This
is the fortieth  post in a series highlighting the best gay and lesbian
authors from the 20th century (with a few before and after that period)
who have recorded in fiction, and nonfiction, the history of gay people
telling what life is, and was, during an important time of history.

Bannon, Ann (b. 1932)

    



Along
with Valerie Taylor and Paula Christian, Ann Thayer, who adopted the
pseudonym Ann Bannon, wrote lesbian pulp novels in the late 1950s and
early 1960s. When first published, Bannon's five novels, which form an
interlinked series, achieved considerable popularity; they were even
translated into other languages. Their appeal lies in their plausible
descriptions of lesbian life in New York City; as critic Diane Hamer
comments, Bannon's novels "read like a travelogue or tourist guide of
Greenwich Village and its homosexual bars."

It
was Thayer's own liminal position, existing between the heterosexual
and homosexual communities, that made her such a perceptive commentator
about the difficulties of pursuing a lesbian lifestyle in the 1950s.


Thayer began to lead a double life at an early age. She was
conventionally married yet slipped away on the weekends to experience
the gay night life of Greenwich Village. Valuing her privacy and not
wishing to be connected with lesbian pulps, she dropped from sight after
her books were published. Only in 1980, when her books were republished
by Naiad Press, did she acknowledge authorship.

Although written last, Beebo Brinker (1962), is actually the
first novel in Bannon's sequence, chronologically. The novel introduces
young Beebo, fresh from the Midwest, who comes out as a lesbian in the
Greenwich Village gay culture. Beebo, the stereotypical butch, is a
central figure in Bannon's other novels, as well. Apart from its
depiction of Beebo, this novel is also notable for its accurate account
of the social pressures that confronted lesbians in this period.

Odd Girl Out (1957) centers on the growth of a lesbian
relationship between two college students. Shy, sheltered Laura is at
first horrified to discover her feelings toward Beth since she assumes
that lesbians are "great strong creatures in slacks with brush cuts and
deep voices." Here, Bannon uses her fiction to explode lesbian
stereotypes.

By the end of the story, Laura accepts her lesbianism, but Beth
flees into the safety of marriage to a man. Such a conclusion seems at
first glance to endorse the benefits of heterosexual marriage, but for
Bannon, denying one's lesbianism can lead only to dissatisfaction, and
the marriage fails.

I Am a Woman (1959) revolves around Laura's attempt to establish
her lesbian identity and find love after she has left college. Bannon is
particularly good at portraying how Laura manages to move from a
heterosexual environment, such as the office where she works, to the
lesbian bars where she meets Beebo. Despite the novel's rather pat
conclusion--the two women kiss and declare their love--I Am a Woman
provides a sensitive study of the Greenwich Village homosexual community
of the late 1950s.

The bleakest of Bannon's novels is Woman in the Shadows (1959).
Beebo, now an alcoholic, antagonizes Laura and they have fights, often
ending in physical confrontations. To escape her embattled relationship
with Beebo, Laura has an affair, but it ends bitterly. At the book's
conclusion, Laura has left Beebo and, rather implausibly, has married
Jack, a gay man, and become artificially inseminated.
Journey to a Woman (1960) recounts Beth's story of fleeing her unhappy
marriage in order to search for Laura. Even though Beth leaves her
husband and children, Bannon portrays this not as negative, but as
necessary in order for Beth to find her true identity. Although at the
end of the novel, Beth has found happiness with Beebo, her new lover,
other lesbians are not as fortunate. Vega, for instance, rejects her
lesbianism, which drives her to insanity. In this fashion, Bannon
reverses the then common assumption that lesbianism itself was a form of
insanity.

As do all of her novels, Journey to a Woman criticizes how
heterosexual society views homosexuality, a pertinent reason for still
studying Bannon's texts. Bannon's novels, as well as other lesbian
pulps, provide an important record of lesbian life in a period when few
women dared speak about homosexuality.
Sherrie A. Inness




In retirement



Ann Bannon retired from teaching in 1997, but tours
the country visiting paperback-collecting conventions and speaking at
colleges and universities about her writings and experiences. She was a
guest of National Public Radio's Peabody Award-winning talk show "Fresh
Air" with Terry Gross, and has also been featured in Gross's book, All I
Did Was Ask, a collection of transcripts from the show. Bannon also
speaks at gay-themed events around the country and is working on her
memoirs.

In a recent editorial written by Bannon in Curve, she discussed
how her books survived despite criticisms by censors, Victorian
moralists, and purveyors of literary "snobbery" in writing, "To the
persistent surprise of many of us, and of the critics who found us such
an easy target years ago, the books by, of and for women found a life of
their own. They—and we—may still not be regarded as conventionally
acceptable 'nice' literature, as it were—but I have come to value that
historical judgment. We wrote the stories no one else could tell. And in
so doing, we captured a slice of life in a particular time and place
that still resonates for members of our community."

For a lot more about Ann Bannon, and her books, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Bannon