June is LGBTQ Pride Month! For this year I decided to celebrate with three classics of lesbian literature, each of which capture a moment in queer history.
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Patricia Highsmith is probably best known for Strangers on a Train and other suspenseful thrillers, but her 1952 lesbian romance novel The Price of Salt (originally written under the pseudonym Claire Morgan) is considered a classic of the genre and is notable for having a much happier ending than many of the novels with LGBT characters had at the time. It is set in this area, in both New York City and New Jersey. It was later retitled Carol which was also the title given to the 2015 movie adaption staring Rooney Mara as the bored stage designer who falls for a suburban housewife portrayed by Cate Blanchett. You can borrow an eBook or a streaming audio copy of the book from Hoopla. You can also borrow a Spanish language translation from BCCLS libraries.
Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown
Image via Goodreads
Cozy Mystery lovers likely know Rita Mae Brown as the New York Times bestselling author of the Mrs. Murphy mystery series which she “co-writes” with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown. Rubyfruit Jungle is Rita Mae Brown’s 1973 novelization of her own coming of age story of as a lesbian writer and chronicles the journey of Molly from her childhood in small town Florida to New York City. In 2015 Brown received the Golden Crown Lee Lynch Classic Book Award for Rubyfruit Jungle. Created in 2004, Golden Crown recognizes and promotes lesbian literature.
DTWOF
DTWOF or Dykes to Watch Out For was Alison Bechdel’s comic strips published between 1983 and 2008. You can checkout compilations at BCCLS libraries. The women portrayed are a diverse group and the cartoon manages to merge politics and the drama of their lives in an engaging and often funny way. Alison Bechdel’s graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragic Comic, about her father’s death and her exploration of her own sexuality was adapted into a Tony Awarding winning Broadway Musical (you can borrow the cast recording on CD).
You can read about two of my favorite authors, Jeanette Winterson and Sarah Waters who both have written landmarks in lesbian literature in a previous Pride Month post.
Celebrate LGBTQ History at the Hoboken Public Library!
Join us for our special Pride Month event on Thursday June 15 at 7 PM! You can learn about Hidden Heroes of the Gay American Experience and how they made profound contributions to arts, history and culture. John Catania and Charles Ignacio, producers of In the Life (America’s first and longest running LGBT national TV newsmagazine) take you on an entertaining and provocative journey into the past and explain how these trailblazers’ efforts continue to reverberate to the present and beyond.
-Written by Aimee Harris, Head of Reference
Hoboken Library Staff Picks 