Set in the lesbian and gay circles of Paris in the 1920s, this is the story of a hermaphrodite born to upper-class parents in Normandy and ignorant of his/her physical difference.

The subject of bisexuality continues to divide the lesbian and gay community. At pride marches, in films such as Go Fish, at academic conferences, the role and status of bisexuals is hotly contested. Within lesbian communities, formed to support lesbians in a patriarchal and heterosexist society, bisexual women are often perceived as a threat or as a political weakness. Bisexual women feel that they are regarded with suspicion and distrust, if not openly scorned. Drawing on her research with over 400 bisexual and lesbian women, surveying the treatment of bisexuality in the lesbian and gay press, and examining the recent growth of a self-consciously political bisexual movement, Paula Rust addresses a range of questions pertaining to the political and social relationships between lesbians and bisexual women. By tracing the roots of the controversy over bisexuality among lesbians back to the early lesbian feminist debates of the 1970s, Rust argues that those debates created the circumstances in which bisexuality became an inevitable challenge to lesbian politics. She also traces it forward, predicting the future of sexual politics.

May Woodlea is a champion procrastinator - the 3 a.m. failure in us all. She is not writing the proposal for her PhD. She lives in a grotty bedsit with her long-suffering partner Jansen. She is plagued by her unforgivably cheerful younger sister Elizabeth. How will May find purpose in her life and escape the daily grind? Can May and Jansen rescue their relationship from a seeming eternity of grudge-holding, competitive tiredness, imagined slights and absolutely no sex? And what will happen when a glamorous, domineering French writer and an old flame of Jansen's come on the scene? Footnotes to Sex is a painfully funny novel about procrastination, double-chocolate biscuits, the importance of commitment and what happens in relationships when the sex isn't happening...

Heap (1883-1964) was a writer, artist, Manhattan gallery owner, and coeditor of the Little Review, and as a dynamic figure of the international avant-garde created a life that defined the modernist experience between the world wars. Baggett (American history and gender studies, Southwest Missouri State U.) reveals her more intimate side primarily through her letters to Florence, and finds there insight into the struggle for lesbian identity and community. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908 1992) is probably best known for his Quartet for the End of Time, premiered in a German prisoner-of-war camp in 1941. However, Messiaen was a remarkably complex, intelligent person with a sometimes tragic domestic life who composed a wide range of music. This book explores the enormous web of influences in the early part of Messiaen's long life. The first section of the book provides an intellectual biography of Messiaen's early life in order to make his (difficult) music more accessible to the general listener. The second section offers an analysis of and thematic commentaries on Messiaen's pivotal work for two pianos, Visions of Amen, composed in 1943. Schloesser's analysis includes timing indications corresponding to a downloadable performance of the work by accomplished pianists Stphane Lemelin and Hyesook Kim.

A rich heritage that needs to be documented Beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality can be said to have begun with the establishment of sexology, this encyclopedia offers accounts of the most important international developments in an area that now occupies a critical place in many fields of academic endeavors. It covers a long history and a dynamic and ever changing present, while opening up the academic profession to new scholarship and new ways of thinking. A groundbreaking new approach While gays and lesbians have shared many aspects of life, their histories and cultures developed in profoundly different ways. To reflect this crucial fact, the encyclopedia has been prepared in two separate volumes assuring that both histories receive full, unbiased attention and that a broad range of human experience is covered. Written for and by a wide range of people Intended as a reference for students and scholars in all fields, as well as for the general public, the encyclopedia is written in user-friendly language. At the same time it maintains a high level of scholarship that incorporates both passion and objectivity. It is written by some of the most famous names in the field, as well as new scholars, whose research continues to advance gender studies into the future.

Volume one of this two volume set focuses on lesbian history and culture, beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality was said to have begun with the establishment of sexology. It is intended as a reference for students and scholars in many fields, as well as the general public.