In such a comprehensive listing, reviews must of necessity be brief. For further discussion of many of the titles listed here, with excellent and complete critical analysis of their variant content, the serious student or collector is earnestly urged to invest in the definitive and major work on the subject:
FOSTER, Jeannette Howard; Sex Variant Women in Literature. N. Y. Vantage Press, 1956.
Although now officially out of print, this book can occasionally be obtained second hand, and copies will soon be offered for sale through the Daughters of Bilitis publication, THE LADDER. (See appendix.) We have made no effort to give more than cursory reviews of titles which are discussed at length in Dr. Foster’s work. However, since the publication of the Foster book, many new novels of lesbianism have been published, and the diligent search of many collectors, working with the Checklist editors, has brought many old ones to light.
We have tried to review in some detail the novels which were omitted from Dr. Foster’s work, and to strive for completeness, even at the expense of discriminatory judgment about the excellence or otherwise of the works included. Therefore this Checklist includes many works whose lesbian content was too slight, too subtle—or too “trashy”—to have come within the scope of the scholarly studies of Dr. Foster or the running column, Lesbiana, conducted by junior editor Gene Damon in the pages of THE LADDER.
It is our further contention that many novels dealing with male homosexuality come also within the province of the serious collector of lesbiana. We make, however, no claim for completeness for novels which fall within the homosexual, rather than the lesbian province. In general, the male titles included in this list—clearly defined, in each case, by the sign (m)—have been included because they were of special interest to the editors and therefore are presumably of interest to other collectors of lesbiana.
For those who wish a complete list of works dealing with male homosexuality, we suggest the comprehensive bibliography compiled by Noel I. Garde, discussed in the Appendix of Related Publications. Mr. Garde has indexed virtually every homosexual work from antiquity to the latest paperback shocker, and has also performed the mighty task of separating them into categories ... a task from which the Checklist editors have shrunk, though we have made some attempt at classification in our reviews and by awarding a plus sign to books of exceptional value. (For further discussion of this division, please consult the “List of Symbols and Abbreviations” on page 2.)
Most of the reviews in the present listing were written by one of the editors; no attempt has been made to divide the reviews written by MZB from those written by Damon. In general, these reviews have been gathered from so many sources that the awarding of individual credit would be impossible.
This Checklist, 1960, is the last of the cumulative Checklists. Plans at present are to publish brief supplements annually, listing only new titles, new reprints of old titles, or new discoveries of overlooked titles. Since this is the case, we feel that some brief history of the Checklist might be of interest to the readers.
Nearly 10 years ago, in the mailing of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association, a very bitter discussion was raging on the subject of censorship—pro and con. Complicating this discussion, a man who is now dead, and shall therefore be nameless, published a scathing attack on homosexuals. By way of subtle reproof, and partially as a deadpan joke on this man, your senior editor, with Royal Drummond (whose “Digression” was highly praised by Checklist readers last year ...) published a 12-page offset leaflet, with editorials attacking censorship, and extensive reviews of perhaps a dozen of the best known homosexual novels. This leaflet had a cartoon cover and the general light-hearted tone of the publication was indicated by the title, which was Fairy Tales for Fabulous Faps. Reaction to this leaflet was mixed, but in general the readers enjoyed it, and said, “Do this again some time—”. However, soon after this, Mr. Drummond dropped out of the Fantasy Amateur Press Association, and your present editor had no impetus to continue the series single-handed.
Early in the history of the publication known as THE LADDER, your senior editor had the privilege of reviewing the Foster book mentioned above, while the junior editor was in charge of the Lesbiana column. After reading the Foster work, your editor (MZB) resolved to publish a list of the omitted titles; when I began cutting the mimeograph stencils, however, I resolved to review not only the titles which Dr. Foster had omitted, but all of those which I had read, for the purpose of putting into print my own personal opinions and reactions. This first Checklist was called Astra’s Tower #2, and the number 2 seems to have baffled a good many people—they all wrote in, inquiring about #1. Number 1, however, was a mimeographed booklet of my own fiction, published during my late teens for the FAPA, mentioned above.