No canonical list of pre-Stonewall
lesbian poetry exists, but few would
disagree that each of these six women contributed significantly to the
lesbian literary heritage.
Hilda Doolittle (H. D.)
Emily Dickinson's
(1830-1886) poems and letters to her sister-in-law Susan are both
passionate and elusive in their homoeroticism.
Hilda Doolittle
(1886-1961), a bisexual poet and novelist who published under the
initials H. D., wrote poems and autobio-
graphical prose works that celebrate women's romantic relationships
with each other.
Amy Lowell (1874-1925) was a poet, translator, essayist, literary
biographer, and public speaker. Her poetry is extremely frank,
forthrightly sensual, and often overtly lesbian.
May Sarton
(1912-1996), who gradually revealed her lesbianism in her writing,
worked successfully in poetry, the novel, essays, and the journal.
Sappho (ca 630? B.C.E.)
is the earliest woman writer whose work survives today. She has
been admired throughout the ages and was so esteemed by her
compatriots that her portrait graced the coins of her native Lesbos.
Gertrude Stein
(1874-1946) became--with Alice B. Toklas--half of an iconic lesbian
couple. Stein was an important innovator and transformer of the
English language who created short works she called "poems" between
1912 and 1925.
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Photo Credits:
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
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