Who Gets to Tell a Dead Lesbian's Story

Professor Rachel Hope Cleves, who wrote the 2014 biography of a real 19th-century couple, Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake, demanded licensing from cartoonist Tillie Walden before publishing her graphic novel adaptation. The demand exposes an unexamined question: whether a biographer owns the right to control how a historical subject—especially a silenced one—gets retold.

Cleves wrote 2014 biography; Walden created graphic novel without seeking permission first

Cleves issued open letter demanding adaptation licensing before Walden's publication

Bryant and Drake lived 1790s-1800s; their letters and artifacts were Cleves' primary sources