Ruth Peter Worth Bibliography

Alphabetical bibliography on the life of Ruth Peter Worth

See also:

Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals: Bibliography

AUTHOR? <TO BE ADDED>"Homosexuals in All Their Diversity". New York Times, October 26,, 1996.

Advance report on "In the Life" PBS, TV broadcast October 27, 1996. "The second [profile] goes to Cherry Grove, a largely homosexual community on Fire Island, L.I., to interview Peter Worth, a lesbian who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930's and has been spending as much time as possible on Fire Island since 1946. Now in her 80's, she says simply: 'I like to be surrounded by my own kind. I lived what I thought was a normal life. Credits: Charles Dominic Ignacio, executive in charge of production; Katherine Linton, senior producer; Desireena Almoradie, associate producer; Barbara Raab, writer; Janet Baus and Trish Cosgrove, segment producers; Micky Small, production manager; created by John Scagliotti. Produced by In the Life Media Inc., Ben Prayz, executive director; John Catania, director of communications; Gary Sharfman, membership director; Audrey Mei-Yee Tsui, membership coordinator. Presented by Thirteen/WNET. Fred Noriega is the executive in charge of production.

Brophy, Stephen. "It’s what I’ve always done’ Great moments in music." Bay Windows (Boston). November 4, 1999.

Report on ’In the Life,’ the gay and lesbian newsmagazine, airing Nov. 6 in Springfield/Northampton [Massachusetts], on WGBY-TV 57, at 11:30 pm; on Nov. 7 in Boston, on WGBH-TV 2, at midnight; on Nov. 12 in Boston, on WGBX-TV 44, at 10 pm.

"This latest "In the Life" episode culminates in a reprise of a segment aired several years ago, in which an 81-year-old lesbian named Peter Worth talked with host Katherine Linton about her young life in Germany and Paris, and how she came to America to escape the Nazis and found her paradise on Fire Island. It happened that the summer of her interview, 1996, was the 50th anniversary of her first visit to the famed gay resort, and she had been back every year since. Sadly she died soon after the segment was aired, but her spirit still lives in the irrepressible humor of her eyes, captured for posterity by the "In the Life" video cameras."

City University of New York. Archive? Employee information?

City University of New York. Board of Higher Education Minutes of Proceedings, June 18, 1945, p. 219. [No school name seems to be listed.] Off. of Dean, Sch. of Tech. CUNY policy document lists Ruth Worth's compensation and employment dates.

Dowling, Jack. Has tape made from a film about 1950 or so. There is a shot of a number of people gathered about the Cherry Grove community house in its early stage. Kay Guiness is also in the film. Has polaroids shots from the film: W.H. Auden at the post office and one of Kay for a friend, but not of Peter. She is with a small group standing by the entrance to the building, dark haired and tiny. A still shot could be taken from the footage which must have been 8mm. color film of the time.

French resistance to Nazis. Any data on Worth's involvement with? <Hollibaugh?>

Fry, Varian. "Emergency Committee". Any files listing Ruth Worth and or her mother?

Hollibaugh, Amber. Interviewed by Jonathan Ned Katz, date?.

Hunter College Archives? Worth worked as secretary as Hunter College for many years. Informant Amber Hollibaugh.

"In the Life". 6 minute segment of interview with Ruth Peter Worth. Original interview tapes also available. Michelle Kristel is contact at In the Life. Michelle says original interview is “riveting.” Major source.

In the Life. "My Fair Ladies". Narrated by Cherry Jones. May 2005.

Includes: "Peter Worth. Sometimes the most prolific form of activism is simply living. Having survived Nazi Germany and a Parisian jail, Peter Worth embodied this spirit. At the time of our interview, Peter was eighty-one and, despite her age, her youth shined eternal." Accessed October 16, 2011 from http://www.inthelifetv.org/html/episodes/28.html In the Life: Episode Guide: 107. "My Fair Ladies Women in the LGBT community; Peter Worth; novelist Ann Bannon; poet Audre Lorde; filmmaker Deborah Dickson. May 3, 2005; accessed October 16, 2011 from http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-episodes/in-the-life/?sb=0&si=101

Katz, Jonathan Ned. Worth, Ruth (Peter). Research File. Includes details not published here.

Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. Lambda Update 1998. "Donor Profile: Peter Worth", page <????>.

Includes photo of "Peter Worth in Berlin, 1934. Collection of Esther Newton. Sadly, Worth passed away in 1996. But her spirit lives on with a significant bequest to Lambda, and to SAGE: Senior Action in a Gay Environment."

Newton, Esther. Audio tape interviews with Worth digitized and same interviews typed and scanned. Typed, scanned versions are in NYC. Major source. Copy of audio interviews in Katz Collection.

Newton, Esther. Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town Mentions Ruth Peter Worth numbers of times.<Details to be added>

Newton, Esther. "'Dick(less) Tracy' and the Homecoming Queen: Lesbian Power and Representation in Gay-Male Cherry Grove". In Lewin, Ellen, ed. Inventing Lesbian Cultures in America. Boston: Beacon Press Books, December 31, 1996 (FN#39 References to Peter Worth: pp. 227-228.).

Note 39: "Peter Worth, nearing eighty, was approached by one of Joan's lesbian supporters to bless Joan as Homecoming Queen at the tea, presumably to symbolize continuity between the lesbian generations. Peter declined, explaining it was too drafty at Cherry's and that she's not a 'public person'". I reminded her that Kay, the grandest of all Grove 'lady' lesbians, 'would have loved to do it!'" Peter agreed. 'Kay was the one person who could have done it, but she's no longer with us'". Research provided by Ron J. Van Cleef. Google Books accessed October 16, 2011 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=h3nyAkga8J4C&pg=PA227&lpg=PA227&dq=%22Peter+Worth%22+lesbian&source=bl&ots=3PYv065Irr&sig=5z7yBuvP3p-aSIyEUdhm8iajRgI&hl=en&ei=Pv2aTovIIuOqsQLIqeHcBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Peter%20Worth%22&f=false

Newton, Esther. The "Fun Gay Ladies": Lesbians in Cherry Grove, 1936-1960". In Brett Beemyn, ed. Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (PLACE OF PUB? PUBLISHER? DATE OF PUB?), pages 145-???.

"This essay is dedicated to Peter Worth." Worth cited and quoted on pages 149, 151, 152, 155, 159, 162. Peter Worth, Interview by author, August 29, 1986. Note 21, page 162: "Peter, who is slight and feminine, took her first name (which she used in gay contexts but not at work) to signify that she was gay; for the same reason, as a young woman, she wore a tie." Note 29, page 162: "Peter Worth felt that the putative sanctity of the older women's relationships was overblown." Google Books accessed October 16, 2010 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=j2VVa8NVerIC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=%22Peter+Worth%22+lesbian&source=bl&ots=8SzOzntiQ7&sig=YHLSTNb4Ktt08dV-i8lXa6jhp28&hl=en&ei=te-aTpI_6qyxAqfF3ekE&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Peter%20Worth%22&f=false

Newton, Esther. Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas. Peter Worth cited or quoted on pages 60, 274, 268.

Page 60: "Pater Worth recalled how, at the end of the number, Mary Ronin, 'who had been sitting very primly through the whole thing suddenly opened her legs and she had to cymbals there she clashed together. It brought the house down!' (interview with author)."

Page 268: "One of my informants, Peter Worth, was shocked by reading here the word 'informant' in reference to herself and her friends. I explained that in all my published work on Cherry Grove I intended to use the word 'narrator' for those whom I had interviewed, but in this essay, I was addressing an anthropological audience for whom the historical importance of the word informant recommended its use."

Note 31, page 274: "Peter Worth, nearing eighty, was approached by one of Joan's lesbian supporters to bless Joan as Homecoming Queen at the tea, presumable to symbolize continuity between the lesbian generations. Peter declined, explaining it was too drafty at Cherry's and that she's not a 'public person'". I reminded her that Kay, the grandest of all Grove 'lady' lesbians, 'would have loved to do it!'" Peter agreed. 'Kay was the one person who could have done it, but she's no longer with us'". Google Books, accessed October 16, 2011 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=z5Wh7Qv0PW0C&pg=PA288&lpg=PA288&dq=%22Peter+Worth%22+lesbian&source=bl&ots=ZgncSWsz1m&sig=oNfs8ZfzHQ7bHsaTxVxhfUAM3aw&hl=en&ei=te-aTpI_6qyxAqfF3ekE&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAg#v=snippet&q=%22Peter%20Worth%22&f=false

Newton, Esther. "My Best Informant's Dress: The Erotic Equation in Fieldwork," pp. 212-35 in Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap, eds., Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropolgists.

References to Peter Worth: pages ???

Newton, Esther. "My Best Informant's Dress: The Erotic Equation in Fieldwork," pp. 212-35 in Ellen Lewin, ed., Feminist Anthroplogy.

References to Peter Worth: pages ???

Powers, Ed. Lawyer for Worth. See Katz' Worth Research File.

Raskind, Philis.

Email to Jonathan Ned Katz, October 17, 2011 6:33:07 PM EDT: "In 1991 I became a summer renter in Cherry Grove. I noticed this quiet interesting looking older woman who walked around the community every morning with her little miniature poodle, Cherry. Even tho' I would say hello to her each day she never did more than nod at me. Deciding to make her acquaintance, I knew the way to her heart was through Cherry. I began to carry treats with me and would stop and pet the dog who immediately looked for me on their walks. Finally, Peter started talking to me as well! In 1996 I purchased a lovely home on East Walk, which was shared with the painter Paul Cadmus and his lover and my closest friend, Jon Anderson - closer to where Peter's home was. We became close friends and I remember Peter telling me how attracted she was to Amber. She also told me her first sexual encounter with another woman was on her voyage to America.

I was aware that Peter never wanted to live past the point where she could not care for herself. For most of the years I was acquainted with her she would leave the island to visit her mother who had to be close to or possibly 100 when she died. Peter and I visited with each other during the winter months when we could not get to Fire Island.

One week before she committed suicide, she came to a party at my NY apartment. She said she wasn't feeling well and I told her I would go to her doctor with her.

The next communication I had was a week later when I came home very, very late one evening. Jon Anderson was with me (we had been out seeing cabaret shows) and there was a message from Peter on my answering machine. She said in a frail voice that little Cherry was at such and such kennel and if I did not hear from her in a few days to please take care of her. I knew instantly she had committed suicide. Yet, Jon and I taxied up to her apt. and could not get in. I contacted the local precinct and spoke with a detective telling him what I believe had occurred. Thirty minutes later he called me and asked if I would come up and identify the body. This Jon and I did. Dear little Peter had her hair done, put on her favorite outfit, and was sitting (a bit tilted) on her bed with a pad and pencil in hand and open bottles with what the detective said probably held enough pills to 'kill a horse'. She had her own way! Could she have lived longer, possibly.

Our friends Bobbie Greene and Doreen Rallo who lived one house away from us in the Grove, found a home for Cherry who lived many, many years longer.

So, that is my story about Peter. She certainly enriched my life and those she accepted as her friends.

Email to Jonathan Ned Katz, October 17, 2011 7:30:45 PM EDT: "Peter [when she died] was wearing a pair of beige slacks, a pale blouse and a vest and shoes. She definitely had a sense of how she wanted to be 'seen' at the end. Everything in her apartment was in order. It was all so beautiful and all so very sad. . . . I do know that she

had amassed a great deal of money by the end of her life bequeathing most of it to SAGE. It was wonderful that Amber received the house. It is one of the original houses floated over to the grove in the late 30's early 40's. There are only a few of them left that haven't be renovated."

SAGE Archive? Any material on Worth? Other organization she left money to? LAMBDA?

Seeley, Harold. Cherry Grove Archivist. See Katz File.

Social Security Death Index. Shows that Worth, born 10 Ap 1915, died in NYC 10028 on Feb 7 1997. Birth date is confirmed by documents in Baeck Institute.

U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project). Name: Ruth Peter Worth Court District: New York.

Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Index, 1917-1950. Declarations of Intention, U.S. District Court, Southern Dist. of New York, M1675; Microfilm Serial: M1675; Microfilm Roll: 110.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.... Accessed on October 16, 2011 from http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=USnatindex_awap&rank=1&new=1&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=angs-d&gsfn=Ruth+Peter&gsln=Worth&uidh=t91&pcat=40&fh=0&h=3118505&recoff=5+6+7

Note by Jonathan Ned Katz, October 16, 2011. It was a remarkable act of assertion of a lesbian identity for Worth to list her name on her application for U.S. citizenship as "Ruth Peter Worth".

Van Cleef, Ron. Translations for Jonathan Ned Katz of materials in the Leo Baeck Institution. See Katz' Worth Research File.

In 2009 James Steakley put Jonathan Ned Katz in touch, via email, with Ron Van Cleef, and Van Cleef volunteered to study and translate some of the material in German in the Worth Papers, in the Baeck Institute (see below). Emails between Katz and Van Cleef, starting October 8, 2009. Van Cleef to Katz sending Chronology of Worth's life: November 20, 2009.

Worth, Ruth Peter. Papers and photos. Leo Baeck Institute, New York City. See Katz’s notes on contents.

PHOTOS OF WORTH

One particularly good photo is by Ann Meredith, See Katz's Worth.

Hunter ID photo card

Passport photo.

Photo on French “avidavit” 1941 with name Ruth Karoline Wertheimer.

Most of the photos were in two files, not in any order.

Greeting cards that have Peter Cottontail on them and notes from "Auntie" Peter to young relatives. (Information from Ron Van Cleef, email to Katz of November 20, 2009.

PAPERS FOLDER 1

U.S. Naturalization paper in name of Ruth Peter Worth, Jan 13, 1947, at 617 W. 143 Str.

Avis De Liberation De Camp D’Internement Du Gurs, 21 June 1940

PAPERS FOLDER 2

Meredith Photo in here