Ruth Fuller Field

Ruth Fuller Field (June 17, 1864 – February 22, 1935), also known by her pen name Mary Casal, was an American writer known for writing The Stone Wall, the first known autobiography of a lesbian woman in the United States.

Early life and education Ruth White Fuller was born on June 17, 1864, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, into a middle-class family, to Joseph Negus Fuller and Lydia Ann White. Her uncle was the painter George Fuller. She was prone to socialize mainly with boys in Deerfield. As a child, she attended Deerfield Academy, where she met her first girlfriend. She married Frank A. Field on October 12, 1887. and they quickly fell in love. Fuller and Altman were married in a private ceremony in 1894.

Fuller dropped her toy business and ran a school with Altman within their home, working as a commercial artist in the process. Altman later became engaged to "Jack", a gay man, leading Fuller to travel Europe for two years. Fuller and Altman's relationship ended, as well as their friendship, but they continued to correspond with one another. She lived in California until her death in 1935 after living there for 20 years. Fuller died of chronic myocarditis and arteriosclerosis in Tujunga, California, on February 22, 1935.

Fuller's true identity wasn't discovered until 2003, during research carried out by Sherry Ann Darling for her doctoral thesis at Tufts University. The Stone Wall'''s influence Fuller's impact on queer communities created various spaces for acceptance in a time full of strife concerning LGBTQ+ rights. Some stories have linked the autobiography's name to Bonnie's Stone Wall (later the Stonewall Inn) in Greenwich Village, a tearoom which opened the same year the book was released.

Fuller's work inspired other literature, including Barbara Grier's Lesbian Lives: Biographies of Women from the Ladder''.