Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 15, 2010

Ann Bannon (born 1932) is an American author who wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels from 1957 to 1962 known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction". Bannon was a young housewife trying to address her own issues of sexuality when she was inspired to write her first novel. Her subsequent books featured four characters who reappeared throughout the series, including her eponymous heroine, Beebo Brinker, who came to embody the archetype of a butch lesbian. Despite her traditional upbringing and role in married life, her novels defied conventions for romance stories and depictions of lesbians, by addressing complex homosexual relationships positively during the 1950s and 1960s. Bannon's books shaped lesbian identity for lesbians and heterosexuals alike, but she was mostly unaware of their impact until they were republished in the 1980s. Since then, her books have been adapted into an Off-Broadway play and have been taught within Women's and LGBT studies. (more...)

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