Elisabeth Marbury - Personal Life

Personal Life

Marbury was born and raised in the affluent and cultured home of one of 19th century New York's oldest and most prominent "society" families. She was reputedly a relation of Anne Hutchinson (née Anne Marbury), the religious liberal who became one of the founders of Rhode Island after her banishment from Massachusetts Bay Colony. Marbury both used and defied these connections during the Victorian era to establish herself as an important literary and theatrical talent agent and theatrical producer, helping to define and create these very professions as they emerged in the new world of mass production, advertising and popular culture in post-Civil War American society.

For many, Marbury remains a bundle of contradictions. Although she was the embodiment of female independence in almost every way, she initially opposed suffrage. She made a bold reversal once women in the United States did receive the right to vote, and in 1918 she became active in the Democratic Party, serving as a delegate. She was also a passionate convert to Roman Catholicism. She was likewise very active in the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic organization. In 1923 she published an autobiography, My Crystal Ball:Reminiscences (NY: Boni and Liveright, ). She had earlier published Manners: A Handbook of Social Customs in 1888.

Marbury never married, but lived openly for more than 20 years with Elsie De Wolfe in what many observers accepted as a lesbian relationship. Marbury died in 1933. Her funeral at St. Patrick's Cathedral was attended by an impressive array of the most important American leaders and dignitaries of the day. De Wolfe was noticeably absent from the funeral, despite the fact that she was the prime beneficiary of Marbury's will.