Indeed, though he still touches upon the fight that helped achieve marriage equality, Lyon says that Windsor “desperately wanted” readers to know about her pioneering work in computers and technology, which was a “core part of her identity” and of which she was enormously proud. But don’t be too hasty: “A Wild and Precious Life” has enough to offer, all by itself. “If you’re looking to read about Edie’s Supreme Court case, put this down…” says co-author Joshua Lyon in his preface. Pondering how to tell him, she immersed herself in Judy Garland “fantasy” musicals, and she planned:

“The idea that anything physically intimate with a girl could happen simply did not exist,” she said.īut eventually, it did, with a tennis partner in college, then with a female roommate she loved before realizing that there was “no other available reality” than to fall into lockstep with other young women of the 1950s, settle down, and marry a nice man.Īt the end, Edie, who’d convinced her husband to adapt the surname “Windsor,” realized that she needed to tell him the truth. Edie always liked boys and as she matured, she bantered with her brother’s friends although she occasionally thought it odd how much she liked watching other girls. She remembered the beginning of World War II, although not in the sense that most did: her recollections were of a houseful of boys, her brother’s friends, laughing and eating and gathering in her parents’ home before going off to war, and mourning when word arrived of those who’d never come home. She admits that she was “spoiled” then, not in a bad way but just enough to give her the confidence and brass a child of the Depression might need.

The youngest child of the family, Edie grew up wanting to be like her big sister, protected by her big brother, and the apple of her parents’ eyes. There was never any doubt that little Edie Schlain was fiercely adored. One thing, though: they’re all watching to see what you do next because, as in the new memoir, “A Wild and Precious Life” by Edie Windsor with Joshua Lyon, someone’s got to be first. Others don’t want to get involved, so they’re sitting this one out.

Some are afraid to be seen, to speak up, or to show up. There’s a long line of people behind you.

A wild and precious life a memoir