Alyse Gregory

Alyse Gregory (July 19, 1884 Norwalk, Connecticut, United States – August 27, 1967 Morebath, Devon, England) was an American suffragist and writer.

Her father, James G. Gregory, was a doctor in Norwalk. She showed musical talent at an early age, was sent to Paris, France to receive a musical education when she was fifteen years old, and continued her study of music upon her return to the United States. She was invited by famous concert singer Mrs. Catherine Fiske to return to Paris, live with her, and be trained as a professional singer. She remained in Paris with Mrs Fiske for a year.

She was drawn gradually into public movements because of her interest in social justice. After returning to her home country, she decided to give up her singing ambitions. She became involved in local politics and the woman suffrage movement for which she was a fearless public speaker. Gregory decided to start a grassroots women's suffrage club in Connecticut, as she explains in her autobiography The Day Is Gone (page 100). The first meeting brought together herself and five other women. Gregory went on to become a key leader in the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association through which she directed activities such as meetings, plays, and parades alongside Cromwell native Emily Miller Pierson. She later (page 104, op. cit.) worked as assistant state organizer for the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association during a referendum on woman suffrage in 1915 and was also active for the cause in the State of New York.

After a visit to England during the 1914–18 First World War, she settled in Patchin Place in New York City, where she formed close friendships with a group of young artists and writers. She worked for two years as a copywriter in an advertising agency, which position she left in order to earn her living as a freelance writer. She began contributing articles to such publications as The Freeman, The New Republic and The Dial, becoming Managing Editor of this last journal in February, 1924. Six months later, she married the English writer Llewelyn Powys, and in June 1925, resigned her position with The Dial to accompany her husband to England, where for five years they lived in a coastguard cottage on White Nothe, one of the wildest headlands of the Dorset coast.

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