Eve Adams

Birth Name: Chawa Złoczower
Stage/Professional Name: Eve Adams, Eva Kotchever, Evelyn Addams
Born: 1891
Birthplace: Mława, Congress Poland (then part of the Russian Empire)
Death: 1943 (aged approximately 52)
Place of Death: Auschwitz-Birkenau, German-occupied Poland
Gender Identity: Cisgender Woman
Pronouns: She/Her
Sexual Orientation: Lesbian
Nationality: Polish, later stateless in the U.S.
Ethnicity: Ashkenazi Jewish
Profession: Writer, Publisher, Café Owner, Activist
Years Active: 1910s–1920s
Genres: Radical Journalism, Short Fiction
Known For: Lesbian Love (1925), Eve’s Hangout (1920s lesbian café in NYC)

Overview

Eve Adams was a Polish-Jewish immigrant, anarchist, writer, and early lesbian activist who created one of the first known lesbian gathering spaces in New York City. Operating under her chosen name, Eve Adams defied societal norms and legal repression during the 1920s by publishing queer literature and creating a haven for lesbian women during the Prohibition era. She was targeted by police for her politics and sexuality, imprisoned, deported, and eventually murdered in Auschwitz. Her legacy lives on as a symbol of queer resistance and Jewish feminist defiance.

Early Life and Immigration

Chawa Złoczower was born in 1891 in Mława, then under Russian rule. She immigrated to the United States in 1912, arriving through Ellis Island, and quickly involved herself in radical leftist and anarchist circles. She adopted the name “Eve Adams” as part of crafting a new identity in the U.S.

Radical Circles and Publishing

Adams traveled throughout the U.S., selling radical literature and engaging with prominent anarchists including Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. She was part of the Yiddish and English-speaking anarchist movements, often selling pamphlets and newspapers at union halls, cafés, and meetings. She was particularly known for her work distributing feminist and anti-fascist writings and was regularly surveilled by U.S. authorities for her political affiliations.

In 1925, she self-published Lesbian Love, a collection of short stories believed to be autobiographical and drawn from her experiences as a lesbian woman in New York. The book is now lost, with no known surviving copies, but it was cited as a primary reason for her arrest. The obscenity charges against her reflected the era’s widespread criminalization of queer literature.

Eve’s Hangout

In the mid-1920s, Adams opened a speakeasy-style café at 129 MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village called Eve’s Hangout. A sign reportedly greeted visitors:
“Men are admitted, but not welcome.”
This space became one of the earliest known lesbian gathering spaces in New York City, welcoming queer women, writers, bohemians, and political radicals. Eve’s Hangout operated during the peak of Prohibition, making it both a site of queer resistance and a target for police surveillance.

The café hosted readings, discussions, and gatherings, and it became infamous for its “immoral” clientele in the eyes of city officials. Adams’ outspoken nature and visible defiance of gender and sexual norms made her a particular target for law enforcement.

Police Raid and Deportation

On June 11, 1926, the New York Police Department raided Eve’s Hangout following an undercover sting by officer Margaret Leonard. Leonard posed as a customer and later claimed Adams had shown her a copy of Lesbian Love and made “indecent advances.” This fabricated evidence was used to justify Adams’ arrest.

Adams was charged with disorderly conduct and obscenity. Despite lacking solid evidence, she was convicted and served time at Jefferson Market Women’s Prison. Because she was a foreign national and labeled an “undesirable alien,” she was deported from the United States in December 1927.

Life in Exile and Death

After her deportation, Adams lived in France, primarily in Paris, among other displaced radicals and queer exiles. She faced poverty, isolation, and surveillance during the interwar period, but continued to write and work within leftist and queer circles.

During the Nazi occupation of France, she was arrested in 1943 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. She was murdered shortly after her arrival. Her life and death highlight the compounded persecution faced by queer, Jewish, immigrant, and anarchist individuals under fascist regimes.

Bibliography of Eve Adams (Eva Kotchever)

Books and Pamphlets

Lesbian Love (1925)
Self-published at Eve’s Hangout (her tearoom and salon in Greenwich Village), this work was a collection of short stories exploring lesbian life, love, and desire.
Only one known copy survived and is archived at the New York Public Library’s Berg Collection.

Articles and Contributions

Short contributions to anarchist publications (1910s–1920s)
Possibly contributed letters or commentary under pseudonyms to publications such as Mother Earth or other anarchist-leaning print zines, although attribution is difficult and no confirmed signed pieces exist.

About the Surviving Work

Lesbian Love was banned, and Eve was arrested and deported from the U.S. in 1927 for “obscenity and moral turpitude,” largely for the publication and sale of this book.
The book was largely lost until a copy resurfaced and has since been digitized and occasionally reprinted in queer historical anthologies.

Modern Editions and References

Excerpts or full reproductions of Lesbian Love appear in:
- Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity (ed. Sophie Fuller & Lloyd Whitesell)
- Gay American History by Jonathan Ned Katz
- The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams by Jonathan Ned Katz (2021), which includes extended commentary and translation

Legacy

Eve Adams has been posthumously recognized as an early queer martyr and radical. Her defiant existence at the intersection of lesbian visibility, immigrant identity, Jewish ancestry, and political radicalism remains vital in understanding pre-Stonewall queer history.

In 2021, historian Jonathan Ned Katz published The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams, which drew on newly discovered documents, letters, and archives to reconstruct her life. Katz’s biography reintroduced Adams into LGBTQIA+ public history as a courageous and complex figure.

Her story was also revived in exhibitions, plays, and academic discussions about early queer life in New York, the legacy of anti-immigrant sentiment, and the erasure of lesbian voices in radical history.

Quotes

“Men are admitted, but not welcome.” — Sign at Eve’s Hangout

Jack of All Arts