Charity and Sylvia

‘In Charity and Sylvia, the preternaturally gifted Tillie Walden surpasses herself. She relates this true story of two women living as a couple in early 19th century Vermont with a pitch-perfect blend of modern sensibility and richly textured archival detail. Her irrepressible drawings are crowded with large families in small candlelit houses, the tackle and trim of daily chores, moody landscapes, and shifting weather. As the scenes of life in a New England village unspool, time seems to slow and lengthen to a pre-industrial pace, with plenty of room for contemplation. Charity and Sylvia ply their needles with a patience and dedication that seem almost inconceivable to us today, but Walden s unstinting pen gives them a run for their money.’ - Alison Bechdel, Fun Home. ‘A fascinating and moving story that s told perfectly with compassion, grace, and a beautiful drawing style.’ Chester Brown, Paying For It. ‘Charity and Sylvia is a staggering achievement: a lesbian love story that both moves and enlightens us. Tillie Walden has vividly brought to life the passion, struggles, and everyday realities of two women who in the American semi-wilderness built a life together with hard work, commitment, and joy. Walden’s work like that of Charity and Silvia s is a marriage of art and love.’- Michael Bronski, A Queer History of the United States. ‘A moving historical epic and a story of love, all told in kitchens, bedrooms, sewing parlors. As we ask ourselves how we might survive now, this mostly true love story almost as old as the state, full of what we love about the queer women who lived then, describing how they found their love and how they worked to keep it and each other safe, well, this is not just a book but a rock in a storm, and with answers. Tillie Walden shines as always in portraying the mix of the little sillinesses, serious moments, the humor and affection that held them amid so much of what tried to tear them apart, but taken together what accumulates in the eye and the heart can only be a masterpiece.’ Alexander Chee, How to Write an Autobigraphical Novel

Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. She is the creator of a number of award-winning graphic novels including On a Sunbeam, Spinning, and the Walking Dead’s Clementine Trilogy. She is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont, where she now teaches. She lives with her wife and son.

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