Rita Mae Brown

She is considered a significant Southern lesbian feminist poet and author and is associated with the women's liberation movement and women in print movement.

Rita Mae Brown studied at New York University, University of Florida and School of Visual Arts. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is animal rights, LGBTQ rights and lesbian feminism. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are mystery fiction and screenplay. Works named in the authority record are Rubyfruit Jungle, Bingo, Six of One, Loose Lips, Venus Envy and Southern Discomfort.

• Name — Rita Mae Brown • Born — 28 November 1944 • Birthplace — Hanover, Pennsylvania, U.S. • Occupation — * Novelist • poet • screenwriter • activist • Education — University of Florida Broward College New York University (BA) School of Visual Arts Union Institute and University (PhD) • Partners — Fannie Flagg, Martina Navratilova • Movement — LGBT rights, lesbian movement, feminism

Brown was born in 1944 in Hanover, Pennsylvania, to an unmarried teenage mother and her married boyfriend. Brown's birth mother traveled with her cousin, Julia Brown, and Julia's husband Ralph to transport the baby girl from Hanover to Pittsburgh where they left her at an orphanage. Two weeks later, Julia, nicknamed Juts, and Ralph retrieved the infant from the orphanage, and raised her as their own in York, Pennsylvania, and later in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Julia and Ralph Brown were active Republicans in their local party.

Starting in late 1962, Brown attended the University of Florida on a scholarship. In the spring of 1964, the administrators of the racially segregated university expelled her for participating in the civil rights movement. She subsequently enrolled at Broward Community College with the hope of transferring eventually to a more tolerant four-year institution.

Brown hitchhiked to New York City and lived there between 1964 and 1969, sometimes homeless, while attending New York University, where she received a degree in classics and English. In 1968, she received a certificate in cinematography from the New York School of Visual Arts. Brown worked as a photo editor at Sterling Publishing from 1969 to 1970. Brown received a Ph.D. in literature from Union Institute & University in 1976 and holds a doctorate in political science. She was a lecturer in sociology at Federal City College from 1970 to 1971, a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies from 1971 to 1973, and visiting faculty at Goddard College beginning in 1973. Brown wrote for Rat, an alternative bi-weekly that eventually became New York City's first women's liberation newspaper. She also contributed to Come Out!, the gay liberation newspaper in NYC, published by the Gay Liberation Front.

In 1982, Brown wrote a screenplay parodying the slasher genre titled Sleepless Nights; retitled The Slumber Party Massacre, the producers decided to play it seriously, and it was given a limited release theatrically. Brown is featured in the feminist history film She's Beautiful When She's Angry.

Starting in 1973, Brown lived in the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles. In 1978, she moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lived briefly with American actress, author, and screenwriter Fannie Flagg, whom she had met at a Los Angeles party hosted by Marlo Thomas. They later broke up due to, according to Brown, "generational differences", although Flagg and Brown are the same age. In 1979, Brown met and fell in love with tennis champion Martina Navratilova. In 1980, they bought a horse farm in Charlottesville where they lived together until their breakup, over Navratilova's then concern that coming out would hurt her application for U.S. citizenship. Brown still lives on the estate in Charlottesville.

• "Dancing the shout to the true gospel or The song movement sisters don't want me to sing" was included in the 1970 anthology Sisterhood Is Powerful: An Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement, edited by Robin Morgan. • The Hand That Cradles the Rock (1971). B00JACY1TA • Songs to a Handsome Woman (1973). B000MZAK26 • Poems (1987)

• Rubyfruit Jungle (1973) • In Her Day (1976) • A Plain Brown Rapper (June 1976) • Southern Discomfort (1983) • Sudden Death (1984) • High Hearts (1987) • Venus Envy (1994) • Dolley: A Novel of Dolley Madison in Love and War (1995) • Riding Shotgun (1996) • Alma Mater (2002)

• Mrs. Murphy Mysteries The Mrs. Murphy Mysteries include "Sneaky Pie Brown" as a co-author. • Wish You Were Here (1990) • Rest in Pieces (1992) • Murder at Monticello (1994) • Pay Dirt (1995) • Murder, She Meowed (1996) • Murder on the Prowl (1998) • Cat on the Scent (1999) • Pawing Through the Past (2000) • Claws and Effect (2001) • Catch as Cat Can (2002) • The Tail of the Tip-Off (2003) • Whisker of Evil (2004) • Cat's Eyewitness (2005) • Sour Puss (2006) • Puss n' Cahoots (2007) • The Purrfect Murder (2008) • Santa Clawed (2008) • Cat of the Century (2010) • Hiss of Death (2011) • The Big Cat Nap (2012) • Sneaky Pie for President (2012) / — Not a Mrs. Murphy mystery • The Litter of the Law (2013) • Nine Lives to Die (2014) • Tail Gait (2015) • Tall Tail (2016) • A Hiss Before Dying (2017) • Probable Claws (2018) • Whiskers in the Dark (2019) • Furmidable Foes (2020) • Claws for Alarm (2021) • Hiss and Tell (2023) • Feline Fatale (2024) • Sealed With A Hiss(2025) "Sister" Jane Mysteries • Outfoxed (2000) • Hotspur (2002) • Full Cry (2003) • The Hunt Ball (2005) • The Hounds and the Fury (2006) • The Tell-Tale Horse (2007) • Hounded to Death (2008) • Fox Tracks (2012) • Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (2014) • Crazy Like a Fox (2017) • Homeward Hound (2018) • Scarlet Fever (2019) • Out of Hounds (2021) • Thrill of the Hunt (2022) • Lost and Hound (2023) Mags Rogers Mysteries • A Nose for Justice (2010) • Murder Unleashed (2010)

• Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer's Manual (1988). • Rita Will: Memoir of a Literary Rabble-Rouser (1997). • Sneaky Pie's Cookbook For Mystery Lovers (1999). • Animal Magnetism: My Life with Creatures Great and Small (2009).

• I Love Liberty (1982; TV special) • The Slumber Party Massacre (1982; feature film) • The Long Hot Summer (1985; TV movie) • My Two Loves (1986; TV movie) • Me and Rubyfruit (1989; short film interpretation of Rubyfruit Jungle) • Rich Men, Single Women (1990; TV movie) • The Woman Who Loved Elvis (1993; TV movie) • Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997; documentary) • Murder She Purred: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery (1998; TV movie)

Rita Mae Brown is recorded with the occupation autobiographer. Classed in the genre mystery fiction. Classed in the genre screenplay. Recorded as screenwriter, poet, polo player, novelist and autobiographer.

Brown was associated with the women in print movement, which sought to establish autonomous communications networks of feminist publications, presses, and bookstores created by and for women. As part of The Furies Collective, Brown contributed to The Furies, a newspaper with a national circulation from 1972 to 1973. Brown also chose to publish her works through feminist presses. Her first novel, Rubyfruit Jungle, was published by Daughters, Inc. in 1973. Now considered a classic lesbian coming of age novel, it was an immediate success, selling 60,000 copies in two years, primarily through word of mouth. Rubyfruit Jungle had a comical, picaresque style that reviewers compared to Mark Twain. Brown published her second novel, In Her Day, through Daughters and her first poetry collection, The Hand That Cradles the Rock, with Diana Press Publications, another feminist publisher. After the inaugural Women in Print Conference in 1976, Daughters, Inc. began to receive national attention, partly due to the success of Rubyfruit Jungle. Daughters founder June Arnold was a feminist separatist who believed that working with male collaborators and mainstream publishers would taint the cause of the women's liberation movement. However, soon after vowing in The New York Times that she would not sell reprint rights to a traditional publisher, Arnold sold the reprint rights for Rubyfruit Jungle to Bantam Books for $250,000. Brown was in favor of the sale due to the financial stability it provided her. Arnold and Daughters, Inc. were widely criticized in many feminist outlets. Later in her career, Brown published her works with mainstream publishers, including Bantam and Ballantine Books, though she continued to engage with feminist themes across many genres, including historical fiction, mystery, and memoir. She is considered a significant Southern lesbian poet and writer.

• Six of One (1978) • Bingo (1988) • Loose Lips (1999) • The Sand Castle (2008) • Cakewalk (2016)

The University of Virginia holds Brown's papers, which comprise 188 boxes. The collection includes manuscripts of Brown's writings, diaries, correspondence, personal papers, and legal files.