GLR September-October 2023

titioner, Ludlam, without context or explanation. Even though not everything that is camp, comical, outrageous, transgressive, queer, or gender-switching is Ridiculous — these have all been part of theater in one form or another for centuries — Ludlamis too often credited as the primary or sole influence for those as pects of Mac ’ s 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 influ enced Ludlam and others and created a style particular to the Play-House that can be recognized in Mac ’ s often gender-free “ signature messy æsthetic. ” Glitter-covered Play-House per

formers Jackie Curtis, Ruby-Lynn Reyner, Agosto Machado, and others, as well as the performance art icon Ethel Eichel berger, elements of glam rock, The Rocky Horror Picture Show , and even a little Bob Mackie are evoked by Mac ’ s solo-perfor mance drag or Machine Dazzle ’ s 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 jump ing off point for future scholarship and appreciation of Mac ’ s work.

The Wife of a Tell-All Diarist

F OR 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 Lister ’ s diaries, which run to almost five million words and have been seen as the work of a world-class di arist. Anne Lister was a force to be reck onedwith. But what of Ann Walker, who married Anne Lister in 1834? Walker was portrayed

diary). For the most part, Batley makes a convincing case there ’ s 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 be yond 1835. In contrast, Lister ’ s diaries are very detailed and continuous, so what we know about Walker derives largely from Lister ’ s log. For example, we know from Lister ’ s diaries that Walker suffered fre

A NNE L AUGHLIN

ANNWALKER The Life and Death of Gentleman Jack ’ sWife by Rebecca Batley Pen and Sword History 240 pages, $34.95 AS GOOD AS A MARRIAGE The Anne Lister Diaries, 1836 – 38 by Jill Liddington Manchester Univ. 384 pages, $36.95

in the series as the rather timid, emotionally labile heiress of a vast estate that was located close to Lister ’ s estate, Shibden Hall. When Lister returned to Shibden in 1832 after another heart breaking end to a romantic relationship in which her lover married a man, she found herself in want of a wife — preferably a wealthy woman who could help finance her lofty plans to improve Shib den 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 Lis ter and Walker ’ s 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 dis eases at this time. Rebecca Batley ’ s Ann Walker: The Life and Death of Gentleman Jack ’ sWife seeks 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 aren ’ t nearly as many reference ma terials available on Walker as there are on Lister (including that Anne Laughlin, a writer based in Chicago, is the author of seven nov els, including, most recently, Money Creek. 34

quently from low moods and a temper that eventually wore Lis ter down to the point of wishing to be out of the relationship. But were the low moods and bad temper a result of Walker ’ s emotional instability, or were they a reaction to provocations from Lister? The answer won ’ t 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 quar rels or her response to them. Lister ’ s 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 husband ’ s 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 Lid dington, is an annotated volume of Lister ’ s 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 num ber of projects she initiated and the financial deals she put to gether is truly breathtaking. At the same time, the downward

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