The Horn. Random House 1953, Crest pbr 1958, (m).
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL. Elsie Venner. Burt, 1859; many editions, a classic novel of a very strange girl, psychologically akin to poisonous snakes. In the course of this novel a curious and intense relationship develops between Elsie and a young schoolmistress named Helen; a compulsive domination, attraction and revulsion. One might suspect Dr. Holmes, whose medical writings and observations place him far ahead of his era psychologically, of gentelly camouflaging a portrait of variance, 100 years ago, by making the girl a creature of macabre fantasy.
+ HORNBLOW, LEONORA. The Love Seekers. Random 1957, pbr Signet 1958. The heroine’s hesitation between marriage with a steady and reliable man, and insecure excitement with a hoodlum, is resolved when her affairs are interrupted by concern for the daughter of a friend; the young lesbian, Mab, whose life has become entangled with some very shady characters.
+ HULL HELEN R. “The Fire” ss in Century Magazine, Nov 1917; Excellent story of a small-town girl’s love for a middle-*aged spinster who awakens her to a world beyond her small one.
“With One Coin for Fee”, novelette in Experiment, Coward-McCann 1938, 1939, 1940. An introspective spinster and a lifelong friend, trapped in a New England house during the 1939 hurricane; subtle but good.
The Quest. Macmillan, 1922. An over-emotional girl, seeking escape from home tensions, develops crushes on a classmate and on a teacher. her mother’s over-reaction turns the girl against variant attachments just as her[30] unhappy home turned her against marriage.
The Labyrinth. Macmillan, 1923. Variant attachments, among others, in a novel of a woman unhappy in domesticity and trying to find creative outlets.
Landfall. N. Y. Coward-McCann 1953. In a brittle and sarcastic novel of a brittle and sarcastic woman, the heroine, a capable businesswoman, alternately repulses and warms toward her adoring secretary—though she secretly scorns the girl’s devotion, she feels it would be a nuisance to break in a new secretary, so wishes to keep her captivated.
HUNEKER, JAMES. Painted Veils. Liveright 1920 (still in print); pbr Avon 1928. Unpleasant novel of the theatrical and literary world of that day; the heroine, Easter, (an opera singer) has a mannish satellite.
HURST, FANNIE. The Lonely Parade. N. Y. Harper 1942. Very minor mention of lesbians in a novel of lonely women at hotels.