Ann Bannon

Did You Know?

• Bannon grew up in Hinsdale, Illinois, taking care of four siblings due to family financial problems.
• She found solace in writing and was surrounded by jazz music, as her family hosted small recitals.
• Her elder daughter, who converted to Catholicism and became conservative, does not approve of Bannon's work.

Writing career

After World War II, paperback books in the United States expanded through Pocket Books' distribution via newspapers, newsstands, grocery stores, and transit stations, growing retail opportunities about tenfold. In 1950, Gold Medal Books published Women's Barracks, a fictionalized account of Tereska Torrès' service in the Free French Forces that depicted a lesbian relationship and sold 4.5 million copies, earning mention in a 1952 House committee on pornographic materials. Gold Medal Books, a Fawcett Publications branch, printed cheap paperbacks sold for 25 cents in drug stores across the U.S. and Canada, designed to be discarded.

Rediscovery

After initial publication, Bannon's books faded from publishing memory, especially after Gold Medal Books closed. In 1975, she was asked to include four books in Arno Press's library edition of Homosexuality: Lesbians and Gay Men in Society, History and Literature. In 1983, Barbara Grier of Naiad Press tracked Bannon down and reissued the books with new covers. Grier stated that when asked which lesbian paperback author to highlight, the answer was 'Ann Bannon. Without even a discussion ... In terms of actual influence, sales, everything, Bannon.' Bannon did not advertise the reissue at Sacramento State, where she was not tenured, but word spread, and she received recognition from students and faculty. Following a bitter divorce and just as the Naiad Press editions were released, Bannon endured a bout of chronic fatigue syndrome, which she connects to repressing herself for so long, saying she beat herself up horribly in ways she'll never know.

Themes

Because little information about lesbians and lesbianism was available at the time, Bannon's books, through wide distribution and popularity, helped form lesbian identity for both heterosexuals and lesbians. Lesbian author and historian Joan Nestle called them 'survival literature,' spreading hope to trapped and isolated women. Scholar Andrea Loewenstein's 1980 review noted the books were 'exceptionally good pulp' that caused strong feelings of sadness or anger among lesbians reading them twenty years later. Bannon depicts strict butch and femme roles and portrays gays and lesbians as self-destructive, closeted, paranoid, and alcoholic. Loewenstein suggests readers in 1980 tended to reject that reality, pretending away recent history. She remarks that Bannon's characters are deeply conflicted by relationships they feel are morally wrong, acting out cycles of self-hatred, yet what remains is 'surprisingly ... passionate, tender, and erotic.'

Legacy

Critics note Bannon's books are remarkable for portraying homosexual relationships relatively accurately, with character continuity giving them a unique quality when most lesbian characters were one-dimensional stereotypes meeting punishment. Her characters have been called 'accessibly human' and still engrossing by contemporary standards. LGBT historian Susan Stryker describes the relationships as mostly positive, satisfactory, and at times complex, which Bannon attributed to not letting go of hope she could salvage her own life. One retrospective noted Bannon challenged the prevailing belief that homosexual life was brief and often ended in death, insisting on the continuity of lesbian love. Bannon set her stories in secret gay bars of the 1950s and 1960s, where one had to knock and be recognized; police raids were common, and a raid on a gay bar prompted the 1969 Stonewall riots. Bannon unwittingly recorded history from her own visits to Greenwich Village. In 2007, a writer who adapted three books into a play said Bannon's writing transcended its time, era, and market.