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Beebo Brinker (novel)
Encyclopedia
Beebo Brinker is a lesbian pulp fiction
novel
written in 1962 by Ann Bannon
(pseudonym of Ann Weldy). It is the last in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1962 by Gold Medal Books
, again in 1983 by Naiad Press
, and again in 2001 by Cleis Press
. Each edition was adorned with a different cover. Although this is the last in the series, it is set first — a prequel
to the others. In the order of the series, it follows Journey To A Woman
. However, in the order of the events and characters in the series, Beebo Brinker takes place several years before Odd Girl Out
does.
As Bannon explained in the 2001 edition foreword to Odd Girl Out, Gold Medal Press publishers had control over the cover art and the title. Bannon's publisher titled the book. Lesbian pulp fiction books usually showed suggestive art with obscure titles that hinted at what the subject matter was inside.
. Beebo is 18 years old, tall and handsome, vacillating between overconfidence and vulnerability after leaving her family's farm in Wisconsin
for New York City
. Beebo is clearly welling up with a terrible secret that forced her to move east, and guilt that comes with leaving her father alone.
Jack helps Beebo get a job delivering pizzas (one of the advantages is that she can wear pants) for Pete, who is a little creepy, and his wife who cooks. Jack also allows Beebo to live with him until she gets on her feet, and allows her the time and space to ask the questions he knows she needs to ask. When she admits her frank admiration for a woman she sees, Jack tells her about lesbians, and she reacts with obvious fascination. He escorts her to several gay bars in the Village where she is astonished and touched by what she recognizes in herself.
After being treated cruelly by a vindictive woman playing a game with Pete, Beebo happens upon Paula one evening at her apartment, and it is Paula who verifies the suspicion of Beebo's sexuality. She is roused a couple days later to make a delivery to the apartment of a rather outrageous movie star, Venus Bogardus, who lives with her lonely teenaged son whom Beebo befriends. Beebo is infatuated and unnerved by Venus, who proposes that Beebo join them to return to California
as company for her son — and to bridge the gap between them. Venus, in turn, divulges her past loves with men and women and seduces Beebo.
As Venus rehearses for a television show, Beebo learns her new precarious place at Venus' ranch in California negotiating around Venus' business-minded husband, her public persona, and her vulnerable son. She is essentially, kept in secret. It dissatisfies her and she begins to miss Paula. She is seen briefly with Venus in public and it causes gossip columnists to start asking questions, and Venus' husband warns her to stay away from Venus in public. But on the night of the show, Venus' son has an epileptic seizure
and cuts his head open. Beebo must find Venus at a party celebrating the show's end, but is intercepted by her husband, who beats her in a rage before she can tell Venus what has happened.
The morning papers unleashed rumors of Venus being a lesbian. Unwilling to live in secret with Venus, Beebo returns to New York to recover while Venus and her husband appear happily in public. After a while, Beebo goes to find Paula again, who is thrilled to see her once more. Paula assures her that love can be better and they decide to see for themselves how.
She is described as striking in appearance, tall, muscular, with an unmistakably handsome boyish face. She is intelligent, funny, vulnerable, all at once and she does not apologize for being who she is: a three-dimensional character who is a butch
lesbian, when lesbians in literature were rarely mentioned (if only in pulp fiction), and butch ones only as one-dimensional villains. Bannon's characters became archetypes in the lesbian community when there were no role models. As displayed in Strange Sisters: The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction, images of butch women were slightly less feminine than other women on pulp fiction covers. Indeed, the image on the 1962 Gold Medal Books cover of Beebo Brinker, which Bannon describes as "god-awful," illustrates how the titillating cover art was designed more for men, and with no design for accuracy.
Ann Bannon has said that Beebo was modeled physically on a sorority sister of hers.
Beebo appears first in I Am A Woman
much more confident, in an undetermined amount of years after what takes place in Beebo Brinker. She is also in Women In The Shadows
less confident and much more flawed, and in Journey To A Woman
older and wiser.
, who called it, "a disappointment" upon initial review in 1962.
Again in 1969 in a retrospective of lesbian paperbacks, The Ladder claimed Beebo Brinker, "a sad failure" and that Beebo's real story lay in the years between arriving in New York and meeting Laura Landon. Although Gene Damon was a pseudonym for Barbara Grier
, who started Naiad Press — the publishing company that re-released all of Bannon's books in 1983.
However, author-editor Katherine V. Forrest
included chapter 4 of Beebo Brinker in a compilation of excerpts from what Forrest considered the best examples of lesbian pulp fiction books, aptly named Lesbian Pulp Fiction, in 2005, and called Beebo Brinker the character, "arguably still the most iconic figure in all of lesbian fiction."
Upon its release by Cleis Press in 2001, the Lambda Book Report claimed Beebo Brinker, "Though four decades old, (it) remains a delightful — and now instructive read."
Lesbian pulp fiction
Lesbian pulp fiction refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 60s by many of the same paperback publishing houses that other genres of fiction including Westerns, Romances, and Detective Fiction...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written in 1962 by Ann Bannon
Ann Bannon
Ann Bannon is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction"...
(pseudonym of Ann Weldy). It is the last in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1962 by Gold Medal Books
Gold Medal Books
Gold Medal Books, launched by Fawcett Publications in 1950, is a U.S. book publisher known for introducing paperback originals, a publishing innovation at the time. Fawcett was also an independent newsstand distributor, and in 1949 the company negotiated a contract with New American Library to...
, again in 1983 by Naiad Press
Naiad press
Naiad Press was one of the first publishing companies dedicated to lesbian literature. At its closing it was the oldest and largest lesbian/feminist publisher in the world.-History:...
, and again in 2001 by Cleis Press
Cleis Press
Cleis Press is an independent publisher of books in the areas of sexuality, erotica, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, fiction, and human rights. The press was founded in 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, later moved to San Francisco, and is now based out of Berkeley, CA...
. Each edition was adorned with a different cover. Although this is the last in the series, it is set first — a prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
to the others. In the order of the series, it follows Journey To A Woman
Journey to a Woman
Journey to a Woman is a lesbian pulp fiction novel written in 1960 by Ann Bannon . It is the fifth in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1960 by Gold Medal Books, again in 1983 by Naiad Press, and again in...
. However, in the order of the events and characters in the series, Beebo Brinker takes place several years before Odd Girl Out
Odd Girl Out (novel)
Odd Girl Out is a lesbian pulp fiction novel written in 1957 by Ann Bannon . It is the first in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1957 by Gold Medal Books, again in 1983 by Naiad Press, and again in 2001...
does.
As Bannon explained in the 2001 edition foreword to Odd Girl Out, Gold Medal Press publishers had control over the cover art and the title. Bannon's publisher titled the book. Lesbian pulp fiction books usually showed suggestive art with obscure titles that hinted at what the subject matter was inside.
Plot summary
Jack Mann finds Beebo Brinker (real name Betty Jean — she was unable to pronounce it as a child) wandering the streets of Greenwich VillageGreenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
. Beebo is 18 years old, tall and handsome, vacillating between overconfidence and vulnerability after leaving her family's farm in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Beebo is clearly welling up with a terrible secret that forced her to move east, and guilt that comes with leaving her father alone.
Jack helps Beebo get a job delivering pizzas (one of the advantages is that she can wear pants) for Pete, who is a little creepy, and his wife who cooks. Jack also allows Beebo to live with him until she gets on her feet, and allows her the time and space to ask the questions he knows she needs to ask. When she admits her frank admiration for a woman she sees, Jack tells her about lesbians, and she reacts with obvious fascination. He escorts her to several gay bars in the Village where she is astonished and touched by what she recognizes in herself.
After being treated cruelly by a vindictive woman playing a game with Pete, Beebo happens upon Paula one evening at her apartment, and it is Paula who verifies the suspicion of Beebo's sexuality. She is roused a couple days later to make a delivery to the apartment of a rather outrageous movie star, Venus Bogardus, who lives with her lonely teenaged son whom Beebo befriends. Beebo is infatuated and unnerved by Venus, who proposes that Beebo join them to return to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
as company for her son — and to bridge the gap between them. Venus, in turn, divulges her past loves with men and women and seduces Beebo.
As Venus rehearses for a television show, Beebo learns her new precarious place at Venus' ranch in California negotiating around Venus' business-minded husband, her public persona, and her vulnerable son. She is essentially, kept in secret. It dissatisfies her and she begins to miss Paula. She is seen briefly with Venus in public and it causes gossip columnists to start asking questions, and Venus' husband warns her to stay away from Venus in public. But on the night of the show, Venus' son has an epileptic seizure
Seizure
An epileptic seizure, occasionally referred to as a fit, is defined as a transient symptom of "abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain". The outward effect can be as dramatic as a wild thrashing movement or as mild as a brief loss of awareness...
and cuts his head open. Beebo must find Venus at a party celebrating the show's end, but is intercepted by her husband, who beats her in a rage before she can tell Venus what has happened.
The morning papers unleashed rumors of Venus being a lesbian. Unwilling to live in secret with Venus, Beebo returns to New York to recover while Venus and her husband appear happily in public. After a while, Beebo goes to find Paula again, who is thrilled to see her once more. Paula assures her that love can be better and they decide to see for themselves how.
Beebo Brinker the Character
Arguably the most popular of Bannon's characters throughout the series, Beebo Brinker is remarkable in literature — especially in the 1950s and 1960s. She refuses to dress femininely, and readers only once read about her wearing a skirt. In fact, she takes jobs that are clearly below her abilities (elevator operator and delivery boy) and declines a higher education because she knows these vocations would limit her to wearing feminine clothing. A writer who adapted three of the books into a play explained Beebo's draw: "She’s a brave person who tried to pass as a guy at a time when most lesbians were totally under cover. Those women of that era who lived openly like that were heroic. They didn’t live in regular society, they really lived on the edge, they lived on some fringe."She is described as striking in appearance, tall, muscular, with an unmistakably handsome boyish face. She is intelligent, funny, vulnerable, all at once and she does not apologize for being who she is: a three-dimensional character who is a butch
Butch and femme
Butch and femme are LGBT terms describing respectively, masculine and feminine traits, behavior, style, expression, self-perception and so on. They are often used in the lesbian, bisexual and gay subcultures...
lesbian, when lesbians in literature were rarely mentioned (if only in pulp fiction), and butch ones only as one-dimensional villains. Bannon's characters became archetypes in the lesbian community when there were no role models. As displayed in Strange Sisters: The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction, images of butch women were slightly less feminine than other women on pulp fiction covers. Indeed, the image on the 1962 Gold Medal Books cover of Beebo Brinker, which Bannon describes as "god-awful," illustrates how the titillating cover art was designed more for men, and with no design for accuracy.
Ann Bannon has said that Beebo was modeled physically on a sorority sister of hers.
Beebo appears first in I Am A Woman
I Am a Woman
I Am A Woman is a lesbian pulp fiction novel written in 1959 by Ann Bannon . It is the second in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1959 by Gold Medal Books, again in 1983 by Naiad Press, and again in 2002...
much more confident, in an undetermined amount of years after what takes place in Beebo Brinker. She is also in Women In The Shadows
Women in the Shadows
Women In The Shadows is a lesbian pulp fiction novel written in 1959 by Ann Bannon . It is the third in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1959 by Gold Medal Books, again in 1983 by Naiad Press, and again...
less confident and much more flawed, and in Journey To A Woman
Journey to a Woman
Journey to a Woman is a lesbian pulp fiction novel written in 1960 by Ann Bannon . It is the fifth in a series of pulp fiction novels that eventually came to be known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. It was originally published in 1960 by Gold Medal Books, again in 1983 by Naiad Press, and again in...
older and wiser.
Reception
Pulp fiction novels were never reviewed in serious literary journals, but it was reviewed by The LadderThe Ladder (magazine)
The Ladder was the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States. It was published monthly from 1956 to 1970, and once every other month in 1971 and 1972. It was the primary publication and method of communication for the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization...
, who called it, "a disappointment" upon initial review in 1962.
Again in 1969 in a retrospective of lesbian paperbacks, The Ladder claimed Beebo Brinker, "a sad failure" and that Beebo's real story lay in the years between arriving in New York and meeting Laura Landon. Although Gene Damon was a pseudonym for Barbara Grier
Barbara Grier
Barbara Grier was an American writer and publisher most widely known for co-founding Naiad Press and writing and editing The Ladder under the pseudonym Gene Damon.-Early life:...
, who started Naiad Press — the publishing company that re-released all of Bannon's books in 1983.
However, author-editor Katherine V. Forrest
Katherine V. Forrest
Katherine V. Forrest is an American writer.Forrest is best known for her eight novels about lesbian police detective Kate Delafield. The character was the very first lesbian police detective in the American lesbian mystery genre and is described as "Miss Marple with k.d...
included chapter 4 of Beebo Brinker in a compilation of excerpts from what Forrest considered the best examples of lesbian pulp fiction books, aptly named Lesbian Pulp Fiction, in 2005, and called Beebo Brinker the character, "arguably still the most iconic figure in all of lesbian fiction."
Upon its release by Cleis Press in 2001, the Lambda Book Report claimed Beebo Brinker, "Though four decades old, (it) remains a delightful — and now instructive read."
External links
- Ann Bannon's website
- Barale, Michele. "When Jack Blinks: Si(gh)ting Gay Desire in Ann Bannon's Beebo Brinker." Feminist Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3, The Lesbian Issue. (Autumn, 1992) p. 533- 549.
- Carol Anshaw "Beebo Brinker - Review". Advocate, The. August 28, 2001
- Ryan, Kate Moira and Chapman, Linda S. "The Beebo Brinker Chronicles." Dramatists Play Service, 2009.