WIMBERLEY, GWYNNE. One Touch of Ecstasy. Frederick Fell, 1959. A lesbian affair gives “one touch of ecstasy” to a woman’s inhibited, unhappy life, allowing her to return to her husband with wakened perceptions.
WILDER, ROBERT. Wait for Tomorrow. Putnam 1950, Bantam 1953. A girl’s unwilling entanglement with a predatory lesbian, in a romance of an imaginary Balkan country, leads to all sorts of violence and cloak-and-dagger stuff. Good.
+ WILHELM, GALE. Torchlight to Valhalla. Random, 1938, pbr tct
The Strange Path, Lion 1953, Berkley 1958, 1959. Morgen, rootless and drifting after the death of her artist father, to whom she had been childishly close, is loved by two fine young men, but finds her happiness with a strange young girl, Toni. Major, well known.
We Too Are Drifting. Triangle Books 1938-39; Modern Library 1935. pbr Lion Books 1951, Berkley 1957, 58, 59, 60. Probably the major novel of the thirties to deal with lesbians; perhaps the best of all time. In substance it deals with the boyish, but feminine Jan Morale; her struggle to escape a slightly sordid affair with Madelaine, a married woman, and to find happiness, despite family complications, with a young girl, Victoria. Told with fairness, restraint, and skill—not to mention that this is one of the dozen or so books on this entire list to display not only some, but exceptional literary merit.
WILLIAMS, TENNESSEE. “Something Unspoken” in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton. New Directions, 1953. Also in Best Short Plays of 1955-56, Dodd, Mead, 1956. A play; I marked this for fco, received a protest “Everybody will enjoy this.” Compromise; everybody will enjoy this who likes Tennessee Williams.
WILLIAMS, WILLIAM CARLOS. The Knife of the Times. Dragon Press, 1932, hcr tct Make Light of It, Random House 1950, (m). The title story is in DWCory, 21 Variations.
WILLIAMS, IDABEL. Hellcat. Greenberg 1934, pbr Dell 1952. Unpleasant girl who uses everyone for her own purposes includes a lesbian among her victims.
WILLINGHAM, CALDER. (pseud). End as a Man. Vanguard 1947, pbr Signot co. 1957, (m).
WILLIS, GEORGE. Little Boy Blues. Dutton, 1947.[56] Concerns the machinations of a lesbian to achieve marriage and motherhood as a “front”.