Sterling, George—Strange Waters. Privately printed, n.d., also in American Esoterica, N. Y. Macy-Masius, 1927. Lengthy narrative poem of supposed incestuous lesbianism ... shocker.
Doolittle, Hilda (H.D.)—Red Roses for Bronze, London, Lord, Chatto & Windus. Also the Grove Press qpb, Selected Poems of H.D., 1957; this, however, does not contain the best-known of Sappho paraphrases, “Fragment Thirty-six”. Also “Collected Poems”, Liveright, $2.50.
Pitter, Ruth—English poetess, whose work is rather difficult to locate in this country. Many of her early poems are tinged with variance and well worth the effort of locating them in large libraries.
Smith, Alicia Kay—Only in Whispers. Privately printed; Falmouth, Rockport, Maine. This is the hardest book on this list to obtain, and of course, the most overt. Ardently but in good taste, this tells of a lengthy and beautiful lesbian affair. A “must” book for serious collectors who like poetry.
Wright, James—The Green Wall. Yale University Press, 1957, $3.00. Two overt poems in an excellent and sensitive collection.
variant films
compiled by LauraJean Ermayne and Gene Damon
With the exception of a few privately filmed and circulated stag films, which of course do not come within the scope of this study, lesbianism is treated only vaguely and by indirection in motion pictures. Hollywood codes (which regulate distribution even of foreign films in this country) state unequivocally that homosexuality may not be portrayed or suggested. (Italixs mine). Even when the predominantly homosexual novel COMPULSION was filmed, the script—though including a rape scene—was fudged so that the relationship between the two boys was never hinted at—except vaguely in one scene, where Orson Welles as the great lawyer said that the opposition might find “something fishy” in the fact that they had no other friends. Your editor has since been informed that the movie NEVER SO FEW portrayed recognizable homosexuals. Hollywood codes are growing less stringent by the day, with the general relaxation of censorship, and by next year there should be some additions to this list. Thanks are due to Miss Ermayne for allowing us to reprint the material used in her article on The Sapphic Cinema in THE LADDER for March, 1959 ... the Editors.