Ann Bannon

The classic 1950s love story from the Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction, and author of Odd Girl Out, I Am a Woman, Women in the Shadows, Journey to a Woman and Beebo Brinker

She never knew what she wanted – until she came to Greenwich Village and found the love that smolders in the shadows of the twilight world.

Taking a pseudonym in the interest of privacy, Bannon wrote her first book, Odd Girl Out, as a coming-of-age novel that involved love between college sorority sisters. When an editor singled-out the school-girl romance as her story's most compelling feature, the book was re-written for a lesbian pulp fiction audience. Unlike most pulps, however, Bannon broke with tradition by avoiding sensationalistic plots in favour of emotionally engaged character development.
Odd Girl Out enjoyed tremendous success, inspiring other ground-breaking works, most notably Beebo Brinker. Her sensitive renderings of sexuality also won Bannon a devoted following among isolated lesbians everywhere.

"I got nice letters from a lot of really lovely women, and women who were hurting a lot, and women all over the country," Bannon remarks. "So many saying, 'Thank God I finally got connected with somebody who really knows what this is about.' " The character of Beebo is among the most-loved lesbians ever to appear in gay and lesbian fiction. "I never met Beebo in the flesh, but she was part of my daydreams from a very early time," Bannon says of her ultra-butch protagonist.

The classic 1950s love story from the Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction, and author of Odd Girl Out, I Am a Woman, Women in the Shadows, Journey to a Woman and Beebo Brinker

The sudden realization made her gasp—she could fool herself no longer. She wanted a woman…she wanted a woman terribly…

Revered as the “Queen of Lesbian Pulp” for her landmark novels of the 1950s, Ann Bannon defined lesbian fiction for the pre-Stonewall generation. I Am a Woman finds sorority sister Laura Landon leaving college heartbreak behind and embracing Greenwich Village's lesbian bohemia. This edition includes a new introduction by the author.

The classic 1950s love story from the Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction, and author of Odd Girl Out, I Am a Woman, Women in the Shadows, Journey to a Woman and Beebo Brinker

Would she throw away her entire life on the one wild chance that she might find the lost woman out of her past?

Following on from classic novels Odd Girl Out, I am a Woman and Women in the Shadows, Journey to a Woman finds Laura in love among the lesbian bohemia of Greenwich Village.

Praise for Ann Bannon

“Bannon's books grab you and don't let go” Village Voice
“When I was young, Bannon's books let me imagine myself into her New York City neighborhoods of short-haired, dark-eyed butch women and stubborn, tight-lipped secretaries with hearts ready to be broken. Her books come close to the kind of books that had made me feel fatalistic and damned in my youth, but somehow she just managed to sustain a sense of hope. And of course, there was her romantic portrait of the kind of butch woman I idealized. I would have dated Beebo, no question” Dorothy Allison
“Called trash by the literary world and pornography by the commercial world, Ann Bannon's books were hidden away on drugstore pulp racks. To pick out the book, carry it to the counter and face the other shoppers and the cashier was tantamount to coming out. But all across the country, lesbians were doing it” Joan Nestle
“Little did Bannon know that her stories would become legends, inspiring countless fledgling dykes to flock to the Village, dog-eared copies of her books in hand, to find their own Beebos and Lauras and others who shared the love they dared not name” San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Ann Bannon is a pioneer of dyke drama” On Our Backs
“Shameless tales of wanton dyke lust are finally unveiled!” Out magazine

The classic 1950s love story from the Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction, and author of Odd Girl Out, I Am a Woman, Women in the Shadows, Journey to a Woman and Beebo Brinker

She was the brain, the sparkle, the gay rebel of the sorority, and wonders of wonders, she chose Laura as her roommate. That was how it began…

Suddenly they were alone on an island of forbidden bliss

Taking a pseudonym in the interest of privacy, Bannon wrote her first book, Odd Girl Out, as a coming-of-age novel that involved love between college sorority sisters. When an editor singled-out the school-girl romance as her story's most compelling feature, the book was re-written for a lesbian pulp fiction audience. Unlike most pulps, however, Bannon broke with tradition by avoiding sensationalistic plots in favour of emotionally engaged character development. Odd Girl Out enjoyed tremendous success, inspiring other ground-breaking works, most notably Beebo Brinker.

“Odd Girl Out begins the saga of Laura, off on her own at college, appallingly shy and terminally polite…Laura meets Beth, whose brash straightforwardness and friendly attitude take the younger woman by storm, leading into an equally stormy affair” Metro Times>

The classic 1950s love story from the Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction, and author of Odd Girl Out, I Am a Woman, Women in the Shadows, Journey to a Woman and Beebo Brinker.

A guarded look across the room was all she dared–and this was Greenwich Village where almost anything goes…

Following on from classic novels Odd Girl Out and I am a Woman, Women in the Shadows picks up with Beebo's relationship with Laura, as both women become caught in the cultural tumult (gay bar raids, heavy drinking, gay rights advocacy) that anticipates by ten years the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969. New introduction explains the book's evolution, including the role Bannon's divorce played in shaping the lesbian protagonist's outrage.

New Introduction by Ann Bannon

“Originally published in 1959, Women in the Shadows broke from the formula of 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. The women in this novel were tied to convention, but they were still ahead of their time. In its proper historical context, Women in the Shadows is a masterpiece” Hélène Cixous

Praise for Ann Bannon

“Bannon's books grab you and don't let go” Village Voice
“When I was young, Bannon's books let me imagine myself into her New York City neighborhoods of short–haired, dark–eyed butch women and stubborn, tight–lipped secretaries with hearts ready to be broken. Her books come close to the kind of books that had made me feel fatalistic and damned in my youth, but somehow she just managed to sustain a sense of hope. And of course, there was her romantic portrait of the kind of butch woman I idealized. I would have dated Beebo, no question” Dorothy Allison
“Called trash by the literary world and pornography by the commercial world, Ann Bannon's books were hidden away on drugstore pulp racks. To pick out the book, carry it to the counter and face the other shoppers and the cashier was tantamount to coming out. But all across the country, lesbians were doing it” Joan Nestle
“Little did Bannon know that her stories would become legends, inspiring countless fledgling dykes to flock to the Village, dog–eared copies of her books in hand, to find their own Beebos and Lauras and others who shared the love they dared not name” San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Ann Bannon is a pioneer of dyke drama” On Our Backs
“Shameless tales of wanton dyke lust are finally unveiled!” Out magazine