Alma Routsong
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Alma Routsong (26 November 1924 - 4 October 1996) was an American novelist best known for her lesbian fiction, published under the pen name Isabel Miller.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Alma Routsong was born in Traverse City, Michigan 26 November 1924, the daughter of Carl and Esther Miller Routsong. During World War II she served in the WAVES, training at the Farragut, Idaho Naval Training Center[2] and then working as a hospital apprentice. She graduated from Michigan State University in 1949 with a degree in art.
Routsong's first two novels were published under her own name, with the later works under the pen name, a combination of an anagram of "Lesbia" and her mother's maiden name.[3] Between 1968 and 1971 she worked as an editor at Columbia University. From the mid-1970s until 1986 she was a proofreader for Time Magazine.[4]
Routsong was an officer in the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis[5] and was arrested during a DOB police raid.[6]
Alma Routsong died in Poughkeepsie, New York on 4 October 1996.[7]
[edit] Works
- Routsong, Alma (1953). A Gradual Joy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Routsong, Alma (1959). Round Shape. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Miller, Isabel (1969). A Place for Us. New York: Bleeker Street Press. republished as Miller, Isabel (1971). Patience and Sarah. New York: McGraw-Hill.
- Miller, Isabel (1986). The Love of Good Women. Tallahassee, FL: Naiad Press.
- Miller, Isabel (1991). Side by Side. Tallahassee, FL: Naiad Press.
- Miller, Isabel (1993). A Dooryard Full of Flowers: and Other Short Pieces. Tallahassee, FL: Naiad Press.
- Miller, Isabel (1996). Laurel. Tallahassee, FL: Naiad Press.
[edit] Awards and Honors
- Friends of American Writers award (1954, for A Gradual Joy)
- Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Fellow [8]
- American Library Association Gay Book Award (1971, for Patience and Sarah)
[edit] Reviews
- "After the G.I. Wedding," (review of A Gradual Joy), The New York Times 23 August 1953
- "When Mother Moved In," (review of Round Shape), The New York Times 6 September 1959
- "Their love was a thing apart" (review of Patience and Sarah), The New York Times 23 April 1972
[edit] References
- ^ Gallagher, John (1999-08-17). Take a Wilde RIDE - highlights of gay rights history from 1895-1998. The Advocate. Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
- ^ Traverse City Record-Eagle, August 17, 1945
- ^ Katz, Jonathan. "Writing and Publishing Patience and Sarah". Gay American History. Retrieved on 2008-01-02.
- ^ Wavie, "Isabel Miller"
- ^ Hogan and Hudson, Completely Queer
- ^ Wavie, "Isabel Miller"
- ^ Social Security Death Index
- ^ "Mrs. Bruce Brodie Wins Fellowship to Conference" Urbana, Illinois Courier, 26 July 1957
[edit] Bibliography
- Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002
- Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson, Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998), pages 481-482.
- Elizabeth M. Wavie, "Isabel Miller" in Sandra Pollack and Denise D. Knight (eds) Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States, (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993), pp 354-360
- Carol Hurd Green and Mary Grimley Mason (eds) "Alma Routsong", in American Women Writers, volume 5 (St James Press, 1994), pp 394-396
