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Finding aid to the Suzanne C. Gary Papers,
1961-2019
GLC 201
GLC 201
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Table of contents
Title: Suzanne C. Gary Papers
Date (inclusive): 1961-2019
Identifier/Call Number: GLC 201
Creator:
Gary, Suzanne C., 1940-2019
Physical Description:
5.5 Cubic Feet
(5 cartons, 1 document case, 1 oversized folder)
Contributing Institution:
James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415-557-4567
info@sfpl.org
Abstract: Suzanne C. Gary was a poet, a feminist lesbian, and an activist in the second wave of the women's movement in the San Francisco
Bay Area. The Gary Papers include her journals from 1963-2013, her poetry and prose, and her work and notes from the writing
groups, classes and workshops she attended. In addition, there is biographical information, correspondence to and from family,
friends, and her partner Laura Bock, photographs, and ephemera.
Physical Location: The collection is stored onsite.
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English.
The collection is available during San Francisco History Center Hours. Collections that are stored off site should be requested
48 hours in advance.
Copyright is retained by the estate of Suzanne C. Gary. The collection is open for research with the following exceptions:
researchers may not publish or publicly disclose names of, or identifying information about, individuals discussed in her
Journals, boxes 1, 2 and 3, until January 1, 2045.
[Identification of item], Suzanne C. Gary Papers (GLC 201), LGBTQIA Center, San Francisco Public Library.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Laura Bock for the estate of Suzanne C. Gary, July 2021.
Mothertongue Feminist Theater Collective Collection, GLBT Historical Society. https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt9p3029dn/
Laura J. Bock papers, GLBT Historical Society.
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8d221tv/
Lynn Brown Papers, San Francisco Public Library.
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8w95hg2/
Ida V.S.W. Red Papers, San Francisco Public Library.
Livermore Action Group Records, San Francisco Public Library.
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c83b66jt/
Suzanne Cumberworth was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 5, 1940. At the age of seven her family moved to Grosse Pointe,
Michigan, a very well-to-do suburb of Detroit where Jews and people of color were not admitted. This community had a class
hierarchy within itself, for example while her family was welcomed at one country club, they were excluded from the country
club for the wealthiest. Even as a child Suzanne hated the exclusiveness and racism of her neighbors. Suzanne was a tomboy
and played sports with boys on the block which was at odds with her family's expectation that she would be a girly-girl, like
her older sister Carole. Her mother was physically and emotionally abusive and her father did not intervene.
Suzanne became the editor of Grosse Pointe High School's newspaper and was much appreciated by her favorite English teacher.
She wrote: "I have been writing as long as I can remember knowing how to read." At some point during her school years, she
came out to herself as a lesbian.
After high school graduation, Suzanne attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. As a sophomore she married Dennis
Gary, in an effort to escape her family, and dropped out of college to go to Germany for three years when he joined the military.
When they returned to Ann Arbor, Suzanne completed her college degree in English. At the University of Michigan, she studied
with Donald Hall, who later became Poet Laureate of the United States, and she won two Avery Hopwood Poetry Awards. In 1967,
they used the Hopwood prize money to go San Francisco.
After moving to San Francisco, Dennis went to law school and Suzanne went to San Francisco State to become a special education
teacher. Suzanne had known she "liked girls" since childhood and was desperately unhappy trying to be straight in a marriage.
They divorced in 1971 and Suzanne plunged into the lesbian feminist community in the Bay Area. Her prolific writing, both
in journals and in poems, expressed her full range of emotions, the despairs and the excitement in the life and the numerous
classes she was choosing.
She participated in the second wave of the women's movement, attending marches, workshops, classes, non-violent civil disobedience
trainings, adding her voice to the thousands of like-minded women confronting patriarchy. She always maintained that the movement
saved her life, literally. Her political activism included being in the lesbian feminist affinity group within "Livermore
Action" which protested the nuclear plant. She and many others were arrested at the time.
Suzanne's poetry practice included numerous classes, workshops and women's/lesbian writers groups. She studied with renowned
beat poet Diane di Prima, who showcased Suzanne in a reading at Bird and Beckett Bookstore in San Francisco. She presented
her poems to the public throughout her life in numerous readings and performances, on stage, in bookstores, in classrooms,
and on street corners. She was an out and out feminist, lesbian, poet activist. Yet, she was shy about submitting her work
for publication. She self-published two books,
A Stack of Rooms
and
Blood in the Water
.
In 1985 Suzanne wrote: "I was in a car accident which left me partially disabled. The journal I kept and the poems that came
out of this experience helped tremendously in bridging the gap between my old way of experiencing the world and the new."
After this accident she was no longer able to work in the job she loved, as a special ed teacher, in Alameda. She spent months
bed-ridden and in pain, cared for by her dear friends.
In 1998 she met Laura Bock in the Mothertongue Feminist Theater Collective and in 2000 they became lovers and partners. In
2013 they moved to The Redwoods, a senior community in Mill Valley, where happily Suzanne found other excellent poets to write
with, classes to take, and readings to give as a Artist in Residence. Laura and she were partners until the end of her life,
April 2 of 2019.
The collection documents the life and work of poet Suzanne C. Gary. There are materials related to her personal and family
history, her writing and activism with regard to being a lesbian feminist, correspondence, journals from 1963-2013, poems
and prose, publications, poetry exercises from a myriad of workshops and classes. There is also ephemera such as political
buttons.
Arranged into five series: Series 1. Biographical; Series 2. Journals; Series 3. A Writing Practice; Series 4. Poetry and
Prose; and, Series 5. Ephemera.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Bock, Laura, 1945-
Brown, Lynn
Gary, Suzanne C., 1940-2019
Red, Ida VSW
Mothertongue Feminist Theater Collective
Livermore Action Group
Radical feminism.
Lesbian activists -- California -- San Francisco.
Lesbian feminists -- California -- San Francisco.
Avery Hopwood Prize for Poetry.
Second Wave Women's Movement.
Lesbian community -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area
Bay Area lesbian community.
Di Prima, Diane
Hall, Donald, 1928-2018
Women's studies.
Lesbian studies.
Gender studies.
Lesbians -- Poetry.
Lesbian poets.
New Leaf Outreach to Elders
Diaries.
Lesbian journal writing.
Lesbians and their dogs.
Socialist Feminist Political Theory.
Insomniacs.
Scott's Bar.
Lesbian Softball Teams.