Grace O’Malley had plundered, married, remarried, defeated men, acted as chieftain of a clan, supposedly hidden nine tons of accumulated treasure, and was still raiding at the age of seventy in an era when many women didn’t live to see forty as housewives

She wasn’t about to change, thanks. It was her United States, too.

They laid chocolates and ceramics on the table, bright folded holiday cards scrawled with gratitude. You changed my life forever. This was the high point, the moment that made everything worthwhile. Why would she ever, ever consider a different line of work?

The less that women are visible as a research subject, the less we are likely to learn about lesbians.