Moment of Silence for a Literary Pioneer

Jane Rule, a prominent Canadian writer whose first novel, "Desert of the Heart," is considered a landmark work of lesbian fiction, died Nov. 27 at her home on Galiano Island in British Columbia. She was 76.
The cause was complications of liver cancer, said Deborah Windsor, executive director of the Writers' Union of Canada.

A major literary figure in Canada, Ms. Rule wrote seven novels as well as short stories and nonfiction. But it was for "Desert of the Heart" that she remained best known. Published by Macmillan in 1964, the book appeared five years before the Stonewall uprising, at a time when lesbians were all but invisible in mainstream letters. It told the story of a woman who goes to Reno, Nev., for a divorce and there finds love with a dynamic younger woman.
Ms. Rule's other books, some of which also centered on lesbian themes, include the novels "This Is Not for You," "Against the Season" and "After the Fire"; the story collection "Theme for Diverse Instruments"; and a volume of criticism, "Lesbian Images."
Jane Vance Rule was born March 28, 1931, in Plainfield, N.J., and grew up in the Midwest and California. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Mills College in 1952. In 1954 she joined the faculty of the Concord Academy, a private school in Massachusetts. There she met Helen Sonthoff, a fellow faculty member who became her life partner. They settled in Vancouver in 1956.
Sonthoff died in 2000, at 83. Information on other survivors could not be confirmed.
Ms. Rule, who became a Canadian citizen in the 1960s, was awarded the Order of British Columbia in 1998 and the Order of Canada last year.

Over the years, her opposition to government censorship of gay and lesbian books made her highly visible in Canada. She did not, however, support same-sex marriage, which was legalized there in 2005.
"To be forced back into the heterosexual cage of coupledom is not a step forward but a step back into state-imposed definitions of relationship," she wrote in BC Bookworld, a Canadian trade periodical, in 2001.
****This article appeared on page C - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle****


--Moment of silence--But... we have to say something at the loss of one of the first lesbian authors.

Desert of the Heart was one of the first books Web read as a teenager and it gave her something tangible to relate to, at a difficult time for her as it is for most teens. We are saddened at the loss of such a great writer for our community. Thank you Jane Rule for your creativity and persistence. R.I.P.

Reading lesbian novels and short stories have always been a source of "normalcy" in an unaccepting world. TV and movies have come a long way in adding to that feeling of belonging. However, a recent search of our public library, which happens to be only 2 blocks from the High school, has a minimal assortment of lesbian fiction. Its very distressing to consider that to acquire a book of that genre you need to alert the staff and have your selection sent from the Phoenix library. Not something a teenage girl is apt to do. There just aren't enough books and not enough access for our young people. Those stories might be the only way they can quietly escape, feel normal and not feel alone. Going to have to write a letter to that library and bring it to their attention I think.

Please continue to read, encouraging new authors to get their stories out there for us to share and appreciate.
And again.. we mourn the loss...