Checklist Part 14

_Labe, Louise_-Love Sonnets (trans. by Frederick Prokosch), New Directions, 1947, $2.50, still in print.

_Shakespeare, William_-The first 27 of the "Sonnets" are generally adjudged to be male-h.o.m.os.e.xual in emphasis and are therefore of interest to collectors in this field.

THE ROMANTIC POETS-19th CENTURY:

_Coleridge, Samuel T._-Christabel. Long narrative poem of a curious attachment between a guileless young girl and a female demon; available in virtually every anthology of English literature.

_Rossetti, Christina_-Goblin Market. Lovely and fantastic poem with distinctly variant overtones. See anthologies of English literature.

_Romani, Felice_-Norma. Italian libretto for the opera by Vincenzo Bellini, generally adjudged to be subtly lesbian in overtones. Many translations are available in collections of opera libretti, but most English translations edit out the variant content or alter the emphasis.

_Baudelaire, Charles_-The Flowers of Evil, (trans. from the French of Les Fleurs du Mal by Edna St. Vincent Millay and George Dillon) N. Y., Harper, 1936, also New Directions, pbr, 1958. Many other editions and translations available.

_Swinburne, Algernon Charles_-Poems and Ballads, 2 vols, London, Chatto & Windus, 1893, 1895. Many of the poems in this series are explicitly or implicitly lesbian. In the interests of s.p.a.ce limitation, only the major t.i.tles will be listed for those who want to sift through anthologies; Anactoria, Fragoletta, Sapphics, At Eleusis, Sonnet with a copy of Mlle. de Maupin, The Masque of Queen Bersabe, Erotion. The entire series of Poems and Ballads is available in hcr no. 961, Everyman's Library, Dutton, 1940, 50, for $1.95.

_Lous, Pierre_-Songs of Bilitis. Many editions available, the most easily located probably being the Liveright "Collected works of Pierre Louys", $3.50. There is also a paperback edition, Avon Red and Gold Library, no date. The "Songs" have been published singly in numerous privately printed and ill.u.s.trated editions, some of which are very beautiful collector's items.

_Bronte, Emily_-Complete Poems. N. Y. Columbia University Press, 1941 (still in print at $4.00). A scattering of these poems are (or can be interpreted as) vaguely variant.

_Mencken, Idah Isaacs_-Infelicia. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1875.

(Rare, and expensive.)

_Field, Michael_-(pseud. of two Englishwomen.) Entire work of lesbian interest and a "must" for completists. Most medium to large public libraries have some of their work.

_d.i.c.kinson, Emily_-Bolts of Melody. N. Y. Harper, 1945. Also variant poems are scattered throughout her earlier editions. (Selected Poems, Modern Library, 1948, $1.65.)

THE MODERN POETS:

_Lowell, Amy_-No one volume of her work can be singled out; her poems are perhaps the most openly variant of any of the English or American poets. Her "Complete Poetical Works" is still in print; Boston, Houghton & Mifflin Co., 1955; Introduction by Louis Untermeyer, $6.00.

_O'Neill, Rose_-The Master Mistress. N. Y., Knopf, 1922. The creator of the "Kewpies" also was the writer of these sensitive, occasionally erotic poems. Perhaps a dozen are explicitly lesbian.

_Hall, Radclyffe_-Poems of the Past and Present, London, Chapman & Hall, 1910. Songs of Three Counties, Chapman & Hall, 1913. The Forgotten Island, London, Chapman & Hall, 1915. Sheaf of Verses, London, Chapman & Hall, 1905. Twixt Earth and Stars, London, Chapman & Hall, 1906.

These poems by the author of "Well of Loneliness" are so overt that it is almost unbelievable that they were printed at all, but they were, and I have the books to prove it ... she managed to get away with it, I guess, because she talks in these poems as if she were a man, writing to a woman.

_Millay, Edna St. Vincent_-Collected Poems, N. Y., Harper, 1956, $6.00. This is the favored anthology of Millay for this purpose, since it contains everything of hers which is variant in tone.

However, there are many single volumes of her poetry available, and also pbrs; Collected Lyrics (Washington Square, 50), and Collected Sonnets (Washington Square, 50).

_Sackville-West, Victoria_-King's Daughter, N. Y., Doubleday, 1930.

_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 h.o.m.os.e.xuality may not be portrayed _or suggested._ (Italics mine). Even when the predominantly h.o.m.os.e.xual 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 h.o.m.os.e.xuals. 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.

THE ADVENTURES OF KING PAUSOLE. Filmed in France in 1932, with Emil Jannings. Based on the Pierre Louys novel, this starred 366 models and dancers from the Folies Bergere; among these near-nude and nubile nymphs was one disguised as a male ballet dancer, with whom the King's daughter Aline had a romance even after discovering that they were of the same s.e.x.

ALL ABOUT EVE took the Academy Award in 1950. There is a very lesbian situation used to introduce the main protagonist into the movie; later events proved the woman only pretending lesbian-type devotion, but the inference, in the beginning, is clear and unmistakable. (GD)

THE BARKER 1928. A short silent picture which was banned in many cities because it featured a scene in which a very butchy type in men's pajamas got into bed with a fluffy blonde type; caused a lot of critical hoop-la. (GD)

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, a film based on the Lillian h.e.l.lman play reviewed in this Checklist, bears a question mark; will someone who has seen the picture please let us know whether lesbian content was implicit in the movie?

CHILDREN OF LONELINESS, outright anti-h.o.m.ophile propaganda, was mostly male-oriented, but did contain a gay night-club scene, and picture and office butch whose offer of affection and protection drove one girl to a psychiatrist's couch-where she was counselled against "abnormal love".

DARK VICTORY. 1939, recently shown on TV, concerns a talented, charming woman (Bette Davis) dying of a brain tumor; her constant companion and secretary is clearly in love with her, and there were numerous beautiful and heartbreaking scenes, some of which would be impossible in a movie not dealing with such a sad situation.

CLUB DES FEMMES (Girl's Club in English) an admirable French film starring Danielle Darieux, reviewed at length in THE LADDER. The lesbian element is treated explicitly and with taste and charm.

ESCAPE TO YESTERDAY, a French film with one brief sequence in a cabaret, where recognizably lesbian types were portrayed.

MAEDCHEN IN UNIFORM, a cla.s.sic German film of the thirties, reviewed at length in J H Foster's book, starring Hertha Thiele as Ma.n.u.sia and Dorothea Wieck as her teacher. The film has recently been re-made but has not yet reached the USA.

THE G.o.dDESS, an art film released about a year ago, starring Kim Stanley, shows the life of an unwanted child who grows up to be a movie queen and ends up living with her secretary, obviously a lesbian; the relationship is portrayed with unusual frankness. This movie is still playing in specialty theatres around the big cities.

NO EXIT, a French film of the play by Jean-Paul Sartre; setting, limbo; one of the characters, a lesbian who fell in love with a married woman and drove her to suicide by spooking her.

OPEN CITY, realistic Italian film of 10 years or so ago, had a recognizable lesbian type-cast in it.

PIT OF LONELINESS, a French film based on the novel OLIVIA and starring Simone Simon. "Something of a disappointment" says LJE.

QUEEN CHRISTINA, 1934. This famous screen cla.s.sic starred Greta Garbo; the variant bits were minor, but they were there. (GD)

ROSE OF WASHINGTON SQUARE 1939. Now-dated tear-jerker starring Alice Faye; in one long scene the heroine sings standing by a piano, while a clearly seen, very mannish and extremely obvious "type" drools over her.

Not imagination; this one was the veddy veddy correct, monocled type.

(GD)

SIGN OF THE RAM, a filming circa 1947 of the Margaret Ferguson novel, starred Susan Peters as the wheelchaired heroine; the "crush" between Leah and Christine was treated vaguely but recognizably to anyone who had read the book.

TIME OF DESIRE. "Much has been made of the Uranian aspect of this film but personally I couldn't see it...." LJE