Tillie Walden in conversation with Dan Nott -- Charity and Sylvia

Join Vermont cartoonist Tillie Walden as she launches her latest graphic novel Charity and Sylvia! Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake lived openly as a lesbian couple for 44 years in 19th century Vermont. The true, exceptional story of these remarkable women is brought to life with humor and passion by Walden. See America grow alongside these women over a period that brings about the railroad, many novels, 14 Presidents, riots, rebellion, plagues, and poetry. Walden’s graphic novelization of their shared life has already been selected by Vermont Humanities as part of their statewide reading program, Vermont Reads.An openly Lesbian couple survives and thrives in 19th century Vermont–a true story, as told by Tillie Walden. The month is February in the year 1807. The place is Weybridge, Vermont: small, cold, lonely, and beautiful. Sylvia Drake is exhausted. As an unwed woman with few prospects, she is residing with and caring for her sister’s rambunctious family. Today the house is abuzz awaiting a guest—Charity Bryant. A friend of the family, she is most known for her elegant letters, with their swoopy and evocative penmanship and carefully chosen prose. But Charity’s visit is a guise, she is coming to Vermont to start over after heartbreak and rumours—so many rumours—that have grown too loud back in Massachusetts.
Being openly gay in 19th century New England is not an easy row to hoe. But Charity can only be herself, and she immediately catches—and holds—the eye of none other than Sylvia Drake. From this point on, for 44 years, the two would be inseparable, building a life together despite all odds and living as a lesbian couple in small town Vermont.
The true, exceptional story of these remarkable women is brought to life with humor and passion by the unparalleled and award-winning Tillie Walden (Spinning, On A Sunbeam). We see America grow alongside these women over a period that brings about the railroad, many novels, 14 Presidents, riots, rebellion, plagues, and poetry. Based on extensive archives of their writing, Charity and Sylvia is a groundbreaking biography that is also the story of 19th century America.
Tillie Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator from Austin, Texas. She is the creator of a number of award-winning graphic novels including On a Sunbeam, Spinning, and the Walking Dead’s Clementine Trilogy. She is a graduate of the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont where she now teaches and lives with her wife and son.

Dan Nott an artist, cartoonist, and educator living in Vermont. Dan holds an MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies, where he now teaches a graduate-level course on comics history, theory and communities called Survey of the Drawn Story. Dan co-runs Parsifal Press, a micro press for independent comics and special objects, with his partner, Daryl Seitchik.