Gertrude Breslau Hunt (December 10, 1869 – November 20, 1952) was an American writer and lecturer from Chicago. One of the leading writers for the

Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...

, she often wrote about women's issues, and was active in the

suffrage movement Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. She also published under the name Gertrude Breslau Fuller.

Early life

Gertrude Breslau was born in Chicago on December 10, 1869. Her father, a war artist named James Cushman Breslau, died when she was an infant, and she was adopted by Henry H. Kaiser and Diadma (Best) Kaiser of

Howard County, Iowa Howard County is a county located in the US state of Iowa. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,469. The county seat is Cresco. The county was founded in 1851; it was named for General Tilghman Ashurst Howard, a Representative of India ...

. She became a socialist at the age of 16 after studying the

single tax A single tax is a system of taxation based mainly or exclusively on one tax, typically chosen for its special properties, often being a tax on land value. The idea of a single tax on land values was proposed independently by John Locke and Bar ...

question and the

temperance movement The temperance movement is a social movement promoting temperance or complete abstinence from consumption of alcoholic beverages. Participants in the movement typically criticize alcohol intoxication or promote teetotalism, and its leaders emph ...

in Iowa.

Career

By 1902, she was writing for socialist periodicals and had earned a reputation as "one of the ablest women in the Socialist movement of Illinois." By 1907 she was a national organizer for the Socialist party. She was often described by her contemporaries as a brilliant lecturer, and was involved in the

Lyceum movement The lyceum movement in the United States refers to a loose collection of adult education programs named for the classical Lyceum which flourished in the mid-19th century, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest. Some of these organizations ...

. She published ''An Easy Wheel and Other Stories'', a work of journalistic fiction depicting working-class and rural life, in 1910. Soon afterwards she moved to Pittsburgh, where she lived the rest of her life. In 1911, she was instrumental in obtaining the release of Fred Merrick, editor of ''Justice'' magazine, who had been jailed for libel after exposing brutal treatment of prisoners in the

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in Pennsylvania. The following year, she was a delegate from Pennsylvania to the 1912 Convention of the Socialist Party of America. In 1915, addressing the crowd at a suffrage rally in Pittsburgh, she argued for women's suffrage as a means of achieving

equal pay Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the full ...

: She later joined the

Democratic party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

and became the state Democratic vice-chairman. In her obituary she is remembered as a "pioneer leader in the Democratic Party in Pittsburgh and the State." She was assistant director of the

State Museum of Pennsylvania The State Museum of Pennsylvania is a non-profit museum at 300 North Street in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. It is run by the state through the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and was created to preserve and interpret the region ...

during Governor

George H. Earle George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ...

's administration in the late 1930s. In 1940, she was living in Pittsburgh and still giving political speeches.

Personal life

Breslau married several times: to a Mr. Davies in 1900, to Mr. Hunt in 1901, to Mr. Paul Deininger—a former Roman Catholic priest—in 1910, and sometime later to a Mr. Fuller. She died of a stroke in the Leech Farm Hospital in Pittsburgh on November 20, 1952.

Selected writings

* * * * * * * * Poem:

References

External links

*
Full text of ''An Easy Wheel and Other Stories''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Gertrude Breslau 1869 births 1952 deaths American socialists 20th-century American educators 20th-century American women educators 20th-century American writers 20th-century American women writers Writers from Chicago Writers from Pittsburgh Educators from Pennsylvania Educators from Illinois American socialist feminists