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Natalie Clifford Barney (1876-1972)! She was an openly lesbian writer, American but living in France. She had a literary salon that hosted all kinds of interesting people that came through, especially women and other lesbians. I'm not doing her justice right now lol really recommend looking her up.
I really need to get to reading Women of the Left Bank. It's been on my "to read" list forever.
EvileineDecember 12, 2023
If you're interested in Irish history, there's been a good documentary available about lesbians who were involved in Irish independence called Croíthe Radacacha. You can find it here, but you may need to use a VPN to watch it. It's mostly in Irish with English subtitles. It just aired recently and I thought it was really well made.
areteDecember 12, 2023
Thanks for the rec! I only knew about Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper - so thrilled to learn there are many more!
There's also a documentary about the Ladies of Llangollen under "More of the same". I'll be sure to check that out as well.
CriminallyCriticalDecember 11, 2023
I love everything about the story of Emily Dickinson.
stern-as-steelDecember 11, 2023
Anything in particular? I have a couple of her poems still memorized from childhood but don't know anything about her as a person.
[Deleted]December 11, 2023
Anything that has to do with historical methods that lesbians used to signal to each other that they were lesbian is my usual favorite. I’m always learning more stuff.
But my ultimate favorite is how I have managed to well verse myself in the true history of the Stonewall riots. The male washing of that history sickens me, so every Pride month, I’m as most vocal as I possibly can be about it within reason. (Which probably was another reason my disgusting colleagues had wanted to get me fired before June hit. Myself celebrating or even MENTIONING Pride month probably would have set their evil little hairs on fire).
Spencer_ShayyDecember 11, 2023
I love history, but I don't know any lesbian history, so I'll keep checking for comments.
[Deleted]December 11, 2023
Absolutely. I consider history the most important subject and it's a shame that younger generations nowadays seem to know or even care very little about what happened in the past.
I second the recommendation on Lillian Faderman. Haven't read Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers yet (lesbian history became more depressing as the 20th century progressed due to the spread of sexology), but Faderman's To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done for America - A History is one of my all-time favorite books. Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love between Women from the Renaissance to the Present covers a broader range of history but is also very interesting. And if anyone here has seen S2 of Gentleman Jack, you might recall Anne Lister mentioning a case involving two schoolmistresses in Scotland (though it's impossible to know the exact nature of their relationship). Faderman wrote about the case in Scotch Verdict: The Real-Life Story That Inspired The Children's Hour, which offers fascinating insight into how lesbianism was regarded in early 19th-century Scotland and Britain (or rather, how men in positions of power bent over backwards to pretend lesbianism couldn't exist between "respectable" Christian women).
Too many things to add to my reading list!