On this day in 1939, author Diana: A Strange Autobiography was published under the pseudonym Diana Fredericks. The memoir was notable for portraying a relationship between two women and giving them a happy ending, something that was unusual in literature at the time.
Diana Fredericks was the pseudonym of Frances Virginia Rummell, a school teacher whose identity as the book’s author remained secret until long after her death.
Rummell studied at the University of Missouri and later at the Sorbonne in Paris. Following a career in teaching, she relocated to California and settled in Beverly Hills, where she worked as a non-fiction educational writer and magazine contributor.
Rummell died in 1969 at the age of 61. It was not until the next century that a television program investigated the true identity of Diana Fredericks. In 2010, the US series The History Detectives examined the 1930s book and traced its origins to Rummell. The program also interviewed her niece, who remembered her aunt as someone who had a big personality.
Fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent was born on this day in 1936
Yves Saint Laurent was one of the most influential fashion designers of the twentieth century. Born in Algeria in 1936, he rose to prominence in France and founded the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house in 1961 with his partner, Pierre Bergé.
Saint Laurent became known for modernising women’s fashion through innovative designs such as the women’s tuxedo suit, known as Le Smoking, which challenged traditional ideas about gender and style.
His long-term personal and professional relationship with Pierre Bergé played a crucial role in the success of his fashion empire. The two men were romantically involved after meeting in 1958 and worked together to build one of the world’s most celebrated luxury brands. Even after their romantic relationship ended, they remained close friends and business partners for the rest of Saint Laurent’s life.
Bergé and Saint Laurent were joined in a civil union a few days before the designer died of a brain tumour in 2008 aged 71. Bergé passed away in 2017 at the age of 86.
