Lesbian Novel "Patience and Sarah" by Isabel Miller (Alma Routsong), First Edition 1972

Isabel Miller Alma Routsong

First Edition

[LGBTQ] Miller, Isabel (pseudonym of Alma Routsong). Patience and Sarah. New York: McGraw-Hill Book and Company, 1972. First edition. Red hardcovers with blue lettering. Illustrated dust jacket by Stephanie Tevonian of a Lesbian couple in a pastoral setting. Set in the nineteenth century, Isabel Miller's classic lesbian novel traces the relationship and "Boston marriage" between Patience White, a painter, and Sarah Dowling, a farmer, whose romantic bond is tested by their puritanical New England town. First self-published in 1969 (titled A Place for Us) in an edition of 1,000 copies, the author hand-sold the book on New York street corners; it garnered increasing attention to the point of receiving the American Library Association's first Gay Book Award in 1971. McGraw-Hill's version of the book a year later brought it to mainstream bookstores across the country. Patience & Sarah is a historical romance whose drama was a touchstone for the burgeoning gay and women's activism of the 1960s and early 1970s. It celebrates the joys of an uninhibited love between two strong women with a confident defiance that remains relevant today. The pages are clean and crisp; this book is in very good condition.

Item #19427

Price: $150.00