Barbara Grier, a major contributor to gay literature, died Thursday in her Tallahassee, Fla. home due to lung cancer at the age of 78. Known for her non-fiction chronicle about lesbian nuns that later garnered complaints from the Roman Catholic church, Grier was a revered author and gay activists, later becoming the founder of Naiad Press in 1973 with a group of three other women. Grier leaves behind her partner, Donna McBride.
Barbara Grier, a founder of one of the most successful publishing houses for books by and about lesbians, including a nonfiction chronicle about lesbian nuns that became a phenomenon after it drew complaints from Roman Catholic officials, died on Thursday in Tallahassee, Fla. She was 78.
Grier published over 500 books in her career, all of which were lesbian-themed in nature, ranging from romance novels to history, science fiction and self-help guides.
That comment referred to the lesbian-themed romance novels she had read as a girl, growing up in the 1940s, in which the heroine dallied with a female lover but ended up with a man, reflecting what publishers considered the only acceptable happily-ever-after outcome.
Grier is arguably best known for her series of books on “erotic love between women in religious life” which discussed lesbian love amongst nuns. After a disrupted television interview due to air on a local station in Boston was reportedly shut down by the Roman Catholics, Grier’s book sales soared due to its “ban” in the city.
In response to the banned interview, Grier responded, “This is crazy,” in an interview at The New York Times. “I’m a mouse giving birth to an elephant.”
In addition to Ms. McBride, Mr. Grier is survived by her two sisters, Diane Grier and Penni Martin, reports The New York Times.
