Kickass Women

History is filled with women doing all kinds of kickass stuff.

Smart Girls

Watch these girls... they're going places!

Inspiration

Need a dose of inspiration? Here you go.

SRPS Entertainment

Some of my entertainment recommendations with awesome female characters and stars.

She's Crafty!

Some of the awesome items made by kickass women!

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Happy Birthday Portia de Rossi

I want young people to see me and think you can be feminine and smart and successful, all at the same time.
My sexuality is a part of me that I really like. But it's not the totality of me.
I want to exude strength and intelligence.
People might find me attractive, but it's also my job to prove that I can be intelligent.
When I was anorexic it just seemed like I literally wanted to disappear. And now I would like to reappear.
Life can take so many twists and turns. You can’t ever count yourself out. Even if you’re really afraid at some point, you can’t think that there’s no room for you to grow and do something good with your life.
Most important, in order to find real happiness, you must learn to love yourself for the totality of who you are and not just what you look like.

Happy Birthday Portia!



Monday, January 28, 2013

Happy Birthday Beatrice Tinsley


Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley was born January 27, 1941, in Chester, England. Her father was a minister, and her mother was a cellist and writer. After World War II, her family moved to New Zealand, where she and her sisters attended the all girls district schools. Beatrice showed an early affinity for learning, and did quite well in her studies. She was one of those children who would read the encyclopedia for fun, and dreamed about becoming a scholar some day.

When she was only 14, she announced that she would be an astrophysicist. Her teacher at the time, Joyce Jarold remembered it clearly:
"Beatrice asked me if she could borrow some physics books, 7th form reference books. I was skeptical at first although I knew she was bright. When you teach, you're mostly trying to din something in. Very occasionally you realise that you are dealing with a great mind that is infinitely superior to your own. Beatrice came into that category."
At the age of 16, she received a Junior University Scholarship, and left school to attend Canterbury University College, where she continued to excel -- earning her Bachelors of Science in 1961, and a Masters in Physics in 1963.
She gained an MSc with first class honours in 1961, winning every prize open to her. She did not write for student publications or play sport, although delighting in weekend excursions to Steeds Hut, but she was an outstanding violinist (a member of the National Youth Orchestra) and particularly enjoyed the meetings and discussions of the Socratic Society, or Soc Soc.
(source: NZine
While working on her Masters, she also taught Physics at a local girls high school, as well as offering private instruction for college students. It was at this time she married fellow post-graduate student, Brian Tinsley. When Brian was given a position teaching at the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies (SCAS), in Dallas, Texas, they moved to a small apartment, and Beatrice sought an academic position for herself.

Sadly, the standard practice for universities at the time was to refuse positions for spouses of current faculty. This meant that wherever her husband was able to find a job, she would not. This frustrated her deeply. But, in July of 1964, she was accepted to the University of Texas, Austin, to study for her Ph.D. in Astronomy.
Though some judged Tinsley as a mere Dallas housewife with no experience in astronomy, her top-notch academic record convinced the head of the astronomy department at the University of Texas, Austin, to take a chance on admitting her, even with the added burden of her commuting the 200 miles from Dallas to Austin. 
Initially Tinsley planned to take part in the longstanding cosmological pursuit of deciding whether the universe was open or closed. But as she examined all the servables in this line of work—the diameters of clusters of galaxies, galaxy magnitudes, galaxy sizes—one question kept diverting her: how were the galaxies changing over time? How were they evolving? That information was crucial to finding an answer to the universe’s fate. At that point she chose the problem that became her dissertation: actually simulating the evolution of a galaxy. Setting up a numerical model, she would track its changes in color and brightness over billions of years as the stars within it are born, fiercely radiate, and then inevitably die. It was an ambitious task, as numerical simulations were grueling in this primordial era of computing.
(source: Natural History Magazine
In typical over-achiever fashion, she finished her Ph.D. studies in a remarkable two years. This, while also caring for their first child. Unfortunately, after receiving her degree, she was unable to find a suitable position, again because of the rule against hiring the spouses of faculty. Instead, she had to cobble together her own funding for research from grants and scholarships, and was given a "fictitious" position as a visiting scientist. As a consequence, she did very little actual cosmology study during this time.

In 1971, she landed part-time work for the National Science Foundation, and was able to attend the American Astronomical Society meeting at Amherst. In 1972, she took a leave of absence from her "fictitious" position at the University of Texas, and took her now two children with her to visit the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena to work at Mount Palomar's Hale Observatory. Here, she was inspired by her fellow astrophysicists and dreamed of someday being able to do observation work, once her children were older.

In 1973, she accepted a temporary lectureship at the University of Maryland, which was nearby where Brian was also teach, in Washington, D.C. While her position was not "profitable financially" is was a "great boost professionally." She finally felt like she was "an accepted member of the community of cosmologists and astrophysicists," as had been her life-long dream. "The work is a pleasure to me!"

In 1974, she was awarded the Annie J. Canon award, and was given an all-expenses-paid trip to Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, Cambridge, England. While the travel and experience was invigorating and intellectually stimulating, it was only temporary, and every time she returned to the University of Texas, she was demoralized further. As she wrote in a letter home, her time there:
"...has reduced me to a state of mental anguish. Hard to explain! I am a good scientist, and among my peers treated like a full and respectable person and feel of worth. UTD has kept me at the nearest possible level to nothing and there is no one who knows enough about astronomy to care in the least for my work, Austin has helped, but it is second rate job (underpaid, half-time) at a department much worse than I'm worth. This isn't supposed to be boasting. To be rejected and undervalued intellectually is a gut problem to me and I've lived with it most of the time we've been here, apart from extended visits to Caltech and Maryland and shorter trips and meetings and so on."
(source: RootsWeb
It was during this time that she received Assistant Professorship offers from both Yale and the University of Chicago, as well as a three year teaching position at Cambridge. Still trying to find a position closer to home, she applied to head the Astronomy Department at the University of Texas, Dallas, which she herself had designed and worked so hard for over the previous years since moving to Dallas. Based on the previous treatment she had received, it is probably no real shock to learn that her application was not taken seriously. In fact, she received no reply at all. It wasn't until she attended a faculty party where she cornered the man who was to have reviewed and responded to her application that she learned exactly how little respect they had for her. When pressed, the man said, "I have a letter from you, don't I, that I must answer some time." Beatrice happily replied, "You needn't bother now. I'm choosing between Chicago and Yale!"

In light of her incredible groundbreaking achievements, she effectively had her career shut down due to her gender. It was at this point Beatrice made a decision that I hope will become one that no woman in science ever need make again. She chose between her husband and staying in Texas and continuing her scientific career.

She chose science. She divorced her husband. The least socially acceptable choices she could make. The courage it took to make them can not have been easy.

(source: 
Catherine Q
In 1975, she and Brian divorced, with Brian retaining full custody of the children. This enabled Beatrice to take the position at Yale, and pursue her dreams of true scholarship. She traveled from observatory to observatory, gaining respect from her peers and broadening her personal goals. When Yale created a committee to improve the status of women at the university, Beatrice joined immediately.

In 1978, she was made a full professor at Yale. Tragically, that same year, she discovered a lump on her leg that turned out to be melanoma. She continued to lecture and write while she was treated, but there was little hope for a full recovery. The type of cancer she had carried at best a 50/50 chance of survival.

In the final stages, she was cared for at the Yale Infirmary, where she continued to write. When she lost the function of her right hand, she taught herself to write with her left. Her drive and determination never slowed.  Her final scientific paper, submitted just ten days before her death, in 1981, at the age of 40, was published by the Astrophysical Journal posthumously, without revision. In her short, and often thwarted, career, she accomplished a great deal, and left a legacy of research that is still being felt today.
Before Beatrice began her research, little was known about life cycles of galaxies and the stars within them. She pioneered the study of interacting galaxies and the idea that galaxies change over short timescales compared with age of the Universe, which inspired astronomers to study distant galaxies for clues to galaxy evolution. In particular Beatrice studied how different groups of stars age and what observable effects those changes have on a galaxy. Her work was significant in determining the size of the Universe and its rate of expansion. It was also assumed that galaxies of the same type - spiral, elliptical or lenticular - would be a similar size, shape and luminosity.

By comparing the size and luminosity of distant galaxies to nearby galaxies whose distance was already known, it was thought that an accurate distance could be obtained. But her thesis, "Evolution of Galaxies and its Significance for Cosmology" showed that determining distances based on morphology alone was unreliable. Factors such as the abundances of chemical elements, the mass of the galaxy and the rate of starbirth were all important parameters in determining the distance and age of the galaxy and, by inference, the size and age of the universe. Tinsley's work formed the basis for contemporary studies of galactic evolution. She also contributed to research to find out whether the universe is an open or closed system.

(source: 
She Is An Astronomer
In her honor, the American Astronomical Society established the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize in 1986, to recognize "an outstanding research contribution to astronomy or astrophysics, of an exceptionally creative or innovative character, " and the University of Texas at Austin created the Beatrice M. Tinsley Visiting Professorship in Astronomy. And, fittingly, asteroid 3087 Beatrice Tinsley is named after her as well. The Beatrice Tinsley Institute for New Zealand Astronomy and Astrophysics is a world class research facility, named for her in her home country.
Let me be like Bach, creating fugues,
Till suddenly the pen will move no more.
Let all my themes within - of ancient light,
Of origins and change and human worth-
Let all their melodies still intertwine,
Evolve and merge with ever growing unity,
                         Ever without fading,
                         Ever without a final chord…
                         Till suddenly my mind can hear no more
.


If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please check out my Patreon.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Self-Rescuing Princess of the Week - Brooke Raboutou

I don't know a lot about climbing. I'm terribly afraid of falling, and think it's a great personal achievement to make it halfway up the easy routes at the local climbing wall (but I'm working on going higher!). But I'm pretty sure Brooke Raboutou is as freakin' awesome as she seems in these photos! And she's only 11 years old!



I train mostly in the winter in the indoor climbing gyms. I train with my team three/four days per week. They encourage me and I encourage them. We push each other to climb harder. I also do gymnastics and I think that helps my climbing too.

I just like to climb and have fun with my family, my team, and myself.

I think what I do is more fun than most of the other things I could be doing. My best friends do gymnastics and or climbing.
I look up to my family for a lot of different reasons. Mostly because they are good climbers, like my Mom, who won 4 world cups in a row. My Dad was a French champion and was the first person to onsight an 8b. My brother helps me because he encourages me, and we work together. He is also very very strong. I'm also lucky to have my mom as my coach. Another climber that inspires me is Alex Puccio, because she is so strong.


(Quotes Source: DPMClimbing;  Photo Sources: Team ABC Boulder and DPMClimbing)

If you like the work I do here at Self-Rescuing Princess Society,
please check out my Patreon.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

She's crafty!

Susi over at Just Crafty Enough, show how to make a stegosaurus hoodie towel. Now I want one. But in rainbow, of course.


I am fascinated by Lisa Nilsson's collection of Quilled Paper Anatomical Cross Sections. Made from the gilded edges of old books and Japanese mulberry paper, they are exquisite -- full of detail and texture.
Quilling was first practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks who are said to have made artistic use of the gilded edges of worn out bibles, and later by 18th century ladies who made artistic use of lots of free time. I find quilling exquisitely satisfying for rendering the densely squished and lovely internal landscape of the human body in cross section.

At Gingerbread Snowflakes, Pam talks about the history of Punched Tin Can Frames and shows us how to make our own.
New Mexican tinsmiths plying their trade in the mid 1800's were the ultimate recyclers! Every scrap of tin that came over the Santa Fe Trail by wagon, or later by rail, was reused to create frames and nichos for prints and statues of religious icons. Sconces, candle holders and candelabra needed in pre-electric New Mexico churches and homes were also fashioned from "recycled" tin cans.

Instructables regular Cinnamontwisties uploaded photos and info about the super awesome BatMobile she made for her toddler.
When it was time for the munchkin to get the typical toy car to drive around in (she's 16 months and LOVES her cousin's car) I couldn't have any old toy laying around clashing with my "theme." And besides... why settle with typical store bought when DIY is sooo much better?!

Klari Reis uses petri dishes and reflective epoxy polymer to capture electron microscopic images of cellular reactions.


I am in love with these sweet greeting cards made from woodcuts from celiahart.
The images on this card are from my woodcut, 'The birds' wedding day' inspired by the mistle thrushes that I see in the ancient yew tree right outside my studio window, are the first birds to start to build their nest, just as the first primroses begin to flower and on sunny days a brimstone butterfly flutters by. Valentine's Day, 14th February, in England is traditionally the birds' wedding day.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Today in Herstory - Madeleine Albright becomes the first female U.S. Secretary of State

On January 23, 1997, Madeleine Albright took office as the 64th U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first female to hold that position, and the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government.

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

Not only is she smart, tough, and all-around awesome, she's a total geek!
I've never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.

Happy Birthday Gertrude Elion

Dr. Elion is one of my personal heroines. Besides the fact that her work directly benefits me and people I care about, she was also just a seriously kick-ass scientist!



You can read more about her life and work at the post I made last year:
Self-Rescuing Princess Shout-Out: Gertrude Elion

Today in Herstory - Elizabeth Blackwell receives her M.D.

On January 23, 1848, Elizabeth Blackwell was awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.



You can read more about her remarkable life and work in my three-part series from the 2012 Women's History Month series:
Elizabeth Blackwell - early life and education
Elizabeth Blackwell - medical school, and early career
Elizabeth Blackwell - helping other women
This series has been in the top five posts on this blog since they were first published. I imagine it's because she is such an inspirational figure, these many years later.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Happy Birthday Beatrice Webb

I'd never heard of Beatrice Webb. There are likely several very good reasons for this, first of which is that I'm not well versed in British Economic History. That said, when I came across a link to a biography of her recently, I was immediately interested. Here is a woman who was instrumental in studying and setting economic policy for Great Britain starting in1892 and all through the Victorian and Pre-WWII era, until her death in 1942.
Beatrice’s childhood explains a great deal. The eighth of ten children (nine of whom were daughters), she was born into considerable wealth and enjoyed a highly unconventional upbringing. Beatrice later claimed that her father was the only man she ever knew who genuinely believed that women were superior to men, a view which led him to ensure that all his daughters had rigorous educational training. Lively debate and intellectual curiosity were encouraged, causing great anxiety for Beatrice’s mother whose own prolific child-rearing had curtailed her personal ambitions. Perhaps more realistic about social realities than her husband, she feared the tension between nurturing daughters who were fully-rounded human beings and daughters who would make ‘good wives’.
Influenced by the scientific enquiry that was fashionable at the time, she set about observing and classifying the circumstances of poverty in the hope that this would help her to understand its causes. Working in Lancashire and the East End, she developed observational techniques which led her to conclude that private philanthropy was largely ineffective in the face of poverty on an industrial scale. The poverty she had witnessed in the East End could not be accounted for by individual acts. It was structural and it required a structural response. With these central revelations in mind, Beatrice began to develop a political narrative based on the the need to find ‘municipal means’ for curtailing capitalism’s worst effects.

She married Sidney Webb, and together they worked to expand her research and affect change in the political machinery.
Theirs was an extraordinary partnership. His writing skills complemented her research to produce some of the outstanding political works of their time. Their seminal History of Trade Unionism was widely read within the movement. Along with other works, it promoted the Webbs’ central doctrine of ‘the national minimum’ – the idea that there was a minimum level of wages and of quality of life to which the worker was entitled as a citizen and below which s/he could not, as a citizen, be allowed to fall. It is difficult to overstate the power of this fundamental idea on the policy and actions of the Labour movement in the middle decades of the twentieth century.
Beatrice was nominated to the royal commission on the Poor Laws. The commission took four years to investigate the current state of the Poor Laws and to propose ‘next steps’. Halfway into the four-year investigation, Beatrice resolved to write a separate minority report, which would be ‘a thoroughly Webbian document’.

Whatever you think about her political views, the fact that she was able to not only express them, but to work in such a public capacity is remarkable.
Her rigorous use of factual analysis to underpin socialist argument left its mark on a whole generation of Labour thinkers. The practice of empirical investigation has become central to British political science and sociology in the twentieth century. It is arguably her most enduring legacy. To my mind, Beatrice Webb stands as the earliest and perhaps the greatest example of a woman within the Labour movement who was allowed the space and support to flourish intellectually. The beauty of her ideas continue to tease and challenge us.
(biography source: Kathryn Perera via http://womenshistorymonth.wordpress.com/)

You can read her diaries, which have been digitized via LSE Digital Library

Happy Birthday Helen Hoyt


"At present most of what we know, or think we know, of women has been found out by men, we have yet to hear what woman will tell of herself, and where can she tell more intimately than in poetry?"

SRPS TV Night - Downton Abbey: No Way Back

I've heard a couple of complaints that Season 3 of Downton Abbey is more "soap opera-y" than Seasons 1 and 2. That hasn't really been my experience. If anything, it's the same level of drama, with extra doses of "times are a'changing."

Mayhaps the writers recognize that their viewership is predominantly women interested in seeing the differences and similarities between modern life and life for women in the early-1920s. This week's episode is chock full of slut-shaming, votes for women, and figuring out how to navigate the changing roles of women in public life.

Also, is it just me, or is Mary the least interesting sister this season? I'd much rather see more about Edith and Sybil, and their doings. Mary seems happy to have things stay the same, while Edith is curious about the future, and Sybil has jumped right in.

Edith as Suffragette
I hate to admit it, but I'm starting to like Edith. Remember when she was so nasty and horrid in Season 1? That feels like ages ago. It's not that I feel sorry for her after she was jilted at the alter. In fact, I think that was the right decision for Sir Anthony. It was clear that Edith was looking forward to being his nurse-wife, because she needed a project. No self-respecting man wants to be someone's project-husband.


Now that she seems to be settling into her role of eccentric spinster aunt quite easily -- breakfast with the men, handling arrangements for dinner, and writing letters to the editor regarding female suffrage -- I'm starting to like her more. I hope she continues on this vein. It's kind of like what I had expected for Lady Sybil when she was going to those meetings back in Season 2.

And speaking of Sybil...

Sybil loves a ... Catholic, and a revolutionary
It continues to be a point of pain to Lord Grantham that his youngest daughter married the chauffeur. Not only that, but he turns out to be a revolutionary, involving her in dangerous activities. And she defends him and many of this actions. Although I suspect even she wasn't aware of the depth of his involvement. Her support begins to fade when she learns that he attended meetings planning attacks on Anglo-Irish -- people like her family, people like her.
"You never told me you went to those meetings."
"I never told you I didn't."
"And what else haven't you told me?"

I really wanted to see more of Sybil in this episode. And I really wanted her to have more of an argument with Thomas about his involvement in the Irish rebellion. Although, I'm happy to see her putting her foot down on returning to Ireland. It's clear she truly loves Tom and wants to build a life with him. I just wish we had more time with her this season. In a way, it feels like she's left Downton and they're only going to show her new life in relation to the family. What her life is like outside of the house is a mystery.

The road to ruin
We all knew that the moment Mrs. Crawley learned about Ethel, she was going to try to rescue her.  I cannot imagine how difficult Ethel's life has become since she was turned out. I imagine she's had encounters with people more like Mrs. Bird, than like Mrs. Crawley. It's really not hard to imagine that she was effectively forced into a life of prostitution to feed her son. She's a fallen woman, and as such there is no place for her in proper society.

But Mrs. Hughes, font of kindness, readily agrees to help Mrs. Crawley reach out to Ethel, and even speaks kindly of her in the meeting between Ethel and the Bryants. And, then, when Ethel has kissed her son goodbye, she offers her some words of comfort.

"You've done a hard thing today, Ethel. The hardest thing of all."
"You don't agree, do you?"
"I don't want to make you doubt, now that it's happened."
"You've done the right thing for the boy, Ethel, whatever Mrs. Crawley may say, begging your pardon ma'am."
"Perhaps you're right."
"I am. Until we live in a very different world than this one."
With more scenes like this, Mrs. Hughes is becoming my most favorite character. Her compassion and understanding of the underlying societal forces makes her one of the most compelling characters. She's the voice of reason in the house and the larger community. And she clearly knows that the treatment Ethel is receiving is terribly unfair, but she also knows that it's not in her ability to change it.
"What chance is there for a woman like her? She's taken the road to ruin. There's no way back."
She's not saying that Ethel is beyond saving, but that there's no way society, as it is now, will let her come back. But you can see Mrs. Crawley's wheels turning already. You just know she's going to try and fix this too.

Everyone else
And there's some stuff about Thomas (as my friend Cat's husband says, "We hate him!), and Mrs. O'Brien. And loads about Daisy and the new footman. All that will have to wait for another post, I'm afraid. This nasty cold and my homework are conspiring to keep my blog posts short.

I'll just leave you with this, my favorite Dowager Countess line from this show, when they learn of the burning of the castle in Ireland by revolutionaries:


"That house was hideous."

Monday, January 21, 2013

Shout-Out - MHP: Recognizing the Women in the Civil Rights Movement

I don't watch a lot of television. I certainly don't watch a lot of talk/news shows. So many of them make my head hurt and leave me feeling worse than I felt when I sat down. But Melissa Harris-Perry? She's my heroine. I made it a point to watch every single show. I might not get to watch it live, but I save it and make sure I get to it some time during the week.


In this segment, Melissa sits down with Elizabeth Alexander, Myrlie Evers-William, Joy-Ann Reid, and Wade Henderson and has a in-depth discussion about the women who played an integral role in the civil rights movement. The talk about the well-known names, like Rosa Parks, Septima Clark, Coretta Scott-King, and so many others.

But they also acknowledge the unknown women who walked rather than taking the bus during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the women who went without necessities so they could contribute a hard-earned dollar to the cause, the women who brought food to the meetings and tended the children. Without these women, the movement could not have survived.

Thanks, Melissa! You rock!

Happy Birthday Geena Davis

I don't know about you, but I love love love Geena Davis. I mean, who couldn't love her for all the great women she's been in her movies and televisions shows?

Dottie Hinson, anyone?


President Mackenzie Allen?


But she's not just an actor. She's a mover and shaker as well. Her organization, The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, is working hard to make sure there are better role models in media for children, including better and more roles for girls and women.
We're showing kids a world that is very scantily populated with women and female characters. They should see female characters taking up half the planet, which we do.

The institute not only does important research work, but they have excellent resources for parents and educators, including lesson plans and discussion guides.
When my friends and I would act out movies as kids, we'd play the guys' roles, since they had the most interesting things to do. Decades later, I can hardly believe my sons and daughter are seeing many of the same limited choices in current films. 

Thank you Geena, for all your hard work!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Happy Birthday Jean Stapleton

Best known as Edith Bunker on All in the Family, Jean Stapleton is a wonderful actor.


She won three Emmy's and two Golden Globes for that role, but she's also been in other shows, movies, and stage productions. She even played Eleanor Roosevelt in a television biopic in the early 80s.


Here's a wonderful interview of her from the Archive of American Television. What a remarkable actor!

Happy Birthday Magda Tagliaferro


Having begun her concert career in 1908 at the age of fifteen with the aforementioned recital at the Salle Érard in Paris, not long afterwards Tagliaferro was selected by Fauré to tour with him, performing his works.
In the years preceding World War II Tagliaferro taught at the Paris Conservatoire, but at the outbreak of the war was sent by the French government to New York on a mission of propaganda to promote French music abroad. She gave her debut at Carnegie Hall and continued on to Brazil, remaining there for nine years and founding schools in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Tagliaferro loved to perform and teach, and at the age of eighty-six, she returned to New York and gave a recital that included Schumann’s Carnaval Op. 9. New York Times critic Harold Schonberg wrote, ‘Not since the days of Rachmaninov and Friedman has this listener encountered such a basic understanding of, and feeling for, the composer’s mercurial moods. Everything made musical sense. But more to the point was the colour that Miss Tagliaferro employed: the weighting of chords, the introduction of inner voices when the sections were repeated, the solid bass underpinning in which key harmonies were reinforced… In its improvisatory quality, its infallible rhythm and perfect pacings, it was the essence of Schumann.’ At the age of ninety Tagliaferro was giving concerts in London, Paris and New York, and even in the year of her death when she was ninety-three she was still performing. 
One of the most colourful personalities and pianists of the twentieth century, Tagliaferro wrote in her memoirs, ‘I’m going to offer myself up entire and with humility. My life has all been Love, in the widest sense of the word. Everything I have created within or around me has been created with Love. Which is better? To love or to be loved? Never one to be satisfied, I have always needed both!’

(biography source: Naxos.com)