BAKER, DOROTHY. Trio. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co, 1943, hcr Sun Dial 1945, pbr Penguin Books 1946. Tells of the captivation of a young woman by an unscrupulous literary agent who also happens to be a lesbian. Highly defamatory.
Young Man with A Horn. Boston; Houghton Mifflin, 1938, pbr Signet 1953. Very minor lesbian incident in a jazz novel.
+ BALDWIN, JAMES. Giovanni’s Room. Dial 1956, pbr Signet 1959, (m). An American boy in Paris fights against his affair with a young Italian, Giovanni; his fear and resistance to this relationship leads to separation, tragedy and their separate destruction. A powerful, tender and tragic book.
BALDWIN, MONICA. The Called and the Chosen. Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, N. Y., 1957, pbr Signet 1958. A good study of repression and frustration in convent life, containing passim the story of Sister Helena, novice-mistress; although her behavior was strictly correct even for a nun, she once inspired such violent passions in her juniors that she was removed from this office. The heroine refers to Sister Helena, after her death, as “the one human being I ever loved”.
BALZAC, HONORE DE. Cousin Bette. Classic; many standard editions and translations. The story of a neurotic spinster’s half-realised passion for a woman friend.
The Girl with the Golden Eyes. Many standard editions and translations, including; pbr Avon Books 1957, (trans. Ernest Dowson.) Shocker of the 19th century, dealing with the passion of the Chevalier de Marsay for a strange, unspoilt girl, Paquita—who is virtually enslaved to a sinister lesbian Countess.
Seraphita. London, J.W. Dent & Sons, 1897; also as above. A romance of an angelic hermaphrodite. All of these are classics of world literature, as well as the literature of variance, and are apt to be available even in small libraries.
+ BANNON, ANN.
Odd Girl Out. pbo, Gold Medal, 1957, 1960.