Cosmographia

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A small press with a big map.

Lesbian Love is one of the earliest examples of American lesbian literature. It has further historical significance as the "evidence" used to deport its lesbian Jewish author back from the U.S. to Europe where she was eventually killed by the Nazis.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CWPRSM9M
Publication date ‏: ‎ March 20, 2024
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 31 pages

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Eve Adams (pen name Evelyn Addams) ran a tearoom in New York called Eve's Hangout, one of the first lesbian & gay cafes in the Greenwich Village. In 1925, she self-published a private circulation of 150 copies of a small collection of short stories called Lesbian Love. Soon after, Eve's Hangout was raided and the book used as evidence in Eve's arrest for obscenity and disorderly conduct. At her deportation hearings, she said, "I admit having written a book entitled Lesbian Love, based on true acts and living characters of today... I believe the book is not in any way immoral, indecent, or vulgar... There is not one word in the whole book that is vulgar."

Truly, these stories of lesbian love, lust, longing, and lifestyle in the roaring twenties are at times tender, humorous, adventurous, beguiling, adoring, sad, or romantic, but they are not vulgar, nor are the gently erotic illustrations that accompany them. It is believed that the trumped up charges were an excuse to punish Adams, who had been sympathetic to the anarchist Emma Goldman.

Eve was deported to her home country of Poland. She lived in Paris in the 1930s and helped distribute the writings of Henry Miller, Anais Nin, and other writers with "forbidden" books. In December 1943, Eve and her partner Hella Soldner were arrested in Nazi-occupied Nice and deported to Auschwitz where they paid the ultimate price.

This ebook was transcribed from the original text by Cosmographia Publisher Nina Alvarez, who for 25 years owned the only known copy of Lesbian Love. It includes the stories as originally written (besides some light copyediting) with four original printed erotic illustrations. The four additional erotic photographs mounted to blank pages were omitted from this reprint, as it is believed they were added later, and not by the author.

Poetry

Fiction

Hybrid

Anthology

Memoir

Cosmographia Books

est. 2015

Historically, a cosmographia is both an atlas and a gazetteer containing the geographical makeup, social statistics, and physical features of a region.

Inspired by the symbolism of the cosmographia, writer and editor Nina Alvarez founded a press that would seek to embody that spirit of multidimensional mapping. Carolyn Birrittella, Megan Downing, and Linnea Schaefer have given much-needed marketing, outreach and event support over the years.

Cosmographia has also received visibility, encouragement, and kindness from so many people in its community, including Rhonda and Victor Alvarez, Daniel Herd and Chris Fanning of Writers & Books and "The Last Word" on WAYO.fm, Lindsay Herko, Kenneth Kelbaugh of Before Your Quiet Eyes Bookstore, Al Abonado of "Flour City Yawp," friends and family, and all those who have reviewed our books, set up events for our authors, interviewed our authors, purchased our books and merch, and generally made us feel seen, loved, and heard. Thank you. It all matters.

Where you can purchase our books

All our books are available on Amazon, some can be purchased on BarnesandNoble.com or other online sellers. And most of our books can be purchased at Before Your Quiet Eyes bookstore in Rochester, New York, and other brick-and-mortar bookstores.

For booksellers, some of our titles can be purchased through Ingram Spark.

Questions?

Contact Publisher Nina Alvarez at editor@cosmographiabooks.com

MASTHEAD

Nina Alvarez is a writer, editor, publisher, and an award-winning teaching artist. As an editor and publisher, she has overseen the publication of over 40 books and literary journal issues. She is the founder of Dream Your Book author services, Canvas Teen Literary Journal, Cosmographia Books, and Camp Cosmographia. She has a master’s degree in English and lives in Rochester, New York.

Daniel Herd was the Director of Adult Programming at Writers & Books Literary Center for many years and has overseen hundreds of author talks and events. He is an avid reader, has a BA in English, and lives in Rochester, New York.

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