Letter from Anita Cornwell to Audre Lorde
Item
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Title
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Letter from Anita Cornwell to Audre Lorde
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Description
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An impassioned letter between women who had a deep friendship. Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992) was an American poet, novelist, memoirist, essayist (IMDb, n.d.). She received a master’s degree in Library Science and worked as a young adult librarian and school librarian in the 1960’s (Cerro Cosco Community College 2025). She also published poetry influenced by her reactions to racism, sexism, and homophobia. She married and had two children. Her first major book of poetry, Coal was published in 1976, and she continued to publish until her death from liver cancer in 1992.
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She was a self-described "Black, lesbian, feminist, socialist, mother, warrior, poet" who dedicated her life and talents to confronting different forms of injustice, as she believed there could be "no hierarchy of oppressions" among "those who share the goals of liberation and a workable future for our children" (Wikipedia contributors 2025).
The Letter's author, a lesbian activist, Anita Cornwell was a Philadelphian and lived well into her late 90s (Brownworth, Victoria A. 2023). She was unsparing in her critiques of heteropatriarchy, white supremacy, and the Jim Crow South (Reyes 2023).
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Contributor
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John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at William Way LGBT Community Center
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Date Created
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1975
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1975-05-03
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Creator
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Cornwell, Anita
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Rights
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http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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Identifier
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Ms. Coll. 127
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Language
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eng
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Format
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Text
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Extent
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1 page
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Spatial Coverage
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Philadelphia, PA
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Is Part Of
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Anita Cornwell personal and literary papers, 1949-2009
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Subject
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Personal correspondence
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Emotions
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Letter Writing
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American literature--African American authors
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Lesbians
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African American women
