these relationships were deeply intellectual; they fostered verbal and physical expressions of love." Certainly, Bates long shared rental housing with various Wellesley faculty members, all of whom thereby economized while earning small salaries. Occasionally, she traveled with her long-time friend, Katharine Coman. And in 1910, when a colleague described "free-flying spinsters" as "fringe on the garment of life", Bates answered: "I always thought the fringe had the best of it. I don't think I mind not being woven in." Bates's and Coman's connection is perhaps destined to be interpreted differently by different readers forever. The facts remain that Coman and Bates met at Wellesley by 1890 when the president of Wellesley College, Alice Freeman Palmer, determined to add women to the college's faculty. Coman served as a history and political economy professor, and founded the Wellesley College Economics Department. During her lifetime, Coman was nearly as well known as Bates. Both colleagues became influential independent women within their fields during their lifetimes; and Bates's work has continued to influence American life and literature to this day. In the days after Coman's death from breast cancer in 1915, Bates wrote a memorial to Coman, which is thought to be the first American narrative about breast cancer. Bates intended that the manuscript be privately circulated among the women's close circle of friends and family, writing on the title page: "For Katharine Coman's family and innermost circle of friends: Not for print nor in any way for general circulation." In 1922, Bates published Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance, a collection of poems she had addressed to Coman while alive or since her death. She dedicated the volume to Coman, referred to her as "my Friend [sic]", and included as a "Prefatory Note" a three-page biography of Coman largely focused on her career as an economist and historian, but written in a tone personal enough to allow a reference to her "vigorous and adventurous personality" and her "undaunted courage" in continuing to work during her final illness. Honors The Bates family home on Falmouth's Main Street is preserved by the Falmouth Historical Society. There is also a street named in her honor, "Katharine Lee Bates Road" in Falmouth. The Shining Sea Bikeway, named in honor of Bates, extends 11 miles from North Falmouth to Woods Hole, passing just a block from the Bates home. A plaque marks the site of the home where