventory, organize,
preserve, and digitize more than eighty Mazer collections pertaining to lesbian and feminist activism and writings.
Processed by Stacy Wood, 2011. Description enhanced and further physical processing completed by Sabrina Ponce in 2017.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
6962909
Ruth Reid was born Ruth Hatch in Salem, Massachusetts in 1903. She was born to a conservative family and in her teenage years
left to live with her half brother and his wife in Greenville, South Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina
to study literature. At the University of North Carolina she met a gentleman by the name of Edgar, a German Jewish professor
of philosophy. They were married in 1926 and moved to Hamburg after Edgar secured a teaching position there. Ruth pursued
her PhD but never finished. Edgar left Germany in 1933 as Hitler came to power, but Ruth stayed until 1934 and carried on
an affair with a Jewish doctor named Dena.
Upon returning to the United States, Ruth began attending the Moody Bible Institute in North Carolina, eventually leaving
to work as a missionary with Jewish immigrants in Cincinatti. After leaving missionary service she married a Mr. Reid and
moved to Northern California with him and his sister in the late 1930's in order to take care of them. Shortly afterward she
met Kent Hyde at Berkeley, where Hyde was working as a lab technician and Ruth was reading to blind students for extra money.
Ruth and Kent lived in Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Fairfax, Oakland, and briefly in upstate New York. They had four years alone
together before Kent's mother moved in with them so that they could care for her. According to Ruth, Kent's mother hated Ruth
and refused to acknowledge their relationship as she was a Free Methodist. She lived with Ruth and Kent for fourteen years.
Despite the time period and location in which they lived, Ruth and Kent were not active participants in the gay movement.
Ruth in fact has very few recollections of the time period related to gay activism or issues.
Kent Hyde identified as a communist for a brief time and so followed the activities of Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC). Throughout the 1950's, Kent and Ruth owned and operated a weaving shop called Reid-Hyde Handweaving
in San Francisco doing both piecework and wholesale bulk items. Ruth had learned weaving during her time in Germany and brought
the skills to bear at a time when they were both out of work. Both Ruth and Kent wrote constantly. Kent was a poet, published
as early as the 1920's. Ruth never finished her novel.
In 1951, Kent had her first attack of rheumatoid arthritis, paralyzing her temporarily. She continued to suffer from it until
her death in 1968. Ruth and Kent had been together for twenty nine years.
During Kent's illness in the late 1950's, Ruth began an affair with their close friend Ruth 'Rudy' Babcock, an occurrence
which devastated Kent. Ruth and Rudy found an apartment together and Kent checked into a mental hospital in St. Helena. Upon
her release, she moved in with Ruth and Rudy and shortly thereafter Ruth and Kent moved out again and found an apartment.
The affair ended, but Rudy remained a friend to Ruth until her death in 1981. In her later years, Ruth became involved in
the lesbian community. She worked on her writing in women's writing groups and developed supportive circles in the Berkeley
area. Although her work was never published in its entirety, her autobiography
Dark Birth was published in excerpts in
The Wild Iris,
Gay Old Girls and
In the Life. A version of
Dark Birth, excerpted and with notes from Jacqueline Marie is available under the title
Wife of a Lesbian.
| 1903 | Ruth Reid born, Salem, MA. |
| 1904 | Kent Hyde born, Portland, OR. |
| 1926 | Ruth Reid moves to Hamburg. |
| 1934 | Ruth Reid returns to the United States, attends Moody Bible Institute. |
| 1939 | Kent Hyde and Ruth Reid meet in Berkeley. |
| 1968 | Kent Hyde dies. |
| 1981 | Ruth Reid dies. |
This collection includes the personal papers of three different individuals: Ruth Reid, Kent Hyde and Ruth 'Rudy' Babcock.
Ruth Reid's materials contain her unpublished manuscripts, letters, diary entries, and recordings of her readings and interviews.
Kent Hyde's materials include published work, unpublished work, and letters. Ruth 'Rudy' Babcock's materials include letters,
drawings, and unpublished collaborative work with Ruth Reid. The majority of the materials are photocopies.
Despite the time period and location in which they lived, Ruth and Kent were not active participants in the gay movement.
Ruth in fact has very few recollections of the time period related to gay activism or issues. Included within the collection
is a taped interview from 1981 conducted by the archivists at the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive. In it, Ruth states that Kent
did not particularly like gays. She does recall two incidents in which Kent's presentation drew attention to the couple, one
in which they were confronted by the police and one in which their conservative neighbors had them under police surveillance.
Much of the correspondence within the collection highlights political beliefs and exchanges over a range of topics, but never
explicitly to do with gay and lesbian issues. Their consistent and rich correspondence with friends and family document their
lives in detail including their tastes, opinions, political beliefs, and relationships with others.
This collection is organized in four series, primarily by type, therein chronologically:
- Series 1: Ruth Reid: Works and Manuscripts
- Series 2: Kent Hyde: Works and Manuscripts
- Series 3: Ruth "Rudy" Babcock: Works and Manuscripts
- Series 4: Correspondence
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization
for safe access. To review these audiovisual materials, you must notify the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk
in advance of your visit.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Hyde, Kent -- Archives.
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA.
June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives.
Reid, Ruth, 1903-1981 -- Archives.
Authors, American--20th century--Archives.
Series 1: Ruth Reid: Works and Manuscripts circa 1934-1985
Includes samples of Ruth Reid's published and unpublished work including journal entries, poetry, and two copies of her unfinished
novel
Dark Birth. Also contains a recorded interview with Reid in which she discusses her relationship with Kent Hyde and her writing, among
other topics.
Materials arranged by type and in chronological order therein, with undated materials at the end.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization
for safe access. To review these audiovisual materials, you must notify the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk
in advance of your visit.
Box 1, Folder 1
Box 1, Folder 2
Box 1, Folder 3
Box 1, Folders 4-5
Box 1, Folders 6-7
Box 1, Folder 9
Box 2, Folders 1-2
Box 2, Folder 3
Ruth Reid Interview 1981
Two audio cassettes documenting an interview with Ruth Reid conducted by two unnamed representatives of the June L. Mazer
archive upon the donation of Ruth Reid's materials.
The interview covers much of Reid's time with Hyde including her own sense of gender identity and the realities of "passing."
It also covers her affair with Ruth 'Rudy' Babcock, her excitement about new-found lesbian community in Berkeley, and her
writing.
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
COLLECTION CONTAINS AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: Audiovisual materials in this collection will require assessment and possible digitization
for safe access. To review these audiovisual materials, you must notify the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk
in advance of your visit.
Series 2: Kent Hyde: Works and Manuscripts circa 1926-1974
Box 2, Folder 4
Box 2, Folder 5
Box 2, Folder 6
Box 2, Folder 7
Box 2, Folder 8
Box 2, Folder 9
Box 2, Folder 11
Box 2, Folder 10
Box 2, Folder 12
Series 4: Correspondence circa 1942 - 1975 March 25
Contains photocopies of correspondence to and from Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde (therein addressed as Ruth and Kent) to their family,
friends, and professional acquaintances. These letters document Ruth and Kent's relationship, Ruth's affair with Ruth "Rudy"
Babcock, Kent's illness and death, and other significant events in their lives. Folder titles reflect the familiarity and
affection with which Ruth and Kent addressed their family and friends.
Ruth and Kent wrote simultaneously to several friends, relatives, and professional acquaintances. The first file in this series
consists of such letters interfiled chronologically. Subsequent files are separated by correspondent and arranged chronologically.
Box 3, Folders 1-4
Correspondence: Assorted letters circa 1942 - 1975 March 25
Assorted materials, mostly correspondence to and from Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde and relatives, friends, and professional acquaintances.
Also includes copies of letters between third parties, newspaper articles, a script written for Ruth "Rudy" Babcock and Betty
"Biber," and poems, among other documents. Materials are arranged in chronological order, with undated materials at the end.
Correspondents include friends "Evelyn and Clayton," "Phyllis," "Marie," "Bernice," "Minnie," "Gertrude," "Blanche," "Adelaide,"
and "Toni," (last names unknown) as well as other friends and some business owners. The contents are separated into four folders
as follows:
Folder 1: circa 1942 - 1952 December 8 Folder 2: 1953 January 13 - 1954 December 22 Folder 3: 1955 January 5 - 1959 December
14 Folder 4: 1960 January 28 - 1975 March 25
Box 3, Folder 5
Box 4, Box 3, Folders 6-8, Box 5, Folder 1
Correspondence: Kent and Ruth to Rudy and Biber 1950 January 1 - 1958 March 3
Correspondence between Ruth Reid and Kent Hyde and Ruth 'Rudy' Babcock and Betty 'Biber.' Letters from and to Ruth and Kent
are interfiled in chronological order with undated materials at the end, Rudy and Biber's letters distinguished by cursive
font.
Folder 1: 1950 January 1 - 1956 January 25 Folder 2: 1955 March 31 - 1956 May 14 Folder 3: 1956 May 15 - 1956 December 10
Folder 4: 1956 January 2 - 1956 August 5 (annotations) Folder 5: 1956 August 5 - 1956 October 30 (annotations) Folder 6: 1956
November 4 - 1956 December 29 (annotations) Folder 7: 1957 January 22 - 1957 February 28 Folder 8: 1957 March 1 - 1957 April
30 Folder 9: 1957 May 1 - 1957 December 30 (annotations) Folder 10: 1957 May 1 - 1958 March 3
Box 5, Folder 2
Box 5, Folders 3-4
Box 5, Folders 5-7
Correspondence: Kent and Ruth to Tommy and Paul 1951 January 30 - 1969 July 24
Letters from Ruth and Kent (written mostly by Kent) to friends Tommy and Paul who lived in Germany. Also includes translations
of replies from Paul. The majority of these letters are addressed to either Tommy or Paul and were written concurrently. Correspondence
is in chronological order, with letters to Tommy and Paul interfiled to reflect Ruth and Kent's concurrent correspondence
with each.