Lesbian

“ They make with men varied flinty friendships, but to each other they are friends, lovers, victims, preyers, masters, slaves: the flawed fruits of one oblique sex-inherence.
Except two breeds—the stupid and the narrowly feline—all women have a touch of the Lesbian: an assertion all good non-analytic creatures refute with horror, but quite true: there is always the poignant intensive personal taste, the flair of inner-sex, in the tenderest friendships of women. ”

“ The Lesbian sex-strain as an effect is reckoned a prenatal influence—and, as I conceive, it comes also of conglomerate incarnations and their reactions and flare-backs. Of some thus bestowed it makes strange hard highly emotional indefinably vicious women, turbulent and brilliant of mind, mystically overborne, overwrought of heart. They are marvels of perverse barbaric energy. ”

“ The 'great and beautiful soul' could only be found in the male form—women belonged to the animal sphere and could contribute only to the sensual pleasure of man."
As the women were neglected by the men, the former tended to engage in erotic practices among members of their own sex. In the island of Lesbos, the women were especially given to indulging in the love of their own sex—from which historic precedent we get the term Lesbian Love. ”

“ Well, by what I have heard say, there be in many regions and lands plenty of such dames and Lesbian devotees,—in France, in Italy, in Spain, Turkey, Greece and other places. And wherever the women are kept secluded, and have not their entire liberty, this practice doth greatly prevail. ”

“ Whether because of disgust, confusion, or ignorance about homosexuality, lesbian and gay sexuality dominates the discourse of not only same-sex adoption, but all lesbian and gay issues. The classification of lesbians and gays as ‘exclusively sexual beings’ stands in stark contrast to the perception of heterosexual parents as ‘people who, along with many other activities in their lives, occasionally engage in sex.’ Through this narrative, lesbians and gays are reduced to one-dimensional creatures, defined by their sex and sexuality. ”

“ The plus indicates good of kind, not intrinsic merit. An interesting story of a lesbian triangle—Chris, Dizz, and young Carol. One reader commented that this story was a sort of lesbian dreamworld—these women seemed to live in a society, and a world, completely unmixed with ordinary life at all. Certainly they are all treated as quite the ordinary thing, and there are almost no hints that there is a heterosexual world outside the gay one, which must be taken into account. Certainly it makes no incursions into the novel. ”

“ A lesbian youth is an adolescent female who self-identifies as a person who has sexual tendencies, overtures, and attraction toward other females and women. [10] A gay youth is an adolescent male who categorizes himself as a person who has sexual tendencies, overtures, and attraction toward other males and men. ”

“ An encyclopedia of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer culture, including entries on persons, organizations, cultural identities, places, terms, media, popular culture, literature, film, theater, theory, and sexual practices. Each entry concludes with a selected bibliography. The two volumes share a common introduction and treat some of the same topics but are separated to ensure “that both histories receive full and unbiased attention.” Lesbian Histories includes a valuable entry on bibliographies and reference works; Gay Histories, unfortunately, does not. ”

“ As to “sexual orientation”, I adopt the following definition put forward by Cameron:
“... sexual orientation is defined by reference to erotic attraction: in the case of heterosexuals, to members of the opposite sex; in the case of gays and lesbians, to members of the same sex. Potentially a homosexual or gay or lesbian person can therefore be anyone who is erotically attracted to members of his or her own sex.” ”

“ The Lesbian ladies applied themselves successfully to literature. They formed clubs for the cultivation of poetry and music. They studied the arts of beauty, and sought to refine metrical forms and diction. Nor did they confine themselves to the scientific side of art. Unrestrained by public opinion, and passionate for the beautiful, they cultivated their senses and emotions, and indulged their wildest passions. All the luxuries and elegances of life which that climate and the rich valleys of Lesbos could afford were at their disposal ”

“ Chevalier says that the kind of meretrices who exploit women may be met with in all streets and boulevards of Paris, in the theatres and at balls, at the races and exhibitions of every kind. The little girls, between the ages of ten and fifteen, who may be seen selling flowers in the restaurants and cafés of Paris, are also, to a large extent, in the service of lesbianism. ”

“ A man makes the most important decision of his life on the rebound of disillusion after discovering that a woman who risked her life to save him is a lesbian.
+ KRAMER, N. MARTIN (pseud. of Beatrice Ann Wright) . Hearth and The Strangeness. Macmillan 1956, pbr Pyramid 1957. An excellent novel of the fear of inherited insanity in a family. The youngest child, Aliciane, becomes a lesbian; this is one of the few realistic and unromanticized portraits of the factors in the development of homosexuality from childhood. ”

“ In the ornamental trades and callings, such as dressmakers, milliners, dealers in fine underwear and hosiery, costume-designers and so on, the Uraniad has a large field. Here she can come unsuspected into intimate bodily contact with beautiful women. Jeune filles appétissantes innocently can titillate daily her sexualism. Professional acquaintances second it. The professions of mantua-making, millinery, corset-ateliers and so on are recognized as screens for the Lesbian bawd in many great cities, especially Paris. ”

“ So Lucian saith: such is the character of the Lesbian women, which will not suffer men at all. Now such women as love this practice will not suffer men, but devote themselves to other women and are called tribads, a Greek word derived, as I have learned of the Greeks, from τρίδω, τρίδειν, that is to say fricare. ”

“ From my experience of the Parisian prostitute, I gather that Lesbianism in Paris is extremely prevalent; indeed, one might almost say normal. In particular, most of the chahut-dancers of the Moulin-Rouge, Casino de Paris, and the other public balls are notorious for going in couples, and, for the most part, they prefer not to be separated, even in their most professional moments with the other sex. ”

“ The blurb reads “Life and love among warped women”, but don’t let it scare you. This is one of the better and more serious approaches to the writing of a serious novel of lesbians through the stereotyped pattern of the paperback novel. The basic plot concerns Anne, and her experiences in trying to find out for herself, the hard way, whether she is a lesbian or whether she can successfully adjust to life as a normal woman. The story ends with the surprising, but growingly popular affirmation that “adjustment” is not always to be desired at all costs. ”

“ London, C W Daniel, 1918. Lesbian incidents in a novel which is, however, mainly about persecution of Conscientious Objectors in World War I.
FISHER, MARY (PARRISH) . Not Now but NOW. Viking 1947. Novel of an ageless, ruthless woman. A long episode on a college campus is lesbian in emphasis. ”

“ Here, in a single volume, it has been our intention to list, document and review every novel dealing, however slightly, with female variance, lesbianism or intense emotional relationships between women. We have also included a majority of the better known novels which, dealing primarily with male homosexuality, are of interest to the collector of variant fiction in general. ”

“ No one knows how many lesbians there are, because the female—or is it male—of the pervert species is seldom spoken about and is much less obvious. Psychiatrists and sociologists who have made a study of the problem in Washington think there are at least twice as many Sapphic lovers as fairies. A large incidence of lesbianism is concomitant with the shortage of men, where women work together, live together, play together, so love together. ”

“ The fact is that the English girl, especially of the lower and middle classes, whether she has lost her virtue or not, is extremely fettered by conventional notions. Ignorance and habit are two restraining influences from the carrying out of this particular kind of perversion to its logical conclusions. It is, therefore, among the upper ranks, alike of society and of prostitution, that Lesbianism is most definitely to be met with, for here we have much greater liberty of action, and much greater freedom from prejudices. ”

“ Brief recall of a lesbian episode in the heroine’s girlhood.
FORTUNE, DION. (pseud. of Violet B. Firth) . Moon Magic. London, Aquarian Press, 1958, fco. Fascinating, funny novel of a modern sorceress and an inhibited, bad-tempered doctor. It is implied that his marriage failed because his wife, a hysteric shamming invalidism, prefers being cosseted by her faithful companion to reassuming marital duties.
FOSTER, GERALD. Strange Marriage. N. Y., Godwin 1943. Transvestite, rather than lesbian; heroine in man’s clothing actually marries a fantastically naive girl.
FOWLER, ELLEN T. The Farringdons. ”

“ He sung,—the notes at first were low,
Like the whispers of love, or the breathings of woe:
The waters were hushed, and the winds were stay'd,
As he sang his farewell to his Lesbian maid! ”

“ Very well-written novel of Paula Harman, young school-teacher coming to terms with her life as a lesbian through bitter experience. Don’t let the lurid paperback covers and blurb scare you off, this is a NOVEL—well worth hard covers and a steal at 35¢.
BROCK, LILYAN. Queer Patterns. Greenberg 1935, pbr Avon 1951, 1952. Purple-patched sloppily sentimental tale of Sheila, beautiful young actress with a perfect husband who nevertheless loses her heart to Nicoli, a stereotype lesbian complete with tuxedo. They part to avoid gossip and live unhappily ever after. ”

“ Weird novel of a girl’s mental breakdown, indirectly blamed on her affairs with three cruel and sadistic women.
24
Take me Home. Monarch Books, pbo 1959. A young writer’s slow captivation with a strange girl just escaping from the domination of an evil lesbian cousin. All three of these books, though anti-lesbian in bias, are very well and slickly written, and entertaining. ”

“ Saw not her hands wrung;
Saw the Lesbians kissing across their smitten
Lutes with lips more sweet than the sound of lute-strings,
Mouth to mouth and hand upon hand, her chosen,
Fairer than all men ”

“ They are a hard, efficient lot, doing men’s work, thinking like men and sometimes driven to take the place of men—in the proscribed zones of desperate flings at love and sex. Lesbianism is scandalously rampant, frequently an acquired dislocation rather than a pathological aberration.
The existence of the average G-girl revolves between routine grind and physical frustration. She leaves her job at five. If she goes home, it is to her tiny room or apartment to heat her dinner out of tin cans and ponder whether to wash her panties or write letters home, or get drunk. ”

“ Many editions, some cheap hcr (Sun Dial ed, still in print, n. d.) also Permabooks pbr n. d. The classic first novel of a lesbian, written soon after WWI. Stephen Gordon, male in physique, temperament and character, seeks for lasting love and some measure of acceptance from a rejecting world.
The Unlit Lamp. N. Y., Jonathan Cape 1924; the endless sacrifice of a daughter into a sterile, wasted life because her mother cannot accept her right to live her own life.
Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself. Harcourt, Brace 1934. A lesbian finds her true destiny after a lifetime of serving her country. ”

“ Non-fiction studies of the lesbian world, highly subjective, mostly vignettes of gay life in and around Greenwich Village, with some added data about the manners, customs and language of the “gay” world. Good reading, if somewhat biased.
see also VIN PACKER
ALEXANDER, DAVID. Madhouse in Washington Square. Lippincott, 1958. Mystery novel of high quality, introducing a pair of lesbians for window-dressing.
ANDERSON, HELEN. Pity for Women. N. Y., Doubleday, 1937. An unhappy and tense relationship among three women, inhabitants of a women’s residence club in New York. ”

“ London & N. Y., G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1929. Classic novel of feminine variance. Exclusively lesbian characters are rare in French literature (although bisexual women are relatively common) , and this was one of the best known; it follows the heroine from childhood to old age.
LACY, ED. Room to Swing. Harper Bros. 1957, pbr Pyramid 1958, A colored detective is retained by a pair of lesbians to solve a murder; is instead accused of committing it. Good.
+ LANDON, MARGARET. Never Dies the Dream. ”

“ TV bigshot Rex Lundy has woman trouble—his wife, his mistress, and his teen-age daughter. The latter is seeking the love she doesn’t get at home from a Greenwich Village lesbian friend. Excellent modern fiction.
The Glass Play Pen. pbo Signet 1956. Rich girl loses her parents, loses her money, and turns expensive call girl. One lesbian episode, treated with tenderness and sympathy. ”

“ To camouflage his deathlessness he pulls up his roots and moves every ten years and during one such interlude he falls for beautiful Avril Barnes, who turns out to be a lesbian. He converts her, and she becomes such a pest that he murders her. Shocker, silly.
MacCOWN, EUGENE. The Siege of Innocence. Doubleday, 1950, (m) . And minor lesbian element.
MacKENZIE, COMPTON. Extraordinary Women. Martin Secker, London; Macy-Masius N. Y. 1928, hcr New Adelphi 1932. The Winston Book Service offered this for sale quite recently. Amusing, satirical and well-known novel of lesbians. ”