Clarissa Dixon

Who is Clarissa Dixon?

Clarissa Belknap Dixon was a labor activist, feminist, and bohemian author and poet who lived in Des Moines, Iowa, New York City, Collyer, Kansas, and Menlo Park, California. She married Harry Cowell, a writer and printer, gave birth to their son Henry Cowell at age 45 in 1897, and divorced Harry in 1903. Clarissa Dixon's friendships included the writer Jack London during her time among San Francisco bohemians from the early 1890s until 1916.

Her only published book is Janet and Her Dear Phebe from 1909, which the New York Times characterized as "a very intense sort of a love story in which the lovers are two little girls who are devoted to each other with that fervency known only to feminine childhood." Marion Zimmer Bradley more recently described the book as a

"Girls story of two loving little chums, separated by a misunderstanding between their families, and reunited as women. Though never explicit, the story is emotional and intense. It is highly unlikely the author was quite aware of the type of attachment she was portraying."

In 1914, Clarissa Dixon began a typescript manuscript of biographical details of composer Henry Cowell's early life, which she completed before her death from breast cancer in 1916.