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1985: Stoner McTavish by Sarah Dreher

- Title: "Stoner McTavish"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Sarah Dreher

-Year 1st Published: 1985

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: New Victoria Publishing Inc

- Page Numbers: 204

- # in series: 1 out of 7 (8th book was never released)

- Genre(s): Fiction, Mystery, Crime, Romance

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 21/10/2023): 4.08

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 21/10/2023): 343 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 21/10/2023): 39 reviews

- Blurb: "SHE HAD TO STOP HIM. Maybe Biran Oxnard was a murderer... Maybe he wasn't. One thing was certain - He wasn't doing Gwen any good. Stoner was bored. Bored with Aunt Hermione, palm reader and Mystic... Bored with Marylou, her outrageous friend and business partner... Bored with her analyst, the eminent Dr. Edith Kesselbaum... Bored with herself. Her life was going nowhere. That was before she met Gwen. From Boston's Beacon Hill to Grand Teton National Park. Follow the adventures of Stoner McTavish - lesbian, travel agent, reluctant detection - as she battles villainy, terror, and the elements to save the woman of her dreams.

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1985: The Swashbuckler by Lee Lynch

- Title: "The Swashbuckler"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Lee Lynch

-Year 1st Published: 1985

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Naiad Press

- Page Numbers: 280

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Lesbian, Historical, Romance, Drama, Coming-of-age

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y, and I loved the ending paragraph!

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 20/10/2023): 4.30

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 20/10/2023): 114 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 20/10/2023): 20 reviews

- Blurb: "Greenwich Village... Provincetown... Travel with Frenchy Tonneau through these gay meccas during the '60s and '70s when Lesbian life changed forever. 'The Swashbuckler'... Continuing in the tradition of Ann Bannon's classic novels."

- Summary: "We follow Frenchy, a 4'11 leather-clad, diddy bopping, cig-smoking, butch, in this tale of self discovery, love, lust, sex, and the ever present homophobia as well as racism. The story took place over almost a decade, and in that time, we saw a lot of growth within Frenchy, and all the side characters as well. Lynch wrote it in a way that showed how different lesbians thought in the 60's."

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1984: Daughters of a Coral Dawn by Katherine V. Forrest

- Title: "Daughters of a Coral Dawn"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Katherine V. Forrest

-Year 1st Published: 1984

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): Y, 1993 (1st UK edition)

- Publisher: The Women's Press Ltd.

- Page Numbers: 240

- # in series: 1 out of 3

- Genre(s): Fiction, Sci-fi, Romance

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 20/10/2023): 3.82

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 20/10/2023): 321 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 20/10/2023): 84 reviews

- Blurb: "Mother is an alien. Smuggled from Verna III by a young earthman captivated by her glossy dark silken hair, her voluptuous hips and her cantaloupe-sized breasts, she has several idiosyncrasies. She makes extraordinarily loud whooping noises at night, and can communicate with her babies while they're still in the womb. And despite the much-tried, but not-so-trusted method of Vernan contraception - concentrating hard and thinking negative thoughts - babies are what she has a rather lot of. At her first birthing, she has nine girls - and they all turn out to have superhuman powers. Soon it is clear that a population explosion of female superhumans is definitely on the cards. And men might find this rather hard to take. The solution - before typical male behaviour (completely wiping out all who threaten them) inevitably takes places - must be to create a powerful flying machine, set off for a virgin planet and create a brave new world. And so begins 'Daughters of a Coral Dawn', a superbly entertaining alternative utopia where women work, play, love and procreate together to build a life of idyll; and where poor Mother remains - the only heterosexual on the planet."

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1984: Old Dyke Tales by Lee Lynch

- Title: "Old Dyke Tales"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Lee Lynch

-Year 1st Published: 1984

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Naiad Press

- Page Numbers: 204

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Fiction, Short Stories

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): Y, "Property of G/L Resources Center & Archives"

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: N

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 20/10/2023): 4.19

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 20/10/2023): 42 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 20/10/2023): 5 reviews

- Blurb: "In this unprecedented collection, you will come to know many women intimately, women from the broad spectrum of lesbian life and experience, who will touch your heart and the experience of your own life."

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1983: Edge City on Two Different Plans: A Collection of Lesbian and Gay Writing from Australia by Dave Sargent, Gary Dunne, Louise Wakeling, Margaret Bradstock (eds.)

- Title: "Edge City on Two Different Plans: A Collection of Lesbian and Gay Writing from Australia"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Dave Sargent, Gary Dunne, Louise Wakeling, Margaret Bradstock (eds.)

- Contributors: Anthology featuring the writing of Javant Biarujia, Ian C. Birks, Leoni Blair, Jenny Boult, Margaret Bradstock, Elaine Bryant, Lee Cataldi, Joseph Chetcuti, Jane Crawley, Rae Desmond Jones, Gary Dunne, Jane Elliot, Mary Fallon, Jeremy Fisher, Francis Flannagan, Denis Gallagher, Carolyn Gerrish, Peter L. Goldsmith, Deb Hall, Gavin Harris, Rosemary Jones, Sue Lock, Alison Lyssa, Don Maynard, Kevin McGrath, Geraldine Mecredy, Frank Moorhouse, Tony Page, Geoff Pearce, Jan Prior, Susan Reid, Peter Robins, Dave Sargent, John Schwartzkoff, Graham Simmonds, Judy Small, Sasha Soldatow, Phillip Stevenson, Ivor C. Treby, Nicholas Thomas, Louise Wakeling, Will Young, and Toby Zoates.

-Year 1st Published: 1983

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Cleis Press

- Page Numbers: 223

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Fiction, Poetry, Short stories, Anthology

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: N

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 18/10/2023): N/A

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 18/10/2023): 0 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 18/10/2023): 0 reviews

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1983: Toothpick House by Lee Lynch

- Title: "Toothpick House"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Lee Lynch

-Year 1st Published: 1983

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Naiad Press

- Page Numbers: 256

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Fiction, Romance, Coming-of-age

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 18/10/2023): 4.01

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 18/10/2023): 86 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 18/10/2023): 8 reviews

- Blurb: "Annie Heaphy, cab-driving baby butch, lives a life of freedom in a shack on the Connecticut coast. Her dislike of 'Yalies' and all they represent extends to beautiful, self-possessed Victoria Locke at first, and then they fall in love and both their worlds change forever. 'Toothpick House' is their story, but it is also the story of the burgeoning women's movement, the changes it brings to traditional Lesbian lives, and the ways in which it affected all of the young women of the past decade. Lee Lynch, long known as a writer of short stories, offers us this, her first novel. We predict it will become a classic."

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1982: The Journey by Anne Cameron

- Title: "The Journey"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Anne Cameron

-Year 1st Published: 1982

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): Y, 1986

- Publisher: Spinsters Ink / Aunt Lute Books

- Page Numbers: 314

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Fiction, Historical, Western

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: N

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 18/10/2023): 4.17

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 18/10/2023): 69 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 18/10/2023): 10 reviews

- Blurb: "It is the late 1800's and the Canadian West - vast plains and mountains sprawling between two oceans. The truth is, it isn't easy to move through it. Not if you are a woman and alone... not even two women who hook up to escape the violence of their pasts. Anne, fourteen years old and running from the beatings of her drunkard uncle. Sarah, tarred, feathered and running from the crazed vigilante sheriff who strung up her lover. This unlikely duo leads us episode by thrilling episode through the Wild Canadian West as it really happened. Past the hovels of the Chinese rail workers, through the surprising halls of Belle's whorehouse and finally to the Pacific Ocean where the gruesome past catches up with both women. Their final triumph burns tears into our hearts."

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1982: Sapphic Songs: Eighteen to Eighty by Elsa Gidlow

- Title: "Sapphic songs: Eighteen to Eighty"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Elsa Gidlow

-Year 1st Published: 1982

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Druid Heights Press

- Page Numbers: 93

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Poetry, Feminism

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): Y

- Have I Read It?: N

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 13/10/2023): 3.85

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 13/10/2023): 26 ratings

- Summary: A reissue of "Sapphic Songs: Seventeen to Seventy" (1976) in a revised and expanded edition.

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1982: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

🔴 TRIGGER WARNING: incest, rape, domestic abuse, all kinds of sexual, emotional, and physical abuse including, overt racism, and sexism 🔴

Admittedly, I'm not 100% sure what Alice Walker's sexuality is, but she has claimed she was in a romantic relationship with singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman in the mid-1990s: "It was delicious and lovely and wonderful and I totally enjoyed it and I was completely in love with her but it was not anybody's business but ours." Tracy Chapman, however, has not publicly commented on the existence of a relationship and maintains a strict separation between her private and public life.

According to AfterEllen, this book can be considered a lesbian book: https://afterellen.com/the-color-purple-is-lesbian/ so as a result, I thought I would classify it as such here. It definitely is a popular one in ratings.

- Title: "The Color Purple"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Alice Walker

-Year 1st Published: 1982

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): Y, 2019

- Publisher: Hatchette Essentials

- Page Numbers: 288

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Fiction, Historical, Classic, African-American

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: N

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 16/10/2023): 4.26

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 16/10/2023): 653,504 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 16/10/2023): 23,122 reviews

- Blurb: "Set in the deep American South between the wars, 'The Color Purple' is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls 'father', she has two childrne taken away from her, is separated from her beloved sister Nettie and is trapped into an ugly marriage. But then she meets the glamorous Shug Avery - singer and magic maker - a woman who has taken charge of her own destiny. Gradually Celie discovers the power and joy of her own spirit, freeing her from her past and reuniting her with those she loves. 'The Color Purple' is one of the all-time greats of literature, a global bestseller, and has inspired generations of readers'.

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1982: Mrs Porter's Letter by Vicki P. McConnell

- Title: "Mrs Porter's Letter"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Vicki P. McConnell

-Year 1st Published: 1982

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Naiad Press

- Page Numbers: 210

- # in series: 1 of 3 in the "Nyla Wade" series

- Genre(s): Fiction, Mystery, Crime

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: N

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 16/10/2023): 3.36

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 16/10/2023): 11 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 16/10/2023): 3 review(s)

- Summary: "The book, featuring fledgling writer Nyla Wade, is on the surface a modern Gothic search for the owner of a desk that Nyla comes to possess, although it has a very noir subplot involving the murder of a prostitute. Most important, though, is Nyla’s search for her own intellectual and sexual identity. In fact, Nyla is one of the few protagonists in the lesbian mystery genre who has been married to a man. But Nyla is divorced now and living on her own, getting back into her first love—writing—both for a living and as a creative outlet. To this end, she buys an antique desk, which turns out to contain the spirit and essence—not to mention some love letters—of its previous owner." (https://lesbrary.com/tag/vicki-p-mcconnell/)

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1982: The Queen of Swords by Judy Grahn

- Title: "The Queen of Wands"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Judy Grahn

-Year 1st Published: 1982

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: The Crossing Press

- Page Numbers: 64

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Poetry, Feminism, Mythology

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: N

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 15/10/2023): 3.72

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 15/10/2023): 60 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 15/10/2023): 6 reviews

- Blurb: "They say she is veiled / and a mystery. That is / one way of looking. / Another / is that she is where / she always has been, exactly in place. / and it is we, / we who are mystified, / we who are veiled / and without faces.

Judy Grahn is a great poet. Her earlier works -- "Edward the Dyke", "The Common Woman", "A Woman Is Talking To Death", and "She Who" -- speak with the passion for life, for survival, that marks women's poetic tradition. "The Queen of Wands" expands her vision to mythic proportions. She takes the theme of the 'queen who has been stolen, of cities and temples ravaged by soldiers, of lamentation for a female power gone' and explores its many dimensions. Her language is direct and strong. Her images are vibrant. From Helen of Troy to the luminescent Hollywood movie star, Judy Grahn makes history and daily life richer through her explorations."#books#lesbian books#lesbian history#lesbian#vintage#lgbt#poetry#judy grahn#personal#art#photo#archives#lesbrarycollection#Instagram

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1981: My Blue Heaven by Jane Chambers

Jane Chambers was a Southern playwright famous for being, as lesbian literary historian Bonnie Zimmerman put it, “a pioneer in writing theatrical works with openly lesbian characters.” She was born in South Carolina, but grew up in Florida where she started writing with scripts for local public radio stations. She studied at Rollins College intending to become a playwright, but dropped out after she encountered discrimination as a woman. After studying acting for a season in 1956, she moved to New York City and then to Maine, where she worked for WMTW. Returning to New York in 1968, she enrolled at Goddard College, Vermont to try again for an undergrad degree. There she met Beth Allen - her lover and manager.

The TV show, "The L Word" (2004-2009) and its sequel series "The L Word: Generation Q", is said to have received its title from the contemporary use of the phrase "the L word" as an alias for lesbian, which dates to at least this very play in which a character stammers out: "You're really...? The L-word? Lord God, I never met one before."

- Title: "My Blue Heaven: A Comedy in Two Acts"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Jane Chambers

-Year 1st Published: 1981

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: The JH Press

- Page Numbers: 91

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Fiction, Theatre, Play, Comedy, Drama

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: N

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 15/10/2023): 3.5

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 15/10/2023): 12 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 15/10/2023): 1 review(s)

- Summary: "MBH is about a lesbian couple who have left the city to create a refuge free from outside interference. One writes a column about their life, in which Josie becomes “Joe"; this inspires a Christian publisher to visit, asking to publish the pieces as a paean to the traditional family. In Act Two, a liberal minister asks to perform a public marriage of the two, an act to support gay marriage that about his own woke self-promotion. The two acts incorporate conventions of situational comedy."

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1981: The Lesbian in Literature (3rd edition) by Barbara Grier

Grier Ratings: During the 1960s, while Grier worked at The Ladder, she was involved in the creation of a bibliography of lesbian literature, The Lesbian in Literature. She used the name Gene Damon for that bibliography, but her rating system for lesbian literature would come to be known as Grier Ratings. Grier rated lesbian literature on a letter scale for how prominent the lesbian subject was to the story and a range of 1 to 3 asterisks for the quality of the representation:

🅰️⭐⭐⭐ A rating of 'A***' had lesbian characters with very sympathetic portrayals.

🅰️ A rating of 'A' without an asterisk meant there was a major lesbian component but not sympathetically portrayed.

🅱️ / ©️ The B and C ratings were for works with lesbian subplots or suppressed/coded lesbian themes.

🚮 Books that contained voyeuristic and demeaning representations of lesbians were rated as 'T (Trash)'.

Barbara Grier (1933--2011) is credited for having built the lesbian book industry. After editing The Ladder magazine, published by the lesbian civil rights group Daughters of Bilitis, she co-founded a lesbian book-publishing company Naiad Press, which achieved publicity and became the world's largest publisher of lesbian books. She built a major collection of lesbian literature, catalogued with detailed indexing of topics.

Grier realized she was a lesbian at age twelve after researching the topic at the library. She told her mother that she was homosexual, and her mother replied, "No, because you're a woman, you're a lesbian. And since 12 years old is too young to make such a decision, let's wait six months before we tell the newspapers." Yet, Grier's mother was supportive. When Grier was fifteen, her mother gifted her a copy of The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall and Of Lena Geyer (1936) by Marcia Davenport. This would be the start of Grier's collection of lesbian literature. She describes her collection of lesbian-themed books as Lesbiana, a collection that was fueled by a "love affair with lesbian publishing."

In 1957, Grier subscribed to The Ladder, a magazine edited by members of the Daughters of Bilitis. Grier began writing book reviews for The Ladder, using multiple pen names in her writings including Gene Damon, Marilyn Barrow, Gladys Casey, Terry Cook, Dorthy Lyle, Vern Niven, Lennox Strong, and Lee Stuart. The Ladder was the center of Grier's life in the 1950s and 60s. Some issues were completely written by her. Although it was primarily compiled by Grier, hundreds of women contributed information for this book.

In 1973, Grier co-founded Naiad Press along with Donna McBride, Anyda Marchant, and Muriel Crawford (Marchant's partner). They founded the venture with $2,000 pooled between them. Grier and McBride ran Naiad from Kansas City until 1980 when it relocated to Tallahassee, Florida. Both Grier and McBride continued to work other full-time jobs until 1982 when they dedicated all their time to the publishing company. Naiad Press went on to become the world's largest publisher of lesbian books.

Some complained that the books published by Naiad Press were always romances or mysteries with happy endings. But Grier said repeatedly that what she wanted was to reach the lesbians in Middle America who were in the closet and who deserved to have books about their lives, too.

Naiad's inventory included mysteries, romances, and science fiction novels. The press also reprinted classics of lesbian writing, including Ann Bannon's Beebo Brinker series. Naiad also produced non-fiction books. Rosemary Curb and Nancy Manahan's Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence (1985) was among the most successful. Naiad Press' most controversial publication was Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, a work of non-fiction that was banned in Boston and criticized by the Catholic Church. Grier paid ex-nuns Rosemary Kurb and Nancy Manahan a half million dollars for the book which landed Grier on numerous talk shows.

By 1994, the company had a staff of 8 and projected sales of $1.8 million US. In 1992, Grier and McBride donated Naiad's entire collection to the San Francisco Public Library, which consisted of a tractor trailer full of 14,000 books estimated at $400,000 US.

Grier and McBride retired in 2005. They gradually let their books go out of print before closing Naiad Press' doors. The heir to Naiad Press became Bella Books of Ferndale, Michigan. Bella Books was founded in 2001 by Kelly Smith, who spent eighteen months working for Naiad in the late 1990s. Grier was very supportive of Bella Books, and noted that almost all of the Naiad writers have signed on with Smith.

- Title: "The Lesbian in Literature: 3rd Edition"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Barbara Grier

-Year 1st Published: 1981

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Naiad Press

- Page Numbers: 168

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Nonfiction, Reference, Guide

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 15/10/2023): 4.0

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 15/10/2023): 11 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 15/10/2023): 0 reviews

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1979: Eye to Eye - Portraits of Lesbians by JEB (Joan E. Biren)

- Title: "Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Photographs by JEB

-Year 1st Published: 1979

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): Y, 2021

- Publisher: Anthology Editions

- Page Numbers: 72

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Nonfiction, Photography, Art

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 14/10/2023): 4.75

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 14/10/2023): 139 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 14/10/2023): 23 reviews

- Blurb: "In 1979, JEB (Joan E. Biren) self-published her first book, Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians. Revolutionary at that time, JEB made photographs of lesbians from different ages and backgrounds in their everyday lives-working, playing, raising families, and striving to remake their worlds. The photographs were accompanied by testimonials from the women pictured in the book, as well as writings from icons including Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich and a foreword from Joan Nestle. Eye to Eye signalled a radical new way of seeing – moving lesbian lives from the margins to the centre, and reversing a history of invisibility. More than just a book, it was an affirmation of the existence of lesbians that helped to propel a political movement. Reprinted for the first time in forty years and featuring new essays from photographer Lola Flash and former soccer player Lori Lindsey, Eye to Eye is a faithful reproduction of a work that continues to resonate in the queer community and beyond."

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1978: The Work of a Common Woman

- Title: "The Work of a Common Woman: The Collected Poetry of Judy Grahn 1964-1977"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Judy Grahn

-Year 1st Published: 1978

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): Y, 1984

- Publisher: Crossing Press

- Page Numbers: 158

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Poetry, Feminism

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 14/10/2023): 4.54

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 14/10/2023): 202 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 14/10/2023): 19 reviews

- Summary: "Judy Grahn and her collected poetry, The Work of a Common Woman, highlights the struggles women, especially those that are lesbians, endure in their everyday life. Specifically her poem “IV. Carol, in the park, chewing on straws,” with a seemingly unrelated, futile title. To the outside observer, a woman is doing mundane tasks, going about her everyday life without a thought to her actions. However, the woman is facing conflicts that a passive observer cannot understand, and her actions and tasks are not mundane to her. Grahn’s diction purposefully imitates a feeling of despair ends with triumph."

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1977: She Who by Judy Grahn

- Title: "She Who: A Graphic Book of Poems with 54 Images of Women"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Judy Grahn

-Year 1st Published: 1977

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Diana Press, The Women's Press Collective

- Page Numbers: This book is in the mail so I'm yet to see, I can't find the answer online.

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Poetry, Feminism

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): Y, from what I can tell it has the inscription: "Feb 18 - 1982. For Amie and Honnele - Happy 1st anniversary. Judy Grahn."

- Have I Read It?: Y

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Is it on the Internet Archive: Y

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 14/10/2023): 4.61

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 14/10/2023): 23 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 14/10/2023): 2 reviews

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1976: Sapphic songs: Seventeen to seventy by Elsa Gidlow

Elsa Gidlow (1898 – 1986) is best known for writing On a Grey Thread (1923), the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America.

In 1917, she began seeking out fellow writers and meeting with them, particularly in the field of amateur journalism, which was popular at the time. With collaborator Roswell George Mills, Gidlow published Les Mouches fantastiques, the first magazine in North America where gay and lesbian issues were discussed, and the lifestyle celebrated. It was also adamantly anti-war, influenced by Mills and Gidlow's pacifist and anarchist viewpoints. H. P. Lovecraft, a fellow amateur journalist, attacked their work, leading Gidlow to defend it and attack back in return; the dispute created a minor controversy but brought Gidlow and Mills public, albeit negative attention.

- Title: "Sapphic songs: Seventeen to seventy"

- Author(s) / Editor(s): Elsa Gidlow

-Year 1st Published: 1976

- Year of Reprint My Copy Is (if applicable): N

- Publisher: Diana Press

- Page Numbers: 79

- # in series: N/A

- Genre(s): Poetry

- Is It An Ex-library Copy (and from where?): N

- Author's signature (if applicable): N

- Have I Read It?: N

- Is It On Loan (and to which friend?): N

- Average Goodreads Rating, out of 5 Stars (as of 13/10/2023): 4.80

- Amount of Goodreads Ratings (as of 13/10/2023): 5 ratings

- Amount of Goodreads Reviews (as of 13/10/2023): 1 review(s)

- Summary: "Gidlow states that some of these poems were published in 1923. She had not had not intended to republish her earlier works, but was persuaded to do to to do so. So it is that this collection is titled 'Sapphic Songs: Seventeen to Seventy.' The poems which follow are an overview of her life's work."

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