Judith Teixeira (1880–1959): A Bisexual Woman Poet of the Roaring Twenties, by Samantha Pious

A biographical exhibit on Judith Teixeira, the earliest known bisexual woman poet of modern Portugal. Teixeira was the lover of Olga de Moraes Sarmento, the feminist writer and editor who eventually became the life-partner of the pioneering motorist Hélène van Zuylen. In identifying Olga as Judith’s lover, this exhibit confirms that Judith not only felt desire for women; she acted on it. Other items of interest relate to Judith’s childhood and married life. Published originally by OutHistory in February 2026.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Suzanne Stroh, independent scholar, for her invaluable suggestions regarding Olga de Moraes Sarmento, Hélène van Zuylen van Nijevelt van de Haar, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Marie Souvestre. Francesco Rapazzini, journalist and biographer of Elisabeth de Gramont, generously shared a wealth of primary sources on Sacha Ricoÿ. The archivists and librarians at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo and the Biblioteca Nacional kindly helped her navigate their online scheduling systems. Marc Stein, OutHistory's Executive Director, offered several suggestions that strengthened the exhibit, especially the critique in the final section. Zachary Greenberg added a high-resolution copy of one of the few extant photographs of Judith Teixeira to the introduction. Among other colleagues, she is particularly indebted to Cynthia Gensheimer, Ellen Marie Helinka, Earl Jeffrey Richards, and Suzette Robichon, whose thoroughness and care in historical and archival research are guiding lights for this project and beyond.

Disclosure

The author is also the translator of a volume of poems by Judith Teixeira, Cactus Flowers (Sequim, WA: Headmistress Press, 2025), and of selections from the verse of two lesbian writers who were known to Judith: Renée Vivien, A Crown of Violets (2015, revised 2017), and Natalie Clifford Barney, Selected Poems (2025). She receives royalties for all three books.

Permissions

The extracts from materials in the network of the Direcção-Geral do Livro, dos Arquivos e das Bibliotecas (DGLAB) may be published under the Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 4.0 International (Atribuição-CompartilaIgual 4.0 Internacional).