Two women quietly defy convention at the turn of the 19th-century Vermont in Charity & Sylvia, an intricately researched depiction of queer love and early United States life by star cartoonist Tillie Walden (Spinning). Walden draws from sources that include letters and journal entries, family writings, a single silhouette of the pair, and even an adult-size cradle to piece together the partnered life Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake maintained for 44 years.
In February 1807, Sylvia lives a quiet life in Weybridge, Vt., with her sister's large family, helping tend the household and children. Plagued by rumors and cast out by her parents, family friend Charity arrives from Massachusetts and joins the household. Readers follow the two as they grow their tailoring business, secure a home, gain and lose loved ones, and, finally, say good-bye. They reckon with familial, religious, and societal expectations and find tolerance as others grow accustomed to their "friendship."
Charity & Sylvia is painstakingly hand-lettered, with black inks washed in sepia tones and set primarily in grids of 12 panels. A map of historical Weybridge is a charming highlight. Charity was born in 1777 and Sylvia in 1784, and the women grow with the newly formed nation they inhabit. The result is a fascinating slice of life that manages to be completely ordinary, amid extraordinary social, political, and technological developments.
The overall impression is one of deep affection, everyday struggle, and even hope. While same-sex marriage didn't become legal in the U.S. until 164 years after Charity Bryant's death, Charity & Sylvia is a revealing portrait of two women and the love that sustained them for decades. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian