The pulp fiction classic. “Taylor was able to creatively incorporate her radical politics with lesbian feminism and her marketable craft of storytelling.”—Marcia M. Gallo, author of Different Daughters
Sapphic suburban housewife Frances seeks fulfillment and love from the odd girls and twilight lovers of small-town America’s queer demi-monde in this provocative novel from the author of Stranger on Lesbos, Whisper Their Love, and The Girls in 3-B.
“Frances Ollenfield escaped a childhood of abuse and poverty into a marriage that is slowly becoming more and more loveless as the family’s fortunes improve. When her husband suggests that she go back to university to finish her degree, Frances leaps at the chance—which happens to bring her Mary Baker, Bake to her friends, who soon becomes her lover . . . a fast-paced and melodramatic story.”—Lesbrary
“Valerie Taylor stands out, for the politics and realism she packs into her tight little stories . . . Taylor’s real subversion is to continue her heroine’s story in another book. Like Ann Bannon before her, Taylor unravels her earlier book’s hetero conclusion in a sequel—the tellingly named Return to Lesbos.”—Lambda Literary
Valerie Taylor is the pen name of Velma Young, author of the lesbian pulp classics Whisper Their Love (1957), The Girls in 3-B (1959), World Without Men (1963), Journey to Fulfillment (1964), and Ripening (1988). With the $500 proceeds of her first novel, Hired Girl (1953), Taylor bought a pair of shoes, two dresses, and hired a divorce lawyer. After leaving her husband, she kicked off a prolific career as the author of pulp fiction novels, poetry (under the name of Nacella Young), and romances (under the name Francine Davenport). A long-time activist for gay and lesbian rights, she was a co-founder of Mattachine Midwest and the Lesbian Writers Conference in Chicago.