Elaine Williams (December 28, 1932 - December 23, 1963) was an American lesbian pulp fiction author and editor of the late 1950s and early 1960s. She wrote under a pseudonym, largely either as Sloan Britton or Sloane Britain.

Personal life

Elaine Williams was born as Elaine H. Cumming in

Richmond Hill, Queens Richmond Hill is a commercial and residential neighborhood located in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Queens. The area borders Kew Gardens and Forest Park to the north, Jamaica and South Jamaica to the east, South Ozone ...

, New York on December 28, 1932. Her father was Alexander Cumming and her mother was Edna Louise Westpfal or Westphall Cumming. Fellow pulp author

Gilbert Fox Gilbert Theodore Fox (November 29, 1915 – May 15, 2004) was an American political cartoonist, comic book artist and editor, and animator. Biography Fox began his career in animation at Max Fleischer's studio, but left due to labor unrest assoc ...

said of Williams: "Her family refused to accept the fact that she was a lesbian". Williams married Ernest E Williams in 1950 and thus changed her name to Elaine Cumming Williams. Together, they had four children and lived in

Red Hook, Brooklyn Red Hook is a neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn, New York City, New York, within the area once known as South Brooklyn. It is located on a peninsula projecting into the Upper New York Bay and is bounded by the Gowanus Expressway and the ...

, New York.

Career

Cover of These Curious Pleasures by Sloane Britain - Illustration by Paul Rader - 1961

Williams became one of the first editors at Midwood Books in 1959. Along with editing for Midwood, Williams was asked to author her own lesbian pulp books. At the same time, Williams began writing her own paperback lesbian pulps under a collection of pseudonyms following a similar pattern: Sloan Britain, Sloane Britain, Sloane Britton, Sloan Britton, and possibly other variations. She published her first two novels in 1959: ''First Person-Third Sex'' and ''The Needle''. These books were published by Newsstand Library and

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, respectively. Both books contained lesbian or

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, wh ...

themes, thus placing Williams' work in the canon of lesbian pulp fiction of the 50s and 60s. Further, Williams' early work contained positive portrayals of lesbian relationships, making her one of the pro-lesbian pulp authors. Literary scholar Yvonne Keller named Williams as one of a small group of writers whose work formed the subgenre of "pro-lesbian" pulp fiction; others include

Ann Bannon Ann Weldy (born September 15, 1932), better known by her pen name Ann Bannon, is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels known as ''The Beebo Brinker Chronicles''. The books' enduring popularity and impac ...

Paula Christian Yvonne Christine MacManus (March 18, 1931 - March 26, 2002) was an American novelist specializing in lesbian fiction and science fiction. Although she used her real name when writing in other genres, MacManus published lesbian fiction under the ps ...

Joan Ellis Julie Ellis (February 21, 1919 – February 15, 2006) was an early lesbian pulp fiction author of the 1960s, writing pro-lesbian romance and erotica under varied pseudonyms for Midwood-Tower Publications. She changed her writing pseudonyms and le ...

, March Hastings,

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Della Martin Della may refer to: * Della (name), including a list of people with the name * ''Della'' (film), a 1964 television pilot film starring Joan Crawford * ''Della'' (TV series), starring Della Reese * ''Della'' (album) * Della, Ethiopia, a town in ...

, Rea Michaels, Claire Morgan, Vin Packer,

Randy Salem Randy is a given name, popular in the United States and Canada. It is primarily a masculine name. It was originally derived from the names Randall, Randolf, Randolph, as well as Bertrand and Andrew, and may be a short form (hypocorism) of them ...

, Artemis Smith, Valerie Taylor, Tereska Torres, and

Shirley Verel Shirley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Shirley'' (novel), an 1849 novel by Charlotte Brontë * ''Shirley'' (1922 film), a British silent film * ''Shirley'' (2020 film), an American film * ''Shirley'' (album), a 1961 album by Shirley Bas ...

. Her 1961 novel ''These Curious Pleasures'' revolves around a main character named Sloane Britain. It is thought that the plot is somewhat autobiographical of Williams, or at least depicts a lesbian relationship which Williams dreamed of. Also in this book is a character named Harry “Happy” Broadman, who is curiously similar to Midwood Books co-founder and publisher Harry Shorten. Both in real life and fiction, Shorten has been said to have been an unpredictable and at times aggressive man. Williams' inclusion of this character might clue readers into what it was like as one of the first editors and writers at Midwood. Williams published eight other lesbian pulp novels in her career, plus two posthumous short novels published as Midwood Doubles. She was and still is praised for her realistic and sympathetic portrayals of lesbian and bisexual characters, but her later novels are notably more cynical, with dismal endings.

Death

Williams died just six days before her 31st birthday, December 23, 1963. She and her husband had been driving home from a workplace holiday party for the hotel at which her husband was a chef. Newspaper reports from the time disagree on who was driving; around 3:00 AM and a block from home the car skidded on snow and hit a tree head-on, killing Williams and gravely injuring her husband. She is buried in

Barrytown, New York Barrytown is a hamlet (and census-designated place) within the town of Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York, United States. It is within the Hudson River Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and contains four notable Hudson River V ...

Works

* ''First Person-Third Sex,'' 1959 * ''The Needle,'' 1959 * ''Meet Marilyn,'' 1960 * ''Unnatural,'' 1960 * ''Insatiable,'' 1960 * ''These Curious Pleasures,'' 1961 * ''That Other Hunger,'' 1961 * ''Woman Doctor,'' 1962 * ''Ladder of Flesh,'' 1962 * ''The Delicate Vice,'' 1963 * ''Finders Keepers,'' 1965 * ''Summer of Sin'' * ''Peep Booth''

References

External links

Sally Taft Duplaix Collection
at the Mortimer Rare Book Collection, Smith College Special Collections {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Elaine American lesbian writers Writers from Queens, New York 1932 births 1963 deaths American editors Pulp fiction writers Burials in New York (state) 20th-century American LGBT people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers American women novelists American LGBT novelists