BESTER, ALFRED. Who He? N. Y., Doubleday 1955, pbr Berkley 1956, (m) tct. The Rat Race. Tense, tightly plotted novel of split personality. The hero’s housemate is a deeply sublimated homosexual who cracks up when Jake gets a girl; this episode snaps the high pitch of tightrope tension and precipitates the denouement of the novel. Excellent.
BISHOP, LEONARD. Creep Into thy Narrow Bed. Dial 1954, pbr Pyramid 1956. Story of a vicious abortion racket; woven into the story is the sympathetically treated story of a young lesbian’s self-realization. Very good of kind.
BODIN, PAUL. All Woman’s Flesh (trans. from the French of Le Voyage Sentimental, by Lowell Bair.) pbo Berkley 1957.
The Sign of Eros (trans. from French) Putnam 1953, pbr Berkley 1955.
Both of these involve a man’s attachment to two women who have some homosexual contact, but the emphasis is heterosexual, rather than lesbian.
BOLTON, ISABEL. “Ruth and Irma”, ss in The New Yorker, Jan 26, 1947; also in Donald Webster Cory’s 21 Variations on a Theme.
BOTTOME, PHYLLIS. Jane. Vanguard, 1957. Story of a street urchin, including lesbian episodes in a girl’s reformatory.
BOURDET, EDOUARD. The Captive. N. Y., Brentano’s 1926. Drama based on a triangle—man, wife, and a woman who is winning the affections of the latter.
BOURJAILY, VANCE. The End of My Life. Scribner’s 1947, pbr Bantam 1952, (m).
The Violated. Dial 1958, pbr Bantam 1959, (m).