Lesbian full text and audio resources

See also the Online magazines and Digitisation projects sections in the Web links page.

New Zealand lesbian history

• Interview with Sue Alexander about her lesbian clippings collection (41:28; audio, summary and AI generated text). Sue talks about her lesbian clippings collections that spans over forty years. The interview was recorded at LILAC by Gareth of prideNZ.com.
• Lesbian lives - in Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Historical overview by Alison J. Laurie
• Lost lesbian places in Wellington, New Zealand - a list of lost (or mostly lost) lesbian places, derived from a longer list of places cited in the Lesbian/Gay Historical Walk of Wellington.
• The Trials of Eric Mareo - for the murder of his wife who had been having an affair with dancer Freda Stark. LILAC has a recent biography of Freda Stark which covers the events.
• The conquest of Mount Cook and other climbs : an account of four seasons' mountaineering on the Southern Alps of New Zealand by Freda du Faur, an Australian lesbian who was the first woman to climb Mt Cook. Also contains her blissful descriptions of shared lesbian love. LILAC has a recent biorgaphy of Freda.

Theses with lesbian themes

• Sussing out ageing: sharing lesbian & queer women's knowledge of ageing in Aotearoa New Zealand by Ella Jessica Robinson (PhD thesis, pdf 2.9 Mb)
  A qualitative study exploring how some lesbian and queer women (aged 45 to 88) conceptualise, and experience ageing, old age and the life course in Aotearoa New Zealand.
• Lady-Husbands and Kamp Ladies: Pre-1970 Lesbian Life in Aotearoa/New Zealand - Alison Laurie's PhD thesis (pdf 2.5 Mb)
  This study explores pre-1970 lesbian life and lives in Aotearoa/New Zealand before the impact of women's and gay liberation and lesbian-feminism, using written sources and oral histories.
• nzresearch.org.nz has access to full-text recent New Zealand theses - the link does the "lesbian" search for you ... but some of the links are dead
• Wolfskins and Togas: lesbian and gay historical fictions, 1870 to the present by Sarah Waters (PhD thesis, Queen Mary University of London) (pdf, 25Mb)
• The Lives and Experiences of Lesbians over 60 in the UK by Jane Traies (PhD, University of Sussex)

Spiral Collective publications

Spiral was founded in 1975, to produce a women's literary and arts journal of the same name. It is a New Zealand publisher and group of artist collectives with a focus on female artists and voices. Many of their publications have now been scanned by the Christchurch Art Gallery in conjunction with Spiral Collectives and are available online. Titles marked with an asterisk are available at LILAC.

• Spiral issue 1 *
  Spiral issue 2 *
  Spiral issue 3 *
  Spiral issue 4
  Spiral issue 5 *
  Spiral issue 6
  Spiral issue 7 *
• Charts & soundings : some small navigation aids* - 20 poems by Sue Fitchett and 22 images by Jane Zusters
• A Figurehead: a face* - Heather McPherson's first book of poetry
• Amazon Songs* Poems by Saj, with an introduction by Heather McPherson, published by Spiral in 1987
• Wahine kaituhi: women writers of Aotearoa - a catalogue of books written by women writers in New Zealand (1985)
• Mothers - catalogue for the exhibition Mothers, held at the Robert McDougall Art Gallery 23 January – 21 February 1982. The exhibition and the catalogue were produced by the Women's Gallery, Wellington.
• A Women's Picture Book: 25 women artists of Aotearoa (New Zealand) - 'Compiled, edited and with afterwords by Marian Evans, Bridie Lonie, Tilly Lloyd - a Women's Gallery/Spiral group'
• This Joyous, Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu published by Spiral and Mokopōpaki to celebrate the life and work of Heather McPherson (1942-2017)

Fiction

• Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg (LILAC has a copy)
• Leves Amores - the short story that got Katherine Mansfield back on a boat to England in quick time, the one that does not appear in the volumes of "Collected Short Stories". (pdf)
• Ladies Almanack - classic by Djuna Barnes, originally published in 1928 in Paris.
• The Unlit Lamp, and The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (LILAC has copies of both)
• Challenge by Vita Sackville-West (LILAC has a copy)
• Orlando (LILAC has a copy), and Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• The Lasf Leaf, a short story from 'The Trimmed Lamp' by O. Henry
• Still hunting for more - suggestions welcome

Biography, memoirs, etc.

• The True History and Adventures of Catharine Vizzani - Catterina Vizzani (1719-1743) was an Italian passing woman who ran away from home at the age of 16, adopted male clothing and thereafter lived as a man under the name Giovanni Bordoni. In 1743 she convinced the niece of a vicar to elope to Rome with her. They were stopped on the way and Giovanni/Catterina was fatally wounded. Her biography was written by the surgeon Giovanni Battista Bianchi who had performed an examination of her remains (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterina_Vizzani). The biography was translated into English by John Cleland, who was less than sympathetic to her life.
• The Stone Wall by 'Mary Casal' (Ruth Fuller Field). Published in 1930, it is a landmark in American LGBT history, perhaps the first 20th century autobiography in which the author openly acknowledges her attraction to another woman and their long and happy partnership.
• The Nun Ensign - Catalina de Erauso (ca 1592-ca 1650) - young Basque nun escapes the nunnery and washes up in South America passing as a man (LILAC has a copy)
• A Narrative of the life of Mrs Charlotte Charke written by herself - Charlotte was a transgressive English actor who live from 1713-1760. Biographical notes at wikipedia, and an interesting essay at autostraddle
• Charlotte Cushman: her letters and memories of her life by Emma Stebbins. Charlotte (1816-1876) was an American actress who spent part of her life in Europe, played men's roles on stage esp. Romeo, and lived in all-female households with her partners and others. (LILAC has a biography of her - When Romeo was a woman by Lisa Merrill).
• The Fiery Fountains - Margaret Anderson (one of the Americans in Paris in the 1920s) about her relationship with opera singer Georgette LeBlanc.
• Michael Field by Mary C. Sturgeon. (LILAC has another biography). Information about Michael Field on wikipedia [Katherine Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Cooper (1862-1913)]
• The Life And Death Of Radclyffe Hall by Una, Lady Troubridge
• Impressions that remained : memoirs Volume 1 and Volume 2, by Ethyl Smyth, 1858-1944. (LILAC has these in print)

History - assorted

The following links lead to recovered texts compiled by British gay historian Rictor Norton <http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/>. He has provided some context and commentary on each text.

• 1698 The Women's Complaint to Venus - a poem
• 1708 The Rival Dutchess; or, Court Incendiary The lesbian loves of Queen Anne's favourite Abigail Masham
• 1715 The Game at Flats   A song about two lesbians
• 1720s & earlier Some Cross-Dressing Women - newspaper reports
• 1728 Two Kissing Girls of Spitalfields - satirical verse
• 1732 The Toast Satire on the lesbian "Myra" ... and it includes the word lesbian
• 1739 A Female Dragoon - newspaper obituary
• 1749 The Game of Flats (lesbianism)
• 1760 Some Cross-Dressing Women - newspaper reports
• 1760 A Female Husband Exposed - from the London chronicle
• 1766 Mary East, the Female Husband - from the London chronicle
• 1773 The Adulteress (anon)
• 1777 Sapphic Love in Portugal
• 1778 A Sapphick Epistle - satirical poem
• 1790 Extraordinary Female Affection Ellinor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen
• 1791 Memoirs of Antonina (scandalous novel portraying Marie Antoinette as a lesbian)
• 1821 Cross-Dressing Women in Paris

Gertrude Stein - various

Biographical information at Wikipedia

• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein [1933] (LILAC has a copy)
• Three Lives : stories of the Good Anna, Melanctha and the Gentle Lena [1909]
• Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein - includes The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, and Miss Furr and Miss Skeene
• Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein ; with A Long Gay Book and Many Many Women [1909-12]

Nonfiction - assorted works

• Dykes Loving Dykes by Bev Jo, Linda Strega, Ruston, a classic lesbian feminist title reworked and published on the internet in 2015 (LILAC has a copy)
• Lesbian Avengers Handbook, 3rd ed. (LILAC has 2nd ed)
• A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf (LILAC has a copy)
• radfem.org has a collection of feminist books in .pdf format, including the complete works of Andrea Dworkin.

Lesbian poetry

• Ursula Bethell (1874-1945), New Zealand lesbian poet - poems and links to information about her at the New Zealand electronic poetry centre. The Six Memorials poems were written on the anniversaries of the death of her partner Effie Pollen. See also Chapter 11 in Alison Laurie's thesis.
• Poems by Libeau
• Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) reading her poetry
  more info about Adrienne Rich at wikipedia
• H.D.'s poetry: Hymen and Sea Garden.
• Archways of life - Mercedes de Acosta (1893-1968)
• Aphra Behn (1640-1689): 'To the Fair Clarinda'.
• Katherine Philips (1631-1664):
  - To my excellent Lucasia, on our friendship
  - Friendships mystery: to my dearest Lucasia
  - To Mrs M.A. at parting
  - To Mrs Mary Awbrey
• Poems of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)- info about the author
• Christina Rossetti (1830-1894) - Goblin Market. ... the most provocative of Rossetti's poems is 'Goblin Market', whose images ... value the sensuality that is possible between two women ... many of the illustrators of 'Goblin Market', even in the late nineteenth century, hinted at lesbian sexuality in their drawings. [Lilian Faderman in "Chloe plus Olivia" (1994), p. 76
• Christabel by Samuel Taylor Coleridge - there is information on Wikipedia about the poem, which was was reputedly written in 1797 and 1800 and published in 1816.
• The Book of repulsive women by Djuna Barnes - includes drawings

Lesbian lit websites

• Bibliography: Lesbians in the twentieth century at outhistory.org (American)
• Gormglaith - Radical lesbian separatist novel set in a plausible future with a witchy bent.
• Dyke, a Quarterly - an annotated online archive of the issues, letter, ephemera, and some side trips

Early Feminist writing

• A Description of Millenium Hall by Sarah Scott (1723-1795). There is a description of the work at Wikipedia.

GLBT resources

• GLBTQ - an Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture; no new material added since 2015
• Lodestar Quarterly - a journal of LGBT literature, publishing both established and new writers of fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction. Produced 2002-2005
• Blithe House quarterly - an online literary magazine featuring new short stories by emerging and established gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered authors
• OutWeek magazine - This site contains the entire 105 issues of OutWeek Magazine, published in New York from June, 1989 to July, 1991. OutWeek Magazine was the seminal lesbian and gay publication during the peak era of AIDS activism in the late 80s and early 90s. It redefined the role of the activist gay press, not only by reporting the news but also by frequently making news itself. Its aggressive coverage, incisive commentary and in-depth investigative articles on gay rights, politics, AIDS, the arts and popular culture made it a must-read publication far beyond the usual scope of gay magazines. The archive is digitized in a high-resolution pdf format suitable for printing.
• outhistory.org - links to all sorts of goodies - American focus.

About this page

We are looking for free Lesbian full-text resources on the internet and listing them here for your convenience. Some are comtemporary "born digital" works, and others are older, out of copyright, and scanned. The Lesbian in Literature, the 3rd edition of Barbara Grier's book (1981), is an indispensible aid for finding our literary history [and this title is available online! as a pdf file]. We are using this classic when searching fulltext online repositories, including the Internet Archive texts and Project Gutenberg for lesbian titles that are out of copyright.

Scanned fulltext works are just - pages including all the marginal notes, flyspots etc etc scanned. All of which gets converted by software to "something" in the raw scanned text files. Project Gutenberg files are corrected by volunteers (hooray), but the Internet Archive has over 1.6 million texts - full of  "šomet#ing§". PDF files may be less frustrating to read, but are much bigger for downloading than text or html files, and Google charges for them. Files from the NZ Electronic Text Centre are well presented and free.

Most author names in the lists below are linked to biographical information, generally from Wikipedia. Some of the Wikipedia pages link to biographical information written from a queer perspective in the GLBTQ encyclopedia.

We welcome information about other free lesbian fulltext resources on the internet.