Sappho Was a Right-On Woman: A Liberated View of Lesbianism FIRST EDITION WITH PROVENANCE

New York: Stein and Day, 1972. First Edition. Hardcover. Good/good. First Edition. Hardcover. This first edition of Sappho Was a Right-On Woman comes from the library of the late influential Jewish lesbian feminist, theorist, activist, and scholar Dr. Bette S. Tallen (1950-2023). The first nonfiction book to discuss lesbianism positively and non-diagnostically and the first to examine the connection between feminism and lesbianism, Sappho Was a Right-On Women is the work of two important lesbian feminists, influential in the Gay Liberation Movement, and both active members of the National Organization of Women (NOW): Sidney Abbott (1937-2015), a member of Lavender Menace, and Barbara Love (1937-2022), a member of the 1973 presentation persuading the American Psychiatric Association (APA) to remove homosexuality from the DSM. This is an admittedly worn but complete first edition of this landmark work, with notable provenance.

Dr. Bette Tallen's copy, with her ownership signature to front free endpaper. 9 1/2" X 6 1/4". 251pp. Presents nicely in protective archival sleeved jacket. Heavy wear to unclipped dust jacket, with open tears to edges and extremities, including slight loss to author's name at head of spine, sunning to spine and surrounding panels, creasing and surface wear, and foxing to verso. Bound in red paper over boards, with author signatures in gilt to upper board, spine backed in maroon cloth and lettered in gilt. Moderate wear to binding, with sunning to edges, dust soiling, and bumping to extremities. Foxing to edges of text block and to endpapers. Binding is firm and sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. Admittedly a first printing of this landmark work that has a history of its own, as evidenced by the detailed physical condition provided above, but one with a relevant and meaningful provenance, from the collection of the late Lesbian and Women's Studies scholar and activist Dr. Bette S. Tallen.