Ada Dwyer Russell

Infobox actor
name = Ada Dwyer Russell
bgcolour = silver


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birthdate = 1863
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deathdate = 1952
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partner = Amy Lowell (1912-1925)
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Ada Dwyer Russell (1863 - 1952), was a Mormon actress of the stage. She performed on stage in Broadway and London.

Russell married, and was widowed, and in 1909 met writer Amy Lowell. The two entered into long-term lesbian relationship, or a "Boston marriage" (the term for a 19th century romantic female relationship) beginning in 1912, which would last until Lowell's death in 1925.citation |title=Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and Gay History from the Puritans to Playland |author=History Project (Boston, Mass.) |year=1998 |publisher=Beacon Press |isbn=0807079499 |page=75] Russell was the subject of many of Lowell's explicit poems, such as the Taxi. Russell was also the executrix of Amy Lowell's will, and burned all her items upon request.

In "The Taxi", Lowell conveys a strong sense of her separation from Russell and her pain. Collected in "Sword Blades" and "Poppy Seed" (published in September 1914), "The Taxi" serves as an excellent example of Amy Lowell's "polyphonic prose", in which she experimented with different "rhythmic units".

Lowell left her fortune in a trust to Ada Russell.citation |url=http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bior3/russ02.html |title=Ada Dwyer Russell |publisher=Matt & Andrej Koymasky |accessdate=2007-07-31]

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