The Sapphic Squad discussion

Any good books that specifically focus on wlw history?

Saidiya Hartman's brilliant Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments which partly explores wlw focusing on Black women in early 20th century America.

Jackie Kay writes about lesbian experience in her fiction and non-fiction, her biography of American blues singer Bessie Smith includes an exploration of Smith's experiences in terms of wlw.

After Sappho not technically non-fiction but parts are so close - and there's a long afterword and reading list - it might as well be. This looks at wlw through the nineteenth to early 20th century.

Jack and Eve: Two Women In Love and At War which takes two women and uses them to look at lesbian existence during WW1 in Britain,

A novel but rooted in fact and with a long author's afterword outlining the historical background/sources Last Night at the Telegraph Club about lesbian culture in 1950s America and the experiences of Asian American women.

Lesbian Love Story: A Queer History of Sapphic Romance the title is a bit misleading as this is about the women who inspired the author so not as comprehensive as it sounds.

Diana Souhami has written a series of biographies of prominent lesbian artists and writers as well as more general histories so could take a look at her books.

Haven't read these yet but on my list:

The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America

Sensible Footwear: A Girl's Guide which is a history of queer culture/experience in Britain from 1950 but focusing on women. Presented as graphic non-fiction so quite accessible.

I highly second Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals

Here are some on my tbr:

Secret Service: Untold Stories of Lesbians in the Military

Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America

The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire Before Stonewall

Drastic Dykes and Accidental Activists: Queer Women in the Urban South

Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943! about the real love story between a nazi housewife and a jewish underground lesbian during WWII

lune wrote: "Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943! about the real love story between a nazi housewife and a jewish underground lesbian during WWII"

I thought that was definitely worth reading but I found the delivery a bit disappointing. I'm currently reading an advance copy of a history of lesbian/queer spaces from bars to bookshops A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture which is really fascinating, so far at least.