Vida D. Scudder

The Church and the Hour: Reflections of a Socialist Churchwoman (Dodo Press) Vida D. Scudder

(Julia) Vida Dutton Scudder (1861-1954) was an educator, writer, and welfare activist in the social gospel movement. She was one of the most prominent lesbian authors of her time. She taught English literature from 1887 at Wellesley College, where she became an associate professor in 1892 and full professor in 1910. She was one of the founders, in 1890, of Denison House in Boston, the third settlement house in the United States. Scudder was its primary administrator from 1893 to 1913. In 1903 she helped organize the Women's Trade Union League. The same year she became director of the Circolo Italo-Americano at Denison House. Moving farther to the left, in 1911 she co-founded the Episcopal Church Socialist League and joined the Socialist Party. Scudder retired from Wellesley in 1927 and received the title of professor emeritus. She became the first dean of the Summer School of Christian Ethics in 1930 at Wellesley. In 1931 she lectured weekly at the New School for Social Research in New York. She published an autobiography, On Journey, in London in 1937.