Alma Routsong

Alma Routsong (November 26, 1924 – October 4, 1996) was an American novelist best known for her lesbian fiction, published under the pen name Isabel Miller.

Early life

Alma Routsong was born Elma Louise Routsong in Traverse City, Michigan, on November 26, 1924. Her father, Carl Routsong, was a police sergeant, and her mother, Esther Miller Routsong, was a nurse."Elma L Routsong" in the ''1930 United States Federal Census'' (Census Place: Traverse City, Grand Traverse County, Michigan; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0019; FHL microfilm; 2340723). She had an older brother Richard and a younger brother Gary.

Routsong attended Traverse City Senior High School, where she was on a college preparatory track. She was the senior class president and participated in several other organizations including the National Honor Society. As an adolescent, Routsong read lesbian fiction including Radclyffe Hall's '' The Well of Loneliness'', and Djuna Barnes' '' Nightwood''.

During World War II, Routsong served in the WAVES. She trained at the Farragut, Idaho, Naval Training Center before working as a hospital apprentice. After leaving the WAVES, she graduated from Michigan State University in 1949 with a degree in art.

Literary career

Routsong began her literary career in 1953 with the publication of her first novel, ''A Gradual Joy''. She followed the success of this book with ''Round Shape'' in 1959. Both books were mainstream and lacked lesbian content; however, they were autobiographical and captured "her seemingly happy heterosexual married life."

In 1969, Routsong self-published ''A Place for Us'' under the pseudonym Isabel Miller. She used her own Bleecker Street Press imprint - named after her shared apartment with Elizabeth Deran on Bleecker Street - after numerous rejections from mainstream publishers. Routsong based this novel on the 1820s relationship between folk painter Mary Ann Willson and Florence Brundage, and as a result, it was her first explicitly lesbian work.

Routsong and Deran sold copies of the book outside Daughters of Bilitis meetings. As the book increased in popularity, McGraw-Hill took notice and republished it as ''Patience and Sarah'' in 1972. For each of her subsequent works, Routsong continued to use the name Isabel Miller, a combination of an anagram of "Lesbia" and her mother's maiden name.

Between 1968 and 1971 Routsong worked as an editor at Columbia University.

In 1971, the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table of the American Library Association created the first award for LGBTQ+ books, the Stonewall Book Award, which celebrates books of exceptional merit that relate to LGBTQ+ issues. ''Patience and Sarah'' was the first winner.

From the mid-1970s until 1986 Routsong was a proofreader for '' Time'' magazine.

Works and awards

Works

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* republished as
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Reviews

*"After the G.I. Wedding", (review of ''A Gradual Joy''), '' The New York Times'' August 23, 1953
*"When Mother Moved In", (review of ''Round Shape''), ''The New York Times'' September 6, 1959
*"Their love was a thing apart" (review of ''Patience and Sarah''), ''The New York Times'' April 23, 1972

Awards

*Friends of American Writers award (1954, for ''A Gradual Joy'')
* Bread Loaf Writers' Conference fellow (1957, for ''Round Shape)''
*American Library Association Stonewall Book Award (1971, for ''Patience and Sarah'')

Activism

Routsong joined the gay liberation movement in 1970 and was an officer in the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis. She was arrested during a DOB police raid.

She and Sidney Abbott, Kate Millett, Phyllis Birkby, and Artemis March were among the members of CR One, the first lesbian-feminist consciousness-raising group.

Barbara Gittings staffed a kissing booth at the national convention of the American Library Association in Dallas in 1971, underneath the banner "Hug a Homosexual", with a "women only" side and a "men only" side. When no one took advantage of it, she and Routsong kissed in front of rolling television cameras. In describing its success, despite most of the reaction being negative, Gittings said, "We needed to get an audience. So we decided, let's show gay love live. We were offering free—mind you, free—same-sex kisses and hugs. Let me tell you, the aisles were mobbed, but no one came into the booth to get a free hug. So we hugged and kissed each other. It was shown twice on the evening news, once again in the morning. It put us on the map."Warner David. CityPaper.net. April 22–29, 1999; accessed November 4, 2007.

Personal life

Alma married Bruce Brodie in 1947 and they had four daughters; Natalie (1949), Joyce (1952), Charlotte (1954), and Louise (1958). In 1962, Routsong met Elizabeth Deran at a church event and entered into a romantic relationship with her. Brodie and Routsong divorced in 1962.

When the pair's relationship became known, Deran was forced to leave her job with the United States Treasury Department. Routsong and Deran then moved to Greenwich Village in New York City.

Routsong struggled with alcoholism in the 1970s as her relationship with Deran came to an end. The pair rekindled their friendship in the early 1980s, and Deran motivated Routsong to write more books.

Routsong developed an interest in spiritualism and enjoyed making astrological charts of the women in her life. She also spent time at Kate Millett's Women's Art Colony Farm.

Later in life, Routsong shared a relationship with artist Julie Weber.

Death

Routsong died of ovarian cancer at age 71 in Poughkeepsie, New York on October 4, 1996."Alma L. Routsong" in the ''Newspapers.com Obituary Index, 1800s-current'' (Poughkeepsie Journal; Publication Date: 5/ Oct/ 1996; Publication Place: Poughkeepsie, NY).

References

Bibliography

* ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Gale, 2002
* Steve Hogan and Lee Hudson, ''Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia'' (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1998), pages 481–482.
* Carol Hurd Green and Mary Grimley Mason (eds) "Alma Routsong", in ''American Women Writers,'' volume 5 (St James Press, 1994), pp 394–396.

External links

1975 Jonathan Katz interview of Routsong1990 Video interview of Alma Routsong

Guide to the Isabel Miller papers, 1937-2009
Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections

{{DEFAULTSORT:Routsong, Alma
1924 births
1996 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American feminists
American women short story writers
American women novelists
Lesbian feminists
American lesbian writers
LGBT people from Michigan
American LGBT novelists
Michigan State University alumni
People from Traverse City, Michigan
Novelists from Michigan
20th-century American women writers
20th-century American short story writers
United States Navy sailors
WAVES personnel
Stonewall Book Award winners
Pseudonymous women writers
20th-century LGBT people