Notable Lesbians
This week’s Notable Lesbian is:
Jane Vance Rule
March 28, 1931 -
Jane Rule a Canadian writer of lesbian-themed novels and non-fiction. 
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Rule studied at Mills College in California. She graduated in 1952, and moved to Canada four years later. Teacher, author, and out lesbian, Rule is best known as a fiction writer. Her awards include the Canadian Authors’ Association Award for Best Novel (1978), the Benson and Hedges Award for Best Short Stories (1978), the Literary Award of the Gay Academic Union (1978), and the Fund for Human Dignity’s Award of Merit (1983). She served on the executive of the Writers’ Union of Canada, and has been an outspoken advocate of both free speech and gay rights, including in the various controversies surrounding the gay magazine The Body Politic. Rule was inducted into the Order of British Columbia in 1998.
(Information provided by GLBTQ.com)
Interesting tid bit:
Her first book, Desert of the Heart (1964), was filmed by Donna Deitch and released as Desert Hearts in 1985. Desert of the Heart traces, in alternating chapters, the lives of two women, widely separated by age and background, as they overcome their initial fear and prejudice and risk living together. In all her writing, Rule says, she has tried “to speak the truth as I saw it,” to present lesbians and homosexuals as “not heroic or saintly but real.”
Jane Rule’s Bibliography:
- Desert of the Heart (1964)
- This Is Not For You (1970)
- Against the Season (1971)
- Lesbian Images (1975)
- Theme for Diverse Instruments (1975)
- The Young in One Another’s Arms (1977)
- Contract With the World (1980)
- Outlander (1981)
- Inland Passage and Other Stories (1982)
- A Hot-Eyed Moderate (1985)
- Memory Board (1987)
- After the Fire (1989)
Writing is far too hard work to say what someone else wants me to. Serving it as a craft, using it as a way of growing in my own understanding, seems to me to be a beautiful way to live. And if that product is shareable with other people, so much the better. ~ Jane Rule
More Notable Lesbians
If you have a suggestion for a Notable Lesbian, e-maill me at lyndsey.darcangelo@451press.net or use the contact form above and I’ll highlight her in an upcoming post.
jane rule, desert hearts, desert of the hearts, the body politic
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