1959, (m).
DEVLIN, BARRY. Acapulco Nocturne. Vixen Press, 1952.
Cheating Wives. Beacon pbo 1959 (copyright 1955).
Fire and Ice. Vixen Press, 1952.
Golf Widow. Vixen Press, 1953.
Lovers and Madmen. Vixen Press 1952.
Madame Big. Vixen Press 1953.
Moon Kissed. Green Farms, Conn. Modern Pubs 1957, Vixen Press
1953, pbr tct _Forbidden Pleasures_ Beacon Books 1959.
Too Many Women. Vixen(?) 1953, Beacon pbr 1959.
These are all the same sort of thing, evening wasters or scv,
depending on taste. Big handsome men of incredible stamina,
engaging incessantly in that one activity besides which all else
is as naught, with a succession of beautiful women, blonde,
brunette and redhead. Now and then this procession of affairs is
varied a little by letting the girls sport with one another to
give the heroes a breathing spell. In short, sexy books for people
who like reading sexy books. Adults only, please.
DE VOTO, BERNARD. _Mountain Time._ Little, Brown & Co 1946--47,
fco. One very brief overt lesbian episode.
DE VRIES, PETER. _The Tents of Wickedness._ Little, Brown & Co,
1959, Minor episode in a very funny literary satire--Army colonel
who talks pure Hemingway turns out to be a WAC in disguise.
DIBNER, MARTIN. _The Deep Six._ Doubleday 1953, pbr Permabooks
1957, (m).
DIDEROT, DENIS. _Memoirs of a Nun._ (trans from French by Frances
Birrell). London, Rutledge & Sons 1928, hcr London, Elek Books,
Book Centre Ltd, N. Circular Road, Neasden, London, N. W. 10,
England. Classic French novel _La Religieuse_, written in 1760,
published in 1796. Reflects the very bitter anti-clerical
sentiment of the times just before the Revolution. A "cornerstone"
title.
DINESEN, ISAK. _Seven Gothic Tales._ N. Y., Smith & Haas, 1943, hcr
Modern Library n.d.
"The Invincible Slave Owners", ss in _A Winter's Tales_, Random
House 1942.
DIXON, CLARISSA. _Janet and her dear Phebe._ Stokes, 1909. Girls
story of two loving little chums, separated by a misunderstanding
between their families, and re-united as women. Though never
explicit, the story is emotional and intense. It is highly
unlikely the author was quite aware of the type of attachment she
was portraying.
DJEBAR, ASSIA. _The Mischief._ Simon & Schuster 1958, pbr Avon
1959 tct _Nadia_. Very brief but well-written novel of a young
girl who falls in love with a former schoolgirl friend, now
married.
+ DONISTHORPE, SHEILA. _Loveliest of Friends_, Claude Kendall
1931, pbr Berkley 1956, 1957, 1958, due for another. Boyish Kim
captivates young happy-housewife Audrey and wrecks her life.
Preachy outburst against lesbians toward the end. Read it with a
hanky handy. (Curiously enough, in spite of the anti-lesbian bias
of the ending, and the overdone sentimentality of the Swinburnian
writing, everybody seems to enjoy this one--all the Checklist
editors included.)
DOWD, HARRISON. _The Night Air._ Dial Press, 1950, (m).
DRESSER, DAVID. _Mardigras Madness._ Godwin 1934. One lesbian
episode in an evening waster about Carnival.
DRUON, MAURICE. _The Rise of Simon Lachaume._ Dutton, 1952; hcr as
part of the trilogy _The Curtain Falls_, Scribner 1960. One
episode in lengthy novel of a French family involves the duping of
an elderly roue by a pair of young lesbians.
+ DU MAURIER, ANGELA. _The Little Legs._ Doubleday, 1941. Sad and
devastating results from a long variant enslavement. "This is a
lovely book if you enjoy crying, and I do," says one reviewer.
DURRELL, LAWRENCE. _Justine._ N. Y., Dutton, 1957.
_Balthazar._ N. Y., Dutton, 1958, (m).
_Mountolive._ N. Y., Dutton, 1959, (m).
_Clea._ N. Y. Dutton, 1960. The last volume of now-famous tetralogy,
just released, winds up all of the loose ends of the other three.
The lesbian element is minor, but all four novels are excellent.
EICHRODT, JOHN. "Nadia Devereaux", ss in _Sextet_, ed by Whit &
Hallie Burnett. N. Y., McKay Co. 1951.
EISNER, SIMON. (pseud of Cyril Kornbluth). _The Naked Storm._ pbo,
Lion Library, 1952, 1956. Mixed bag of passengers on a
transcontinental train, including a lesbian who tries to captivate
a young girl and is murdered by another passenger to give her
intended victim "a chance at real happiness with a man."
ENGSTRAND, STUART. _More Deaths than One._ Julian Messner 1955,
pbr Signet 1957. Mannish woman defending effeminate husband
against charge of rape by kidnapping his victim and hiding her
out, goes through a nervous breakdown involving a morbid and
macabre attachment to the girl; horrible.
_Sling and the Arrow._ Creative Age 1947, hcr Sun Dial n.d., pbr
Signet ca. 1951, (m).
EMERY, CAROL. _Queer Affair._ pbo Beacon Books, 1957. Dancer Draga
moves in with mannish Jo, runs into complications when she tries
to desert Jo for a man. Evening waster but very good nevertheless
... the author got in some good attitudes and philosophies when
the publisher wasn't looking.
ENTERS, ANGNA. _Among the Daughters._ Coward McCann, 1955.
Autobiographical novel of a girl who, like the author, finally
becomes a dancer and choreographer. A good deal of space is
devoted to a friendship between Lucy and another girl; the story
is tinged with variance but never explicit.
ESTEY, NORBERT. _All My Sins._ A. A. Wyn, 1954. pbr Crest 1956.
fco. Few very minor variant episodes in a long novel of the French
courtesan Ninon l'Enclos.
EUSTIS, HELEN. _The Horizontal Man._ Harper 1946, pbr Pocket Books
1955. Offbeat psychological murder mystery.
EVANS, LESLEY. _Strange are the Ways of Love._ pbo Crest 1959.
Love among the guitar-playing, folk-singing beatniks, with the
lesbians playing Musical Beds. Evening waster.
EVANS, JOHN (pseud. of Howard Browne). _Halo in Brass._
Bobbs-Merrill 1949, pbr Bantam 1958. Hardboiled detective story;
private eye Paul Pine is hired to locate runaway girl with no boy
friends and many girl friends. Suspenseful, nice way to spend (not
waste) a lazy evening.
EWERS, HANNS HEINZ. _Alraune._ John Day, 1929. Alraune is Evil
incarnate--symbol of the Mandrake Root, destroying love in
everyone with whom she comes in contact, bringing out their innate
evil. Among those destroyed by Alraune are a pair of lesbian
lovers. High-quality fantasy, unfortunately rare and rather
expensive.
FADIMAN, EDWIN JR. _The 21 Inch Screen._ Doubleday 1958, pbr
Signet 1960. 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.
see also EDWINA MARK.
FAIR, ELIZABETH. _Bramton Wick._ Funk & Wagnalls 1954. fco. Cozy
little story of cozy little English village, including two maiden
ladies who have lived together for many years. "It is all very
light and airy and your old-maid aunt wouldn't think it at all
odd." Apt to be in libraries.
FAREWELL, NINA. _Someone to Love._ Messner 1959, pbr Popular
Library, 1960. One brief, incomplete lesbian episode in a long,
interesting novel of a woman's continual search for real love in a
life filled with fleeting liaisons.
+ FERGUSON, MARGARET. _The Sign of the Ram._ London, Philadelphia,
The Blakiston Co, 1944-45. Sherida comes as companion-secretary to
crippled Leah, passionately adored by her whole family including
sixteen-year-old Christine. Subtly playing on Christine's
emotions, Leah spurs her to the point where she attempts to murder
Sherida. On the surface, the motivation is simply the love of
power, but Christine's emotions are clearly variant; when the book
was filmed, they carefully cast Christine as a girl of eleven, to
make it unmistakable that her adoration was only "childish."
FIRBANK, RONALD. _The Flower Beneath the Foot._ in Five Novels,
New Directions, 1949. "Light and fluffy ... pure fun".
_Inclinations._ in Three Novels. New Directions 1951, (m).
FITZROY, A.T. _Despised and Rejected._ 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.
FISHER, VARDIS. _The Darkness and the Deep._ Vanguard, 1943, fco,
a novel of the Stone Age.
FLAGG, JOHN. _Dear, Deadly Beloved._ Gold Medal pbo 1954.
_Murder in Monaco._ pbo Gold Medal 1957.
Both of these are fast-moving mysteries, in Mediterranean setting,
both involving lesbian characters.
FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE. _Salammbo._ Classic French Novel in many
editions and translations. A very long novel of a Babylonian High
Priestess; some psychological and literary authorities consider it
variant. The editors all say with one voice that it isn't. BAYOR.
FLEMING, IAN. _Goldfinger._ Macmillan 1959. No data, BAYOR.
FLORA, FLETCHER. _Desperate Asylum._ pbo Lion Library 1955, pbr
Pyramid 1959, tct _Whisper of Love_. An unhappy lesbian and a
neurotic man who hates women because his mother was promiscuous,
marry to find a mutual "asylum". Predictably the marriage is
unsuccessful, ending in murder and suicide.
_Strange Sisters_, pbo Lion Library 1954, pbr Pyramid 1960. Weird
novel of a girl's mental breakdown, indirectly blamed on her
affairs with three cruel and sadistic women.
_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.
FORREST, FELIX. _Carola._ Duell, 1948. 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._ N. Y., Appleton, 1900. Three
intense variant attachments by a motherless girl under twenty,
which subside when she falls in love with a man.
FRANKEN, ROSE. _Intimate Story._ Doubleday, 1955. A novel by the
author of the popular Claudia series.
+ FREDERICS, DIANA. (pseud); _Diana, a Strange Autobiography._
Dial 1939, pbr Berkley Books 1955, 1957, 1958. Well known story of
a young musician/teacher's discovery and slow acceptance and
adjustment to her lesbian personality.
FRANK, WALDO. _The Dark Mother._ N. Y., Boni & Liveright, 1920, (m).
A too-possessive mother ruins her son's life.
FRIEDMAN, STUART. _Nikki._ Monarch Books, 1960, scv.
_The Revolt of Jill Braddock._ Monarch Books 1960. scv. Male and
female homosexuality in a ballet company, with Jill in the middle.
"Not as bad as _Nikki_, but still a pretty raw evening waster."
GARLAND, RODNEY. _The Heart in Exile._ Coward McCann 1954, pbr
Lion 1956, (m). Because of courageous approach to the basic problem
of relations between the homosexual and his family, this story of
a young homosexual in an unconventional household deserves
shelfspace everywhere.
GARNETT, DAVID. _A Shot in the Dark._ Little, Brown 1959, pbr tct
_The Ways of Desire_. Popular Library 1960. Complex, fast-moving
adventure story, involving a great number of lesbians.
GARRETT, ZENA. _The House in the Mulberry Tree._ Random House,
1959 Sensitive story of a girl of eleven, fascinated by an
innocently appealing neighbor, a married woman. The mother,
observing innocent caresses between the two, separates them.
+ GARRIGUE, JEAN. "The Other One" ss in _Cross Section_, ed. by E.
Seaver, Simon & Schuster, 1947.
GAUTIER, THÉOPHILE. _Mademoiselle de Maupin._ Many editions,
including Modern Library, n. d. also pbr Pyramid Books 1956, 1957,
1958. Classic novel of lesbianism.
GENET, JEAN. _The Maids._ Grove Press qpb 1954. Offbeat
existentialist drama; involuted love among women.
GEORGIE, LEYLA. _The Establishment of Madame Antonia._ Liveright,
1932. Light entertainment about inhabitants of a high-class
European bordello, including a young recruit protected by an older
woman.
GIDE, ANDRÉ. _The School for Wives._ N. Y., Knopf, 1950
_The Immoralist._ Knopf 1930, hcr 1948, (m).
_The Counterfeiters._ Knopf 1927, (m).
GILBERT, EDWIN. _The Hot and the Cool._ Doubleday 1953, pbr tct
_See How They Burn_, Popular Library, 1959, (m). Minor and subtle
homosexual overtones in a novel of jazz musicians.
GODDEN, RUMER. _The Greengage Summer._ Viking 1957, fco.
_A Candle for St. Jude_, Viking 1948, fco.
GOLDMAN, WILLIAM. _The Temple of Gold._ Knopf 1957, pbr Bantam
1958, (m) minor fco.
GOLDSTON, ROBERT. _The Catafalque._ Rinehart 1957, 1958.
High-quality thriller about ill-fated archaeological expedition to
Spain; crisis precipitated when a sinister Countess takes young
Stephanie, the expedition leader's daughter, to a grotto where a
pagan goddess has been worshipped with lesbian rites and attempts
to seduce her there.
GREENE, GRAHAM. _The Orient Express._ Doubleday 1933, pbr Bantam
1955. Trainful of mixed adventurers includes a lesbian between
girl-friends but still trying.
GUDMUNDSSON, KRISTMANN. _Winged Citadel._ Holt, 1940, (m). Brief
but very explicit homosexual interlude in a fine historical novel
of Crete and the Bull-dancers.
GUNTER, ARCHIBALD. _A Florida Enchantment._ Home Pubs 1892. No
data available, BAYOR.
HACKETT, PAUL. _Children of the Stone Lions._ G. P. Putnam 1955.
An important lesbian character in a novel which has had good
reviews.
+ HAGGARD, SIR HENRY RIDER. _Allan's Wife._ First published, 1889;
now in print in Five Novels of H. Rider Haggard, Dover Press,
1951. A strange story, and this year's special "find". Allan, hero
of the famous adventure-novelist's KING SOLOMON'S MINES, is here
shown as a young man, in love with Stella Carson--an English girl
reared in the unspoilt beauty of a lost valley in Darkest Africa.
The romance is complicated by the passionate jealousy of
Hendrika--stolen in infancy by gorillas, reared as a female
Tarzan, and rescued to be Stella's companion, foster-sister and
adorer. Hendrika first attempts to murder Allan; the scene in
which she rages insanely at Allan for stealing Stella's love, and
Allan's quiet acceptance of the "curious" fact that the strongest
loves are not always between those of different sexes, places this
book almost alone in forthright English treatment of variance for
its date. From this high level of psychological realism, the story
reverts to Haggard-type melodrama; Stella is kidnapped by
Hendrika's gorilla friends; dramatically rescued in a thrilling
jungle battle; her death from exposure and Hendrika's remorseful
suicide complete the story. Strange, romantic, and quite in a
class by itself.
HALES, CAROL. _Wind Woman._ Woodford Press 1953, pbr tct _Such is
My Beloved_, Berkley 1958. Sad, sad, sad story of the
psychoanalysis of a young lesbian such as was never seen on sea or
land. Harmless and nitwitted ... read it and weep, or giggle.
see also LORA SELA.
+ HALL, RADCLYFFE. _The Well of Loneliness._ 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.
Overtones of science fiction.
_A Saturday Life._ London, Falcon Press, 1952 (orig. pub 1925). An
attempt at farce, not overt anywhere.
HALL, OAKLEY M. _Corpus of Joe Bailey._ Viking 1953, Permabooks
1955, (m). Also contains a pathetic pair of lesbians, one
camouflaging her true leanings by pretending to be the campus
whore.
HARDY, THOMAS. _Desperate Remedies._ Harper 1896; still in print,
London, the Macmillan Co, 1951 ($3.00). Brief but relevant episode
in a novel by a classic English novelist.
+ HARRIS, SARA. _The Wayward Ones._ Crown 1952, pbr Signet 1956,57
One of the few really good treatments of lesbian attachments in a
girl's reform school. Bessie, a wayward girl, is sent to a "good"
reform school; at this stage she is naive, fairly innocent and
presumably redeemable. The loneliness, the sadistic persecution by
the corrupt or hardened matrons, and the "racket"--the enforced
division of the school into "moms" and "pops", by hardened young
girl hooligans who like the power it gives them, and permitted by
the matrons under the self-deception that these attachments are
normal, schoolgirlish crushes--finally complete the girl's
corruption until it is certain that she will come out of school a
confirmed young criminal, Sara Harris is herself a social worker;
this painfully accurate picture of what our juvenile authorities
contend with may, at least, give some insight into why the police
and social agencies tend to be so violently anti-lesbian. It is
hard to forget the picture painted in this book of the frightened
Bessie insisting "I don't never do no lovin' with girls.'"--and
the threats made to her. An absolute MUST book--on the other side.
HARRIS, WILLIAM HOWARD. _The Golden Jungle._ Doubleday 1957, pbr
Berkley 1958. Brittle novel about a wall street banker; his
beautiful wife is a lesbian, but he naively believes her faithful
because she prefers the company of women.
+ HASTINGS, MARCH. _Demands of the Flesh._ Newsstand Library pbo,
1959. Ellen, a young widow suffering from physical frustration,
goes through a period of promiscuity involving several men and a
brief affair with a lesbian, Nita. Oddly enough for this sort of
borderline-risque stuff, the lesbian character is well and
realistically drawn; realizing that Ellen is basically normal, she
helps keep her on an even keel until she remarries. Good of kind.
_Three Women._ pbo Beacon Books 1958. Good and sympathetic story
of a young girl involved with a basically decent older woman, a
lesbian, Byrne. Unfortunately Byrne is deeply involved with, and
obligated to, her insane cousin Greta, and the affair ends in
tragedy, leaving young Paula to marry her faithful boy friend. The
lesbian interlude, however, is treated not as a "twisted love in
the shadows" or any such cliche matter, but simply as a human
relationship, in its total effect on Paula's personality; and she
always remembers Byrne with affectionate regret. Excellent of
kind.
_The Obsessed._ Newstand Library Magenta Books, 1959. The
psychoanalysis of a nymphomaniac, including an affair with her
boy-friend's lesbian sister. Not nearly as good as March Hastings'
other books, and much more dedicated to sexy scenes at the expense
of character and situation. Evening waster--almost scv. (It should
be noted that some paperback publishers insist on a specified
number of sex scenes, and in such a book as this one can almost
hear the weary sigh with which the author abandons his story,
which is going well, and stops everything for another measured
dose of sexy writing for the nitwit audience.)
HECHT, BEN. _The Sensualists._ Messner, 1959, pbr Dell 1959. A
great deal of advance publicity built this up to a best-seller.
Highly sensational shock-stuff; a supposedly happily-married woman
discovers her husband is having an affair with a singer, Liza.
When she comes in contact with Liza, however, she realizes that
Liza is a lesbian, having affairs with men for camouflage
purposes, and is soon herself captivated by Liza. From here events
build up to highly shocking climaxes, including a ghastly murder.
Not to be read after dark.
HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. "The Sea Change" ss in _The Fifth Column and
the First 49 Stories_, P. F. Collier & Son, 1938. This volume also
contains two stories dealing with male homosexuality: "A Simple
Inquiry" and "Mother of a Queen."
HELLMAN, LILLIAN. _The Children's Hour._ Knopf, 1934. Also Random
House 1942; also in Burns-Mantle, Best Plays of 1934-35. A rumor
of lesbianism (unfounded) wrecks a school, and the lives of the
women who own and manage it.
HENRY, JOAN. _Women in Prison._ Doubleday 1952, pbr Permabooks
1953. This is non-fiction, autobiographical account of a woman's
experience in two English prisons. Very good.
HEPPENSTALL, RAYNER. _The Blaze Of Noon._ Alliance 1940, pbr
Berkley 1956, (m) minor, fco and BAYOR.
HESSE, HERMAN. _Steppenwolf._ Henry Holt 1929. qpb Frederick
Ungar, 1960. Symbolic (and classic) novel of man's disintegration,
caused by society's ignorance. Contains highly sympathetic
homosexual characters (male and female).
HIGHSMITH, PATRICIA. _The Talented Mr. Ripley._ Coward, 1955, pbr
Dell 1959. (m, minor)
_Strangers on a Train._ Harper & Bros. 1950. (m, minor)
see also CLAIRE MORGAN
HILL, PATI. _The Nine Mile Circle._ Houghton, Mifflin 1957 fco.
Dreamy story of two teen-age girls and an idyllic summer during
which they constantly pretend to be man and wife, on a girlish,
unerotic level. Very nice.
HIMMEL, RICHARD. _Soul of Passion._ Star Pub, Co 1950. pbr tct.
_Strange Desires_, Croydon Pub. 1952, pbr Avon, tct.
_The Shame_, 1959, (m). No masterpiece but an interesting story
about a man spending a week with his dead Army friend's wife and
recalling his long relationship with the dead man; over the week
he slowly comes to acknowledge, and come to terms with the fact
that their relationship had had overtones of homosexuality.
HITT, ORRIE. _Girl's Dormitory._ Beacon pbo 1958 scv.
_Trapped._ Beacon pbo 1954. scv.
_Wayward Girl._ Beacon pbo 1960 scv.
HOLK, AGNETE. _The Straggler._ (Trans, from the Danish by Anthony
Hinton). London, Arco Pub. 1954, pbr tct.
_Strange Friends_, Pyramid Books 1955, very slightly abridged.
Boyish Scandinavian Vita adopts a "little sister" but is quite
unaware of the nature of her attraction to Hilda. In her late
teens Hilda, stirred but unsatisfied by this attachment, makes an
unwise marriage, and Vita undergoes a period of rootless drifting,
a brief affair ending in separation, and finally makes a permanent
arrangement with Hilda, whose unsuccessful marriage ended in
divorce. Valuable for a portrait of European gay life, very unlike
the American.
HOLLIDAY, DON. _The Wild Night._ Nightstand Books 1960 (no
publisher's address listed). Composite novel of six lives which
converge on New Year's Eve in a cheap Greenwich Village strip
joint. "One of those unexpectedly good stories one finds among the
floods of paperback trash." One of the six characters is a
lesbian.
HOLMES, (JOHN) CLELLON. _Go._ Scribner 1952, pbr Ace Books 1958,
(m).
_The Horn._ Random House 1953, Crest pbr 1958, (m).
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL. _Elsie Venner._ Burt, 1859; many editions,
a classic novel of a very strange girl, psychologically akin to
poisonous snakes. In the course of this novel a curious and
intense relationship develops between Elsie and a young
schoolmistress named Helen; a compulsive domination, attraction
and revulsion. One might suspect Dr. Holmes, whose medical
writings and observations place him far ahead of his era
psychologically, of genteelly camouflaging a portrait of variance,
100 years ago, by making the girl a creature of macabre fantasy.