But the pen pals never met until 1940, shortly before Tsvetaeva committed suicide. Marina often dedicated poems to Akhmatova, which the poet carried in her handbag until they fell apart. They admired and read each others' work for many years. Their poems were banned, but are now considered some of the greatest in Russian literature. They were Russian poets who formed a bond before the 1917 Revolution, and witnessed the horrors of Stalinism afterwards. It's not an ordinary friendship when the two people involved meet only once, shortly before one of them dies - but Anna Akhmatova and Marina Tsvetaeva weren't ordinary people. They were firm friends until Stanton died, some 50 years after they'd first met. 'No power in heaven, hell or earth can separate us, for our hearts are eternally wedded together,' Stanton once wrote to Anthony. Anthony, who wasn't married, could travel around the country rallying for their cause, while Stanton, an excellent writer, wrote her speeches for her. Introduced in 1851 by Amelia Bloomer (who gave us women's trousers), Anthony and Stanton were a feminist team made in heaven, campaigning for women's suffrage by playing to each other's strengths. These two were the founders of women's rights in America, and by all accounts were a formidable twosome. Save a queen's life once and she (hopefully) never forgets. But when Mary finally left court in 1579, Elizabeth was apparently still her closest friend. Mary and Elizabeth had a sometimes tempestuous relationship - Mary was a go-between for a potential suitor for Elizabeth's hand in 1559, but the Queen got cold feet, and Mary was left embarrassed and furious. Elizabeth recovered fully and went on to rule for decades, but Mary's face was left scarred forever by the disease, apparently horrifying her husband. But it was Mary who nursed Elizabeth through a deadly battle with smallpox in 1562. How much do you love your friends? Enough to nurse them through a disease that might leave you disfigured for life? Mary Dudley was the sister of Robert Dudley, the handsome favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, and the two served in the Queen's court as her most trusted confidantes. She was an unusual woman - and ahead of her time, and she didn't know it.' Elizabeth I and Mary Dudley 'After that I never had to play a small jazz club again. 'I owe Marilyn Monroe a real debt,' Fitzgerald would say later.

The press turned up in droves to see Monroe, Fitzgerald was a hit, and history was made. Monroe stepped in, and promised that she'd book a table in the front row every night if they gave Fitzgerald the job.

Apparently, Fitzgerald tried to book a gig at the Mocambo in Hollywood in 1955, but the manager was unsure about whether she'd draw the crowds because of segregation and racism. When the great American singer Ella Fitzgerald was asked about her big break, she would always attribute it to an unlikely source: Marilyn Monroe. This International Women's Friendship Month, take the time to learn about these famous lady friends. However, there are some female friendships that we know have changed the course of history. Urgh, ladies and their feelings, am I right? But the narrative of famous women in history tends to follow the do-it-alone pioneers, like Marie Curie or Florence Nightingale, who are seen as having 'no time' for other women. only men were regarded as strong enough to maintain the serene, mostly rational, idealistic friendship with another person.'Д¬omplete nonsense, obviously. They say that 'in the history of patriarchal Western literature, friendship among women was mostly excised, ignored, or cast into a shadow of doubt.

Why don't we know very much about historically important woman-woman friendships? According to Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge in Friendship In The Middle Ages And Early Modern Age,it's a sexism thing. Some of the most studied literary friendships - like the 25-year correspondence of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Higginson, for instance - are between men and women.

We don't know much about the female circles of famous queens like Eleanor of Aquitaine or Cleopatra, and powerful women have often been discussed in terms of their relationships with men, not what they got up to amongst themselves. Famous female friendships, on the other hand, get less attention. If you can demonstrate that two famous men happened to like each other, you're pretty much guaranteed a book deal. Bromance through the ages has been chronicled exhaustively, from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla. When it comes to famous friendships in history, men tend to get all the airtime.

Two worlds female character