Mary Casal, pseudonym: 1864 - Unknown

OutHistory is starting this entry in the hope of engaging the LGBT community and their friends in the detective work of discovering the original name and identity of the woman who wrote her autobiography, The Stone Wall, published in Chicago by Eyncourt Press, in 1930.

Alphabetical List of Research Leads:

Casal, Mary.

Does this name suggest any clues to the author's original name?

Chicago

Why was this book published in Chicago? Did the author live in Chicago, or nearby? Are there any known lesbians of the Chicago area who were born in or around 1864? .

Eyncourt Press

Are there any surviving archives of Eyncourt Press? What more can we learn about this press that might indicate why it was willing to publish a lesbian's autobiography. Who was involved in Eyncourt Press? Where was it in Chicago? Is that address a clue? What other books did they publish, of what other authors?

An advertisement for a book published by Eyncourt Press, Jotham Meeker, Pioneer Printer of Kansas, appears in The Rotarian, a periodical, in August, 1930, page 52, and lists the press's address as 440 South Dearborn.

The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, edited by Ethel Seaton, Anna Carolina Paues, Leslie Nathan Broughton, Mary Sidney Serjeantson, John Horden, vol. 12, and published in 1931, on pages 10-12, lists a number of books published by Eyncourt. Many of these books are about the history of printing and typography and one is by Douglas Crawford McMurtrie.

Stone Wall, The

The autobiography is filled with clues to its author's life. Can someone make a complete, detailed list of these, with the page numbers, so we can refer back to the source?