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The Love That Dares: Letters of LGBTQ+ Love & Friendship Through History
Rachel Smith & Barbara Vesey
A good love letter can speak across centuries, and reassure us that the agony and the ecstasy one might feel in the 21st century have been shared by lovers long gone. This is all the more true of LGBTQ+ love letters: love affairs and relationships that, until very recently, had to survive within sealed envelopes and behind closed doors.
In The Love That Dares, queer love speaks its name through the words of lovers from years gone by. Alongside the more famous names coexist beautifully written letters by lesser-known lovers, giving us an insight into queer love outside of the spotlight of fame or fortune. These letters give us a glimpse into the passion and courage it took to continue a gay relationship in times when it was at best improper, and at worst illegal. Enlightening introductions to each set of letters give readers an idea of the historical context in which they were written.
Including letters written by:
- John Cage
- Audre Lorde
- Benjamin Britten
- Lorraine Hansberry
- Walt Whitman
- Eleanor Roosevelt
- Vita Sackville-West
- Radclyffe Hall
- Allen Ginsberg
There is an enduring fascination with the untold stories of queer historical figures: TV show Gentleman Jack used the diaries of Anne Lister to shed light on the lesbian experience in the 1800s, and 2019 film Vita & Virginia was based on love letters between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West.
About the Authors
Rachel Smith & Barbara Vesey are archivists at the Bishopsgate archive in London, which houses the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA).
Rachel Smith was born in Providence, raised in Hope, Rhode Island, and currently resides in London, where she is an archivist at Bishopsgate Institute. She is also an award-winning screenwriter. The Love That Dares is her first work of non-fiction, after releasing a collection of her poetry and photography, Words & Pictures, in 2016. In her free time,Rachel enjoys coffee, travel, knitting, her dog and her wife.
Barbara Vesey was raised in New York but, having seen Mary Poppins at an impressionable age, eventually moved to London. Once accused of being a 'rampant feminist' - an epithet she was delighted to receive - after 25 years as a writer, editor and proofreader she retrained as an archivist. She is proud to work at the archives of both the Bishopsgate Institute and the Society of the Sacred Heart. Through sheer luck she has two amazing children and a world-class collection of art postcards.
