Mary Eleanor Fitzgerald (March 16, 1877 – March 30, 1955) was an American editor and theatre professional, best known for her association with

Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born Anarchism, anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europ ...

and

Alexander Berkman Alexander Berkman (November 21, 1870June 28, 1936) was a Russian-American anarchist and author. He was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing. Be ...

, and with the

Provincetown Players The Provincetown Players was a collective of artists, people and writers, intellectuals, and amateur theater enthusiasts. Under the leadership of the husband and wife team of George Cram “Jig” Cook and Susan Glaspell from Iowa, the Players p ...

Early life and education

Mary Eleanor "Fitzi" Fitzgerald was born in

Deerfield, Wisconsin Deerfield is a village in Dane County, Wisconsin. The population was 2,540 at the time of the 2020 census. The village is located within the Town of Deerfield. It is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area, and a suburb of Madison ...

and raised in Hancock, Wisconsin, the daughter of James and Ada Fitzgerald. She became a teacher at age 16, and planned to be a missionary before leaving the

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sa ...

. She worked as a bookkeeper and as a booker and publicist at a speaker agency in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

in her twenties.

Career

Fitzgerald moved from

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

with

Ben Reitman __NOTOC__ Ben Lewis Reitman M.D. (1879–1943) was an American anarchist and physician to the poor ("the hobo doctor"). He is best remembered today as one of radical Emma Goldman's lovers. Martin Scorsese's 1972 feature film ''Boxcar Bertha'' is ...

in 1913; the two lived with Emma Goldman. Fitzgerald became assistant editor of ''

Mother Earth Mother Earth may refer to: *The Earth goddess in any of the world's mythologies *Mother goddess *Mother Nature, a common personification of the Earth and its biosphere as the giver and sustainer of life Written media and literature * "Mother Ear ...

'' alongside Goldman. In 1914 she was part of the Union Square rallies against unemployment. She was also a member of

Heterodoxy In religion, heterodoxy (from Ancient Greek: , + , ) means "any opinions or doctrines at variance with an official or orthodox position". ''Heterodoxy'' is also an ecclesiastical jargon term, defined in various ways by different religions and ...

during this time. In 1915 she moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

with Alexander Berkman, and edited '' The Blast'' with him. When Goldman and Berkman were arrested in 1917, it was Fitzgerald who raised their bail. She helped to found the Political Prisoners Amnesty League, and was briefly charged with conspiracy in the events surrounding the Mooney-Billings convictions. She moved into theatrical work in 1918, through her acquaintance with Emma Goldman's niece and fellow Heterodoxy member Stella Cominsky Ballantine. During the 1920s she served in various roles with the

, including as executive director.

Agnes Boulton Agnes Ruby Boulton (September 19, 1893 – November 25, 1968) was a British-born American pulp magazine writer in the 1910s, later the wife of Eugene O'Neill. Life and career Boulton was born Agnes Ruby Boulton in 1893 in London, England, the ...

recalled, " itzgeraldstayed with the Provincetown Players, giving them everything she had--her health, her time, her warm devotion, her life--up to the very end." Theatre historian Stella Hanau remarked, "They were so closely bound together that Fitzi without the Provincetown would have been a different person, and the Provincetown without Fitzi cannot be imagined." Later Fitzgerald worked with the

Dramatic Workshop Dramatic Workshop was the name of a drama and acting school associated with the New School for Social Research in New York City. The German expatriate stage director Erwin Piscator began a long association with the school in 1940. Among the facul ...

at the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...

, and with other productions in New York City.

Personal life

Fitzgerald was a tall woman, with striking red hair. She had romantic relationships with Ben Reitman and Alexander Berkman during her decade of political activism, and had a passionate but brief relationship with opera singer Mischa-Leon before his sudden death in 1924. She lived with fellow activist Pauline Turkel for many years, in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

and later in

Sherman, Connecticut Sherman is the northernmost and least populous town of Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 3,527 at the 2020 census. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region. The town was formed in 1802 from t ...

, where Turkel and Fitzgerald hosted

Hart Crane Harold Hart Crane (July 21, 1899 – April 27, 1932) was an American poet. Inspired by the Romantics and his fellow Modernists, Crane wrote highly stylized poetry, often noted for its complexity. His collection '' White Buildings'' (1926), feat ...

and

Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes ( ; June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel '' Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist lite ...

among their many guests. Eleanor Fitzgerald died from cancer in spring 1955, in Hancock, Wisconsin, at the age of 78. Her papers are at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.M. Eleanor Fitzgerald Papers, 1915-1974, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, UWM Libraries.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Eleanor 1877 births 1955 deaths 20th-century anarchists American anarchists American editors Former Seventh-day Adventists People from Deerfield, Wisconsin People from Hancock, Wisconsin People from Sherman, Connecticut