FOR MANY READERS, the story of Anne Lister and Ann Walker is best known from the 2018 HBO series Gentleman Jack, in which Suranne Jones brilliantly portrayed Anne Lister as a formidable, charismatic woman who dressed like a man and lived with her wife as a married couple in the early 19th century. The accuracy of this portrayal is supported by Anne Listers diaries, which run to almost five million words and have been seen as the work of a world-class diarist. Anne Lister was a force to be reckonedwith. But what of Ann Walker, who married Anne Lister in 1834? Walker was portrayed in the series as the rather timid, emotionally labile heiress of a vast estate that was located close to Listers estate, Shibden Hall. When Lister returned to Shibden in 1832 after another heartbreaking end to a romantic relationship in which her lover married a man, she found herself in want of a wifepreferably a wealthy woman who could help finance her lofty plans to improve Shibden and expand her coal mining operation. Anne Lister called on Ann Walker with this goal firmly in mind, but soon began to fall under her sway. Walker was torn between her passion for Lister and her desperate desire to not offend God by doing something wicked. Of course, God ultimately lost out to Lister. Two new volumes under review explore the period of Lister and Walkers marriage from 1834 to 1840, when Lister died at age 49 during their travels in the remote reaches of Russia. She probably succumbed to cholera, one of the prevalent diseases at this time. Rebecca Batleys Ann Walker: The Life and Death of Gentleman JacksWifeseeks to elevate the perception of Walker from the image of a retiring, somewhat unstable weakling to one of an accomplished manager of a large estate who held her own vis-à-vis Anne Lister. This is a somewhat fraught endeavor, as there arent nearly as many reference materials available on Walker as there are on Lister (including that diary). For the most part, Batley makes a convincing case theres much more to Ann Walker than suggested by the Gentleman Jack series. But one is also left with the vague suspicion that much of her thesis is based on speculation rather than fact. A single-volume diary written by Walker and discovered in 2020 has greatly aided research into her life. However, the diary mostly covers her travels with Lister beginning in 1834 and does not extend beyond 1835. In contrast, Listers diaries are very detailed and continuous, so what we know about Walker derives largely from Listers log. For example, we know from Listers diaries that Walker suffered frequently from low moods and a temper that eventually wore Lister down to the point of wishing to be out of the relationship. But were the low moods and bad temper a result of Walkers emotional instability, or were they a reaction to provocations from Lister? The answer wont be found in Lister, who rarely faulted herself, though she memorialized their many quarrels and her increasing impatience with them. In contrast, Walker is more concerned with the details of their travels and the banalities of their lives than with these quarrels or her response to them. Listers diaries also make clear that she helped Walker in many ways with running her estate, though Walker did exert an active hand. She was also busy with running a school that she had founded. Walker had mixed feelings about sharing her money with Lister. Sometimes she was generous and considered Lister to have a husbands interest in her estate; at other times they quarreled when Lister asked for money to run the household. As Good as a Marriage, by Anne Lister scholar Jill Liddington, is an annotated volume of Listers diaries from 1836 to 1838. This period covers the heart of her married life with Walker, which was also a time of great business activity. Her remarkable energy leaped off the screen in Gentleman Jack, which accurately reflected what we find in the diaries. The number of projects she initiated and the financial deals she put together is truly breathtaking. At the same time, the downward The Wife of a Tell-All Diarist titioner, Ludlam, without context or explanation. Even though not everything that is camp, comical, outrageous, transgressive, queer, or gender-switching is Ridiculousthese have all been part of theater in one form or another for centuriesLudlamis too often credited as the primary or sole influence for those aspects of Macs theatrical vocabulary, which becomes reductive. On the other hand, only scant reference is made to director John Vaccaro or playwrights Ronald Tavel and Kenneth Bernard and their Play-House of the Ridiculous, which deeply influenced Ludlam and others and created a style particular to the Play-House that can be recognized in Macs often gender-free signature messy æsthetic. Glitter-covered Play-House performers Jackie Curtis, Ruby-Lynn Reyner, Agosto Machado, and others, as well as the performance art icon Ethel Eichelberger, elements of glam rock, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and even a little Bob Mackie are evoked by Macs solo-performance drag or Machine Dazzles magnificent creations, which appear throughout the book. Despite the oversights, this volume is exciting and right on time. The final chapter contains an instructive conversation between Román and Edgeworth, the editors of this volume, in which they engage in a critical discussion that offers a jumping off point for future scholarship and appreciation of Macs work. ANNE LAUGHLIN ANNWALKER The Life and Death of Gentleman JacksWife by Rebecca Batley Pen and Sword History 240 pages, $34.95 AS GOOD AS A MARRIAGE The Anne Lister Diaries, 183638 by Jill Liddington Manchester Univ. 384 pages, $36.95 Anne Laughlin, a writer based in Chicago, is the author of seven novels, including, most recently, Money Creek. 34 TheG&LR
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