A recently released book brings to light the passionate, lifelong love affair between Rose Cleveland, the sister of President Grover Cleveland, and Evangeline Simpson, a wealthy widow who was known for her humanitarian work with the American Red Cross during the First World War.
According to the NY Daily News: The new book published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, “Precious and Adored, The Love Letters of Rose Cleveland and Evangeline Simpson Whipple, 1890–1918″ contains the captivating correspondence between the two women that started in the late 1800s.
It recreates “the story of one of the most remarkable love relationships between women in American history,” as the LGBTQ history and literature expert Lilian Faderman writes in the foreword.
Rose Cleveland was Grover Cleveland’s youngest sister. She was named First Lady by her brother, who was then a bachelor and needed a hostess for the White House, where she lived in a bedroom on the second floor. Evangeline Simpson had been married to a much older man, Michael Hodge Simpson, who left her a small fortune after he died.
“You are mine, and I am yours, and we are one, and our lives are one henceforth, please God, who can alone separate us. I am bold to say this, to pray & to live to it. Am I too bold, Eve — tell me? … I shall go to bed, Eve — with your letters under my pillow,” Rose once wrote.
MNHS Press editor-in-chief Ann Regan explained that Cleveland began writing to Simpson in 1890, when the two would discuss their passions about helping the world, and their love for each other.
To purchase a copy of the book click here.
