Lesbian literature & Chicago activism: Valerie Taylor letters, 1964-1975

Vintage book cover of "Stranger on Lesbos" by Valerie Taylor. A young white woman with her shirt draping off of her shoulders looks to the side.

“It seems slightly satirical to wish anyone happiness in this messed-up world but I hang on to a possibly erroneous belief that personal happiness is still possible, or how has the human race survived so much?”

– Valerie Taylor to Jack Conroy, December 26, 1969

Valerie Taylor (1913-1997) was an activist and novelist, especially prominent in the lesbian pulp genre of the mid-20th century. She used many names over the course of her life, including Velma Tate, which is how she signed off letters to her friend and fellow leftist writer Jack Conroy. Her wit shines through this selection of twelve letters, which range from 1964 to 1975. Common topics include the difficulties of publishing, leftist politics, and tongue-in-cheek responses to “Chick tracts” (Evangelical comics intended to encourage conversion to Christianity), which were seemingly often sent to Taylor by Conroy in order to poke fun at them.

“It will be so cozy in hell–everyone I know there.”

– Valerie Taylor to Jack Conroy, January 12, 1975

Scholars have described Taylor as a key figure in the history of both pulp literature and Midwestern gay activism.

“As both an open lesbian and a political activist, Taylor is a unique author in the pulp genre. Taylor centers the Midwest in her novels and illustrates both the vibrancy of gay life and the beginnings of gay activism in Chicago in the late 1950s and early 1960s… while they are still certainly pulps and share some of the issues found in the majority of lesbian pulps, she takes control of the genre and uses it to disseminate information to the queer community in Chicago, consistently challenging the standard. Taylor differentiates herself by inserting references to books, spaces and terms to help illuminate the reality of the Chicago gay community. She also provides a critique of police entrapment and bar raids, the legal and psychological standing of homosexuals and, most importantly, she portrays her lesbian characters as distinctly human individuals.”

– Midwestern farmers’ daughters: heartland values and cloaked resistance in the novels of Valerie Taylor, by Jennifer Dentel

Taylor was one of many leftist authors who kept correspondence with Conroy, who was himself a significant contributor to the “proletarian literature” of the early 20th century. These letters provide us a window into the kind of relationships he fostered as well as Taylor’s humor and drive.

– Quinn Sluzenski, Digital Initiatives Assistant

View Valerie Taylor’s letters to Jack Conroy at Newberry Digital Collections

Learn more about LGBTQ+ archives at the Newberry

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Lesbian literature & Chicago activism: Valerie Taylor letters, 1964-1975

Ultimate tranquility

Babies in blimps

Summer rays

Woman’s best friend

A peaceful day

Bee-sized horse?

Race, empire, and cartography

Le scorpion

Medieval snapshots

Mermaid memories

Fashion-forward animals

Turn of the century correspondence

Another postcard with chimpanzees

Baseball’s sad lexicon

Earnestly romantic