With drawings provided by John Barrymore, Strange published a book in 1921 titled Resurrecting Life. She was already pregnant with their only child, Diana Blanche Barrymore, who was born on March 3, 1921. She continued seeing him for four years and, after divorcing Thomas, she married Barrymore on August 5, 1920. They were introduced by actress Cathleen Nesbitt, Barrymore's leading woman in the 1916 production of the play Justice. Through her social activities, Strange met popular actor John Barrymore. Her interests caused a rift with her husband and they divorced in 1919. Her first collection of poems was published in 1916 under the pen name Michael Strange. Blanche Oelrichs developed a 'literary urge' in 1914 when she began creating works of poetry and theatrical plays. Leonard Moorhead Thomas was a Yale University graduate who had worked in the diplomatic service in Rome and Madrid and served with the United States Army in Europe during World War I, earning the Croix de Guerre.

In 1910 Oelrichs married her first husband, Leonard Moorhead Thomas, the son of a prominent Philadelphia banker, with whom she had two sons, Leonard Jr.

French portrait artist Paul Helleu described Strange as the 'most beautiful woman in America.' Oelrichs was a writer and an involved activist for women's suffrage. Her brother, Charles de Loosey Oelrichs, was the father of Marjorie Oelrichs, who was married to bandleader Eddy Duchin. Her sister Natalie, always known as Lily, married and divorced Heinrich Borwin, Duke of Mecklenburg (son of Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg), after the premature death of her first husband Peter Martin of San Francisco. The family spent summers in Newport, Rhode Island, amidst the Astors, the Vanderbilts, and numerous other wealthy elites of American society during the Gilded Age. Her Austrian mother was the sister of Emilie de Loosey, wife of Theodore Havemeyer. Oelrichs first used the masculine pen name Michael Strange to publish her poetry in order to distance her society reputation from its sometimes erotic content, but it soon became the name under which she presented herself for the remainder of her life.īorn to Charles May Oelrichs and Blanche de Loosey, Blanche Oelrichs was the youngest of four children. Blanche Marie Louise Oelrichs (Octo– November 5, 1950) was an American poet, playwright and theatre actress.

Margaret wise