Jane Rule - Lesbian Author (1931-2007)

Lesbian author Jane Rule died November 27, 2007 at age 76 after a battle with liver cancer. Her partner of almost 50 years Helen Sonthoff died in 2000.

Jane Rule was the author of a dozen books including Desert of the Heart, which the movie Desert Hearts was based on.

Jane Rule was born on March 28, 1931 in Plainfield, New Jersey. She was a tall child, six feet tall by the time she was 12 and her family moved a lot.

Not surprisingly, it was a book that led Jane to discover her lesbianism. She read Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness at 15 and "suddenly discovered that I was a freak, a genetic monster, a member of a third sex..." she wrote in Lesbian Images.

Jane Rule was admitted to Stanford University's writing program, but quit after a few months because she thought the school was condescending toward female students. She got a job teaching at a private girls school in Massachusetts. She moved to Vancouver, BC in 1954 and that's when she and Helen Sonthoff became involved. She became a Canadian citizen in the 1960s.

According to the Globe and Mail Jane and Helen had their share of spats, infidelities and illnesses, but they were bound by a deep and abiding love. The Globe and Mail also quoted a friend as saying Jane "smoked like a furnace and drank like a fish and enjoyed every minute of it."

After Desert of the Heart was published in 1964, Jane Rule was flooded with letters from other lesbians who felt she was the only one who could understand them. After the movie Desert Hearts was released in 1987, Jane enjoyed increased sales of all her books.

Jane suffered from arthritis and although she kept it at bay by a daily swimming routine, she found the physical act of writing to be painful. She retired from writing in 1989. She was diagnosed with cancer of the liver in September 2007 and died in November of that year.

Fiction

• Desert of the Heart (1964). Desert Hearts was based on this book.

• This is Not for You (1970) is a lesbian novel in the form of a letter.

• Against the Season (1971) is a lesbian romance novel.

• Theme for Diverse Instruments (1975), was Jane's first collection of short stories.

• The Young in One Another's Arms (1977). Winner of the 1978 Best Novel of the Year Award from the Canadian Authors Association.

• Contract with the World (1980). Seven people, gay and straight, are about to turn 30.

• Inland Passage and Other Stories (1982) More short stories.

• Memory Board (1987) Twins who have grown apart try to reconcile.

• After the Fire (1989). Her final novel.

Non-Fiction

• Lesbian Images (1975). Essays on women such as Gertrude Stein, Colette, Willa Cather, Elizabeth Bowan, Radclyffe Hall, May Sarton and Vita-Sackville West.

• A Hot-Eyed Moderate (1986). A collection of nearly 50 essays.

• Hybrid Outlander (1981). A mix of essays and short fiction.

[Sources: The Globe and Mail