What do you think?
Rate this book
Indomitable: The Life of Barbara Grier
"Whatever else will be said about her–and you can bet there will be plenty, because Barbara was no stranger to controversy–the one thing that is true above all else is that she was the most important person in lesbian publishing in the world. Without her boldness and her audacity, there might not be the robust lesbian publishing industry there is today." - Teresa DeCrescenzo
Indomitable: The Life of Barbara Grier
Joanne Passet
Barbara Grier – feminist, activist, publisher, and archivist - was many things to different people. Perhaps most well known as one of the founders of Naiad Press, Barbara’s unapologetic drive to make sure that lesbians everywhere had access to books with stories that reflected their lives in positive ways was legendary. Barbara changed the lives of thousands of women in her lifetime.
Indeed, Grier, who in the 1950s and ‘60s contributed to and later edited The Ladder, one of the first lesbian periodicals, had a long and storied career as a champion of lesbian literature at a time when few else did. An avid collector of lesbian-themed books, she compiled and dispersed reading lists to women searching for reflections of their lives in literature. Grier also personally corresponded with hundreds of lesbians who wrote her care of The Ladder, desperate for advice, comfort, and guidance. At the same time, she was legend for her acid tongue, terse manner, and self-importance, so anyone who was completely surprised when Grier released Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, an anthology of writings by lesbian nuns, in 1985 and then sold excerpts to Penthouse Forum, didn’t know the real Barbara Grier.
For the first time, historian Joanne E. Passet uncovers the controversial and often polarizing life of this firebrand editor and publisher with new and never before published letters, interviews, and other personal material from Grier’s own papers. Passet takes readers behind the scenes of The Ladder, offering a rare window onto the isolated and bereft lives lesbians experienced before the feminist movement and during the earliest days of gay political organizing. Through extensive letters between Grier and her friend the novelist Jane Rule, Passet offers a virtual diary of this dramatic and repressive era. Passet also looks at Grier’s infamous “theft” of The Ladder’s mailing list, which in turn allowed her to launch and promote Naiad Press, the groundbreaking women’s publishing company she founded with partner Donna McBride in 1973. Among its notable authors were Katherine V. Forrest, Ann Bannon, Valerie Taylor, Karin Kallmaker, and Isabelle Miller. Naiad went on to become one of the leaders in gay and lesbian book publishing and for years helped sustain lesbian and feminist bookstores—and readers—across the country.
Joanne Passet is Professor Emerita of History, Indiana University East. A former librarian, she is the author of Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Howard Foster, Sex Radicals and the Quest for Women’s Equality, and Cultural Crusaders: Women Librarians in the American West.
Indomitable: The Life of Barbara Grier
Joanne Passet
Barbara Grier – feminist, activist, publisher, and archivist - was many things to different people. Perhaps most well known as one of the founders of Naiad Press, Barbara’s unapologetic drive to make sure that lesbians everywhere had access to books with stories that reflected their lives in positive ways was legendary. Barbara changed the lives of thousands of women in her lifetime.
Indeed, Grier, who in the 1950s and ‘60s contributed to and later edited The Ladder, one of the first lesbian periodicals, had a long and storied career as a champion of lesbian literature at a time when few else did. An avid collector of lesbian-themed books, she compiled and dispersed reading lists to women searching for reflections of their lives in literature. Grier also personally corresponded with hundreds of lesbians who wrote her care of The Ladder, desperate for advice, comfort, and guidance. At the same time, she was legend for her acid tongue, terse manner, and self-importance, so anyone who was completely surprised when Grier released Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, an anthology of writings by lesbian nuns, in 1985 and then sold excerpts to Penthouse Forum, didn’t know the real Barbara Grier.
For the first time, historian Joanne E. Passet uncovers the controversial and often polarizing life of this firebrand editor and publisher with new and never before published letters, interviews, and other personal material from Grier’s own papers. Passet takes readers behind the scenes of The Ladder, offering a rare window onto the isolated and bereft lives lesbians experienced before the feminist movement and during the earliest days of gay political organizing. Through extensive letters between Grier and her friend the novelist Jane Rule, Passet offers a virtual diary of this dramatic and repressive era. Passet also looks at Grier’s infamous “theft” of The Ladder’s mailing list, which in turn allowed her to launch and promote Naiad Press, the groundbreaking women’s publishing company she founded with partner Donna McBride in 1973. Among its notable authors were Katherine V. Forrest, Ann Bannon, Valerie Taylor, Karin Kallmaker, and Isabelle Miller. Naiad went on to become one of the leaders in gay and lesbian book publishing and for years helped sustain lesbian and feminist bookstores—and readers—across the country.
Joanne Passet is Professor Emerita of History, Indiana University East. A former librarian, she is the author of Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Howard Foster, Sex Radicals and the Quest for Women’s Equality, and Cultural Crusaders: Women Librarians in the American West.
338 pages, Hardcover
First published November 24, 2015
3 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 5, 2018
Barbara Grier founded Naiad Press, the first and for many years the major lesbian book publishing house. Earlier, in the 1960s and '70s, she wrote for The Ladder, the magazine of the Daughters of Bilitis, an organization founded by foremothers Del Martin and Phyllis Lyons. Grier wrote under the pseudonym of Gene Damon (and many other pseudonyms besides).
Passet's book is an excellent, fair-minded biography.
Grier was indeed indomitable, as those of us who had any contact with her can testify. She was almost unbelievably driven and hard working, and she had rough edges.
Grier grew up in a struggling family. Her father deserted her mother. Grier couldn't afford college, so she educated herself while working on mostly clerical jobs.
She loved books with a singular passion, especially lesbian books. She had realized in her early teens that she was a lesbian. Her mother had no problem with that.
Grier devoted her life to finding books about lesbians, especially those that showed lesbians in a positive light. She acquired an extensive collection, and wrote a bibliography.
While writing for The Ladder, she answered perhaps thousands of inquiries from women who were closeted. Although she could be brusque in person, she cared deeply about women in difficulties.
She determined to live an exemplary personal life because she wanted to be a good role model.
After The Ladder folded, she and her partner, Donna McBride, joined with Anyda Marchant, a woman who had novels to publish, to create Naiad, which became a huge success.
Grier did all that without any salary until the 1980s.
She was used to doing everything herself. She did not fit in well with the collective styles that women who came out in the feminist movement developed. Grier could be high-handed, and came into to conflict with authors and some other women's organizations. She wanted to promote lesbian books, and didn't care whether authors liked the way she promoted them.
Grier was an outstanding, almost larger than life figure. Anyone wanting to learn about lesbian history or the history of the U.S. women's movement should read this fine book.
Passet's book is an excellent, fair-minded biography.
Grier was indeed indomitable, as those of us who had any contact with her can testify. She was almost unbelievably driven and hard working, and she had rough edges.
Grier grew up in a struggling family. Her father deserted her mother. Grier couldn't afford college, so she educated herself while working on mostly clerical jobs.
She loved books with a singular passion, especially lesbian books. She had realized in her early teens that she was a lesbian. Her mother had no problem with that.
Grier devoted her life to finding books about lesbians, especially those that showed lesbians in a positive light. She acquired an extensive collection, and wrote a bibliography.
While writing for The Ladder, she answered perhaps thousands of inquiries from women who were closeted. Although she could be brusque in person, she cared deeply about women in difficulties.
She determined to live an exemplary personal life because she wanted to be a good role model.
After The Ladder folded, she and her partner, Donna McBride, joined with Anyda Marchant, a woman who had novels to publish, to create Naiad, which became a huge success.
Grier did all that without any salary until the 1980s.
She was used to doing everything herself. She did not fit in well with the collective styles that women who came out in the feminist movement developed. Grier could be high-handed, and came into to conflict with authors and some other women's organizations. She wanted to promote lesbian books, and didn't care whether authors liked the way she promoted them.
Grier was an outstanding, almost larger than life figure. Anyone wanting to learn about lesbian history or the history of the U.S. women's movement should read this fine book.
March 1, 2018
Barbara Grier was a giant in the world of lesbian publishing. Passet did extensive research through correspondence and interviews to show Grier's important contribitions while not sparing readers the less likeable parts of her personality (she appears to have been very demanding, abtupt, and outright cold at times). Importantly, this book reveals the tensions within and the workings of the world of feminist and "homophile" movements of the 60s through to the 80s. While I wouldn't call this biography a page-turner or even one with wide appeal, it is absolutely essential for researchers and students of that subject.
June 7, 2017
It was interesting to learn about this piece of history. The writing was nothing special, and I was surprised at how unflattering a portrait it was of the book's "heroine." I know nothing about her, so I'm not suggesting Passet's portrayal is wrong, it's just surprising when you read a biography of someone to find them portrayed as so difficult and annoying.
July 19, 2018
Well researched and well written book showing a complete perspective of this lesbian pioneer.
I was quite impressed with the thoroughness of the research and interviews that must’ve been done in order to put this book together. The author was very through in her perspective and told a complete story of a very complicated lesbian pioneer.
I was quite impressed with the thoroughness of the research and interviews that must’ve been done in order to put this book together. The author was very through in her perspective and told a complete story of a very complicated lesbian pioneer.
May 6, 2017
Redundant. Uninspiring. Nothing to fault with the writer's mechanics -- no glaring errors of usage, etc. Just dull, and I have no real sympathy for the topic person who was pretty high-handed and autocratic.
Read
February 16, 2017Biography of Barbara Grier relates to mostly her life in publishing and Naiad Book Publishing, leader in lesbian fiction, as well as her days as part of DOB’s The Letter. So important of a work.
December 10, 2016
Just finished reading Joanne Passet's biography of Barbara Grier, a controversial lesbian print activist. Joanne tells a detailed story of the life of Barbara Grier that reads like a good novel, but presents the history of the woman's movement during Barbara's a lifespan. The research of the author contains 30 pages of chapter endnotes, 5 pages of a Selected Biography, and an invaluable detailed time line. The narrative not only details the life of Barbara Grier, but also, reveals the history of both lesbian political activism and lesbian print activism and how these two movements affect the lesbian literary and political climate today. A must read for anyone interested in the evolvement of the power of a printed book, newsletter, or even single printed columns. Joanne Passet captured and preserved the unbiased story of the life of Barbara Grier, but she also preserved the historical significance of this time frame during the women's movement.
December 13, 2016
Both a scholarly work and a great read! It's important to have lesbian history recorded, and wonderful to have it done so well. Barbara Grier was a lynch pin in how the story has evolved.
December 24, 2016
A whose who in lesbian writing. Grier is presented flaws and all and still she will be remembered as the woman who doggedly got lesbian books into print and into bookstores.
April 7, 2017
I'm happy to know about Barbara Grier. I especially enjoyed the intimate stories of how she formed a partnership during the closeted pre-Stonewall era. Grier is a great example of how obsession (in her case, with lesbian literature) can lead you to have an impact on the world.
Finally, it's always interesting to see how an active life, getting stuff done, collides with the theoretical and political. So, in this case, the stories of how the business of Niaid Press didn't match up with Feminist principles, offer some good lessons.
This isn't the most artfully written biography, but it's complete, and thoughtful, and important.
Finally, it's always interesting to see how an active life, getting stuff done, collides with the theoretical and political. So, in this case, the stories of how the business of Niaid Press didn't match up with Feminist principles, offer some good lessons.
This isn't the most artfully written biography, but it's complete, and thoughtful, and important.
April 17, 2017
No doubt about it, this biography of lesbian publishing legend Barbara Grier (1933–2011) is a valuable contribution to lesbian, gay, and feminist history of the 20th and very early 21st centuries. For the first half of her life, Grier lived her public life almost entirely through correspondence and through contributions to The Ladder, published by the pioneering lesbian organization Daughters of Bilitis (DOB). As a result, the written record is extensive, and biographer Passet has made good use of it.
Indomitable vividly sketches the historical backdrop, from the extremely closeted 1940s to the first stirrings of "homophile" organizations like DOB and the Mattachine Society in the early to mid 1950s and into the politically turbulent 1960s, with the rise of the women's liberation and gay liberation movements, and the subsequent increase in visibility of lesbians, gay men, and uppity women of all kinds. It's not hard to understand what a lifeline The Ladder was to isolated lesbians across the country in the late 1950s and 1960s, or how life-changing it could be to find any evidence at all that other women could be attracted to women. If not for the pathbreaking work of Jeannette Howard Foster, Marion Zimmer Bradley (yes, that Marion Zimmer Bradley, the one who later became very famous as the author of the Darkover novels and The Mists of Avalon), and Grier herself, so much of our lesbian and gay literary heritage would have been lost forever.
Where this book falters is in its unwillingness to really grapple with its subject. Not to worry: this is no hagiography. Passet is a capable biographer who has managed to do exhaustive primary-source research and distill the results into a readable narrative. She doesn't shy from showing how abrasive and manipulative Grier could be. What she doesn't do is stand back far enough to take a critical look at the woman. What strikes me about the first half of Grier's life is how free she was to create an identity for herself with minimal interference or contradiction from without. Thanks to her feckless father, the family moved often and eventually fell apart; Grier's younger sisters were placed in an orphanage till their mother could get her life back together, and even when they were reunited, Grier was absent enough to be a virtual stranger to her younger siblings.
Then for some 20 years, from age 18 onward, Grier was in an apparently monogamous relationship with the extremely closeted Helen Bennett. If the two had close friends as a couple, we don't hear about it here. Grier was free to invent both herself and her history in her correspondence and her Ladder contributions, and she did exactly that. The written record suggests that she was not a reliable narrator, and also that few of her readers and correspondents ever challenged her version of events. The exception was author Jane Rule (1931–2007), who frequently called Grier on her exaggerations and excuses and whose friendship with Grier seems to have continued to her death. (Aside: Would someone please collect and edit Rule's correspondence? The bits of it quoted here suggest it's a major trove waiting to be discovered.)
Thanks to the great changes being brought about by the women's and gay movements, and especially by the beginning in 1972 of Grier's relationship with Donna McBride, Grier became a very public figure in feminist, lesbian, and gay circles. She was honored to the point of adulation by many of whose for whom The Ladder had been a lifeline. Her years of devotion to lesbian bibliography became part of the foundation for women's studies courses. But she continued impervious to challenge from without, and those who did challenge her (notably over Naiad Press's promotion of the anthology Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, to which Passet wisely devotes a whole chapter) were generally ignored or demonized, not only by Grier but by her devotees. Thanks to the rigidity of her convictions, some of her closest associates, such as Naiad author and editor Katherine V. Forrest, parted company with such acrimony that they never spoke to Grier again.
What to make of this? I'm not sure, but I wish Joanne Passet, along with many others, hadn't taken at face value Grier's frequent claim that her sole motivation was to put lesbian literature in the hands of lesbians everywhere -- and even if it was, does the end justify all the means she employed to pursue it? Or, to put it another way: When the end is one we don't sympathize with, how willing are we to excuse the means used to achieve it?
My review of Indomitable is scheduled to appear in the Women's Review of Books later this year.
Indomitable vividly sketches the historical backdrop, from the extremely closeted 1940s to the first stirrings of "homophile" organizations like DOB and the Mattachine Society in the early to mid 1950s and into the politically turbulent 1960s, with the rise of the women's liberation and gay liberation movements, and the subsequent increase in visibility of lesbians, gay men, and uppity women of all kinds. It's not hard to understand what a lifeline The Ladder was to isolated lesbians across the country in the late 1950s and 1960s, or how life-changing it could be to find any evidence at all that other women could be attracted to women. If not for the pathbreaking work of Jeannette Howard Foster, Marion Zimmer Bradley (yes, that Marion Zimmer Bradley, the one who later became very famous as the author of the Darkover novels and The Mists of Avalon), and Grier herself, so much of our lesbian and gay literary heritage would have been lost forever.
Where this book falters is in its unwillingness to really grapple with its subject. Not to worry: this is no hagiography. Passet is a capable biographer who has managed to do exhaustive primary-source research and distill the results into a readable narrative. She doesn't shy from showing how abrasive and manipulative Grier could be. What she doesn't do is stand back far enough to take a critical look at the woman. What strikes me about the first half of Grier's life is how free she was to create an identity for herself with minimal interference or contradiction from without. Thanks to her feckless father, the family moved often and eventually fell apart; Grier's younger sisters were placed in an orphanage till their mother could get her life back together, and even when they were reunited, Grier was absent enough to be a virtual stranger to her younger siblings.
Then for some 20 years, from age 18 onward, Grier was in an apparently monogamous relationship with the extremely closeted Helen Bennett. If the two had close friends as a couple, we don't hear about it here. Grier was free to invent both herself and her history in her correspondence and her Ladder contributions, and she did exactly that. The written record suggests that she was not a reliable narrator, and also that few of her readers and correspondents ever challenged her version of events. The exception was author Jane Rule (1931–2007), who frequently called Grier on her exaggerations and excuses and whose friendship with Grier seems to have continued to her death. (Aside: Would someone please collect and edit Rule's correspondence? The bits of it quoted here suggest it's a major trove waiting to be discovered.)
Thanks to the great changes being brought about by the women's and gay movements, and especially by the beginning in 1972 of Grier's relationship with Donna McBride, Grier became a very public figure in feminist, lesbian, and gay circles. She was honored to the point of adulation by many of whose for whom The Ladder had been a lifeline. Her years of devotion to lesbian bibliography became part of the foundation for women's studies courses. But she continued impervious to challenge from without, and those who did challenge her (notably over Naiad Press's promotion of the anthology Lesbian Nuns: Breaking Silence, to which Passet wisely devotes a whole chapter) were generally ignored or demonized, not only by Grier but by her devotees. Thanks to the rigidity of her convictions, some of her closest associates, such as Naiad author and editor Katherine V. Forrest, parted company with such acrimony that they never spoke to Grier again.
What to make of this? I'm not sure, but I wish Joanne Passet, along with many others, hadn't taken at face value Grier's frequent claim that her sole motivation was to put lesbian literature in the hands of lesbians everywhere -- and even if it was, does the end justify all the means she employed to pursue it? Or, to put it another way: When the end is one we don't sympathize with, how willing are we to excuse the means used to achieve it?
My review of Indomitable is scheduled to appear in the Women's Review of Books later this year.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews