The GLBTRT has been reviewing books and movies in its newsletter since the early 1990s. Trace the evolution of queer publishing through these historic reviews. This review was originally published in Vol. 3, No 3, Fall 1991.

Faderman, Lillian. Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers. Columbia University Press, 1991. Hardcover. $29.95. (ISBN 0-231-07488-3)

Faderman, the author of Surpassing the Love of Men, has made a significant contribution to the field of social history in her excellent, readable study of lesbian life in America. Lesbian relationships and images of those relationships have undergone remarkable changes throughout the 20th century.

The decades have witnessed varying degrees of naivete, support, tolerance, condemnation and suspicion of ‘The life” since the turn of century to the present time. The era of the “educated spinster” and “devoted companions” of the middle to late nineteenth century was a time when women’s “romantic friendships” were accepted and even encouraged. Such relationships came under scrutiny in the early 1900’s, becoming “abnormal” and “inverted.” The author continues her odyssey through the “lesbian chic” of the 1920’s, which for some was a period of voluntary ostracism from the mainstream values and deliberate experimentation outside the standard moral code; through the shadowy and confusing 1930’s; to the amazing expansion of the lesbian culture of the 1940’s; to the backlash, ambivalence and cruelty of the 1950’s; to the “revolutions” of the lesbian culture in the 1960’s and 1970’s; to the present where the personality of the lesbian of today is being redefined and refined within the community and without.

The final lesson of this history (and other histories!) is the realization that after all this time, the only thing consistent among lesbians is their persistence and diversity in loving women. Recommended for all libraries.

Reviewed by Jane Jurgens
Northeastern lllinois University
Chicago, lllinois