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Anne Lister (3 April 1791 – 22 September 1840) was an English diarist, famous for revelations for which she was dubbed "the first modern lesbian".
Lister was from a minor landed gentry family at Shibden in Calderdale, West Riding of Yorkshire. She had several lesbian love affairs from her schooldays onwards, often on long trips abroad; muscular and androgynous in appearance, always dressed in black and highly educated, she was later known—generally unkindly—as "Gentleman Jack". Her final significant relationship was with Ann Walker, to whom she was notionally married in Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York, which is now celebrated as the birthplace of lesbian marriage in Britain.
Lister's diaries reveal much about contemporary life in West Yorkshire, including her development of historic Shibden Hall and her interests in medicine, mathematics, landscaping, mining, railways and canals. Many entries were written in code that was not decrypted until long after her death. Containing graphic portrayals of lesbian relationships, these diaries were so frank that they were thought to be a hoax until their authenticity was confirmed.
At the age of seven, Lister was sent to a school in Agnesgate, Ripon, run by a Mrs Hagues and a Mrs Chettle. Between 1801 and 1804, she was educated at home by the Reverend George Skelding, who was the vicar of Market Weighton. Whenever she visited her aunt Anne and Uncle James at Shibden Hall, the Misses Mellin gave her lessons.
While being educated at home, Lister developed an interest in classical literature. In a surviving letter to her aunt from 3 February 1803, the eleven-year-old Lister explains, "My library is my greatest pleasure... The Grecian History had pleased me much."
Lister is described as having a "masculine appearance". One of her lovers, Mariana Lawton ( née Belcombe), was initially ashamed to be seen in public with her because of the comments made on Lister's appearance. She dressed entirely in black (as was normal for gentlemen at the time) and took part in many activities that were not perceived as the norm for women of the time, such as opening and owning a colliery. She was referred to as "Gentleman Jack" in some quarters.
Lawton and Lister were lovers, on and off, for about two decades, including a period during which Lawton was married and to which her husband became resigned.
Lister renovated Shibden Hall quite significantly to her own design. In 1838, she added a Gothic tower to the main house, to serve as her private library. She also had a tunnel dug under the building so the staff could move about without disturbing her.
Throughout her life, Lister had a strong Anglican faith, and she remained a Tory, "interested in defending the privileges of the land-owning aristocracy".
She returned to Paris in 1824 and stayed there until the following year. Returning to Paris with her Aunt Anne in 1826, she resumed an affair with a widow named Maria Barlow whom she had met on her previous visit to the city. She set out from Paris with Barlow in 1827 on a tour of northern Italy and Switzerland, returning to Shibden Hall the following year. In 1828, she travelled extensively in Scotland with Sibella MacLean.
Lister set out for the continent again in 1829. Using Paris as her base, she visited Belgium and Germany before heading south to the Pyrenees where she did some hiking and crossed the border into Spain. While there, she demonstrated both her strong adventurous streak and considerable physical fitness by ascending Monte Perdido (), the third highest peak in the Pyrenees.
Returning to Shibden Hall in 1831, Lister found life with her father and sister Marian so uncomfortable that she left again almost immediately to visit the Netherlands for a short trip with Mariana Lawton. Altogether, between 1826 and 1832, she spent only a short period of time at Shibden Hall, her travels around Britain and Europe allowing her to avoid spending time at home with her family.
She again visited France and Switzerland in 1834, this time for her honeymoon with Ann Walker. Returning with Walker in 1838, she headed south to the Pyrenees and completed the first "official" ascent of the Vignemale (), the highest peak in the French Pyrenees. This required a ten-hour hike to reach the top and another seven hours to descend.
Lister's final and most extensive trip began in June 1839, when she left Shibden Hall accompanied by Walker and two servants; they travelled in their own carriage through France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Russia, arriving in St Petersburg in September and Moscow in October. With a reluctant Walker in tow, she left Moscow in February 1840 in a new Russian carriage and with very warm clothing. They travelled south, along the frozen Volga river, to the Caucasus. Few people from Western Europe had visited this area, let alone West European women, in part because of unrest amongst the local population against the Tsarist regime. At times they needed a military escort, and the two women were a source of great curiosity to the people they visited. As Lister noted in her diary, "The people coming in to look at us as if we were some strange animals such as they had not seen the like before."
In her will, Lister's estate was left to her paternal cousins, but Walker was given a life interest. After being declared to be of "unsound mind", Walker spent time briefly in Terrace House, a private house in Osbaldwick, and then in the London area with her sister and brother-in-law. Walker returned to Shibden Hall in 1845 and moved back to her family's estate in Lightcliffe in 1848. She died in 1854 at her childhood home, Cliff Hill in Lightcliffe, West Yorkshire.
More than 40 years after her death, while reporting on a dispute over the ownership of Shibden Hall, the Leeds Times in 1882 stated, "Miss Lister's masculine singularities of character are still remembered".
The cypher used in her diaries was deciphered by the last inhabitant of Shibden Hall, John Lister (1847–1933) and a friend of his, Arthur Burrell. When the content of the secret passages was revealed, Burrell advised John Lister to burn all the diaries. Lister did not take this advice, but instead continued to hide Anne Lister's diaries behind a panel at Shibden Hall.
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In 2011, Lister's diaries were added to the register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme. The register citation notes that, while a valuable account of the times, it was the "comprehensive and painfully honest account of lesbian life and reflections on her nature, however, which have made these diaries unique. They have shaped and continue to shape the direction of UK Gender Studies and Women's History."
Lister's diaries have been described as part of a "trilogy of early 19th century diaries" by local women, covering the same period from different perspectives, along with those of Caroline Walker from 1812 to 1830, and Holdsworth House from 1817 to 1829. In 2020, Ann Walker's own journal Ann Walker's journal was discovered. Although brief, covering June 1834 to February 1835, it covers a pivotal period that weaves through the corresponding narratives in Lister's diary.
Helena Whitbread published some of the diaries in two volumes (Whitbread|1992}}|1988 and Whitbread|1993}}|1992). Their graphic nature meant at first they were believed by some to be a hoax, but documentary evidence has since established their authenticity. A biography by the British writer Jill Liddington appeared in 1994. In 2014, a conference held at Shibden Hall focused on Lister's life along with gender and sexuality in the 19th century.Anne Lister Conference
A biography by Angela Steidele in the German language was published in 2017, and published in English in 2018. In 2022 Russian researcher Olga Khoroshilova published a book about Lister's final and dramatic journey in Russia. In a 2013 Journal of Lesbian Studies paper, by Chris Roulston, she was described as "the first modern lesbian".
On 31 May 2010, BBC Two broadcast a production based on Lister's life, The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, starring Maxine Peake as Lister. Revealing Anne Lister, a documentary featuring Sue Perkins, was broadcast on the same night on BBC Two.
Chamber folk duo O'Hooley & Tidow included a song about Anne Lister, "Gentleman Jack", on their 2012 album The Fragile.
The 2019 BBC-HBO historical TV drama series Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones as Lister, depicts her life as "the first modern lesbian". The series is billed as "inspired by" two books about Lister by Jill Liddington, Female Fortune and Nature's Domain. Liddington also acted as a consultant for the series. O'Hooley & Tidow's "Gentleman Jack" serves as the series' closing theme music. In 2019 Penguin Books published a companion volume by the series' senior consultant, Anne Choma, which includes newly transcribed and decoded entries from Lister's diaries.
In 2022 a second series of Gentleman Jack aired, first on BBC One between 10 April and 29 May, and then on HBO between 5 April and 13 June. Shortly after the second series ended, a campaign was started to renew the show, which then transformed into an effort to save the show as on 7 July it was announced that Gentleman Jack had been cancelled by HBO.
Emma Donoghue's novel Learned by Heart tells the story of Eliza Raine and Lister from Raine's point of view.
The plaque originally read: "Anne Lister 1791–1840 Gender-nonconforming entrepreneur. Celebrated marital commitment, without legal recognition, to Ann Walker in this church. Easter, 1834". This wording was criticised for not mentioning Lister's sexuality, and in 2019, a replacement plaque was installed which included the wording: "Lesbian and Diarist; took sacrament here to seal her union with Ann Walker".
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