Lillian Faderman
{{Short description|American historian (born 1940)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Lillian Faderman
| image =
| caption =Lillian Faderman signing THE GAY REVOLUTION in LA, 2015
| pseudonym =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|7|18}}
| birth_place = The Bronx, New York
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Writer, professor
| nationality = American
| period =
| genre =
| subject = Lesbian history, LGBT history
| movement =
| alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles
| partner = Phyllis Irwin{{cite web|title=Finding Aid for the Lillian Faderman papers, 1976-1989|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt1580333s/entire_text/|publisher=Online Archive of California|access-date=June 23, 2012}}
| children = Avrom
| signature =
| website =
}}
Lillian Faderman (born July 18, 1940) is an American historian whose books on lesbian history and LGBT history have earned critical praise and awards. The New York Times named three of her books on its "Notable Books of the Year" list. In addition, The Guardian named her book, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, one of the Top 10 Books of Radical History.{{Cite web |url=http://www.lillianfaderman.net/|title=Lillian Faderman|website=Lillianfaderman.net|language=en|access-date=2018-04-10}} She was a professor of English at California State University, Fresno (Fresno State), which bestowed her emeritus status,{{cite web|title=Emeriti Faculty|url=http://www.fresnostate.edu/artshum/english/faculty/english-emeriti.html|website=Department of English|publisher=California State University, Fresno|date=2019|access-date=13 November 2019|archive-date=3 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191103162736/http://fresnostate.edu/artshum/english/faculty/english-emeriti.html|url-status=dead}} and a visiting professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She retired from academe in 2007. Faderman has been referred to as "the mother of lesbian history" for her groundbreaking research and writings on lesbian culture, literature, and history.{{cite news|last1=Toor|first1=Rachel|title=Scholars Talk Writing: Lillian Faderman|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/Scholars-Talk-Writing-Lillian/242551|work=The Chronicle of Higher Education|date=February 19, 2018|access-date=13 November 2019}}
Early life
Faderman was raised by her mother, Mary, and her aunt, Rae. In 1914, her mother emigrated from a shtetl in Latvia to New York City, planning eventually to send for the rest of the family. Her aunt Rae came in 1923, but the rest of the family was killed during Hitler's extermination of European Jews, and Mary blamed herself for not being able to rescue them. Her guilt contributed to a serious mental illness that would profoundly affect her daughter.{{cite news|last=Marler |first=Regina |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2003_Feb_18/ai_97726506 |title=Naked History |publisher=The Advocate |date=February 18, 2003 |access-date=2007-03-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080208181015/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1589/is_2003_Feb_18/ai_97726506 |archive-date=February 8, 2008 }}
Mary and Rae, Faderman's mother and aunt, worked in the garment industry for very little money. Lillian was her mother's third pregnancy; her mother (unmarried) aborted the first two pregnancies at Lillian's biological father's request, but insisted on bearing and raising the third. Mary married when Lillian was a teenager and died in 1979, continuing to have a profound influence on her daughter's life.
Using pseudonyms such as Gigi Frost, Faderman did nude modeling and made softcore nude film loops which paid for her education.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-feb-18-et-reynolds18-story.html|title=Feminist professor shares her secrets|date=18 February 2003|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=12 December 2021}} She gave her experience in the softcore porn industry in her memoir book Naked in the Promised Land.{{Cite news|url=https://www.windycitytimes.com/lgbt/Not-the-Odd-Girl-Out-Lillian-Faderman/3320.html|title=Not the 'Odd' Girl Out: Lillian Faderman|date=25 June 2003|newspaper=Windy City Times|access-date=12 December 2021}}
Education
Faderman studied first at the University of California, Berkeley, and later at UCLA.
Personal life
Her family moved with her to Los Angeles where, with her mother's encouragement, Lillian took acting classes. She began modeling as a teenager, discovered the gay bar scene, and eventually met her first girlfriend. Before she graduated from Hollywood High School,{{cite book |last1=Scanlon |first1=Jennifer |last2=Cosner |first2=Shaaron |title=American Women Historians, 1700s-1990s: A Biographical Dictionary |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |date=1996 |page=76 |isbn=9780313296642 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XJSdT_4NWTMC&dq=Lillian+Faderman+hollywood+high&pg=PA76}} she married a gay man much older than herself—a marriage that lasted less than a year.
Faderman came out as lesbian in the 1950s.{{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir|date=2003|edition=1st|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|location=Boston, Massachusetts|isbn=0-618-12875-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/nakedinpromisedl00fade}}{{cite news|author=Equality Forum|title=Meet LGBT History Month icon Lillian Faderman|url=https://sdgln.com/causes/2019/10/15/meet-lgbt-history-month-icon-lillian-faderman|work=San Diego Gay & Lesbian News|date=October 15, 2019|access-date=13 November 2019}} She lives with her partner, Phyllis Irwin. She and Phyllis raised one son, Avrom, conceived through artificial insemination by an anonymous Jewish donor.{{cite web|url=http://ijso.huc.edu/news/07/Holocaust-Essay-(Faderman).pdf |title=Lillian Faderman: "Accepting, Take Full Life" or Why I Wanted a Baby|date=2006 |access-date=31 January 2022}}
Awards and honors
{{BLP sources section|date=November 2019}}
- The New York Times (Notable Book of 1981) for Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/12/06/books/notable-books-of-the-year.html|title = Notable Books of the Year|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 6 December 1981}}
- Stonewall Book Award (1982) for Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present
- Lambda Literary Award (Editor's Choice Award, 1992) for Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America
- The New York Times (Notable Book of 1992) for Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/06/books/notable-books-of-the-year-1992.html|title = Notable Books of the Year 1992|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 6 December 1992}}
- Stonewall Book Award (Nonfiction, 1992) for Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America
- Lambda Literary Award for Best Non-fiction Book (2000) for To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America - A History
- Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian/Gay Anthology (2003) for Naked in the Promised Land
- Yale University James Brudner Prize for Exemplary Scholarship in Lesbian/Gay Studies (2001)
- Paul Monette-Roger Horwitz Trust Award (1999)
- Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement (Publishing Triangle, 2004) for Naked in the Promised Land
- Judy Grahn Award for Memoir (Publishing Triangle, 2004) for Naked in the Promised Land
- Two Lambda Literary Awards for Best Nonfiction Book & LGBT Arts and Culture Award (2007) both awards for Gay L. A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics and Lipstick Lesbians
- Lambda Literary Award (Pioneer Award, 2013)
- The New York Times (Notable Book of 2015) for The Gay Revolution{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2015.html|title=100 Notable Books of 2015|newspaper=The New York Times|date=27 November 2015}}
- The Washington Post (Notable Nonfiction Book of 2015) for The Gay Revolution{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-best-nonfiction-of-2015/2015/11/18/326c89e8-7902-11e5-b9c1-f03c48c96ac2_story.html|title=Notable nonfiction of 2015|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=12 December 2021}}
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award (Nonfiction, 2016) for The Gay Revolution{{cite web |website=Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards |title=Lillian Faderman |url=http://www.anisfield-wolf.org/books/the-gay-revolution-the-story-of-the-struggle/ }}
- Golden Crown Literary Society 2017 Trailblazer Award{{cite web |website=GCLS Press Release |date=April 30, 2017 |title=Golden Crown Literary Society Names 2017 Trailblazer Award Recipient |url=http://mailchi.mp/3291dac7024c/a13csg1f99?e=c18efd80a9}}
Works
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Surpassing the Love of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the Present|date=1981|edition=1st|publisher=William Morrow & Company|isbn=068803733X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/surpassingloveof00fade}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Scotch Verdict: Miss Pirie and Miss Woods v. Dame Cumming Gordon|date=1983|edition=1st|publisher=William Morrow & Company|isbn=068801559X}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America|date=1991|edition=1st|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0231074883}}
- {{cite book|editor-last1=Faderman|editor-first1=Lillian|title=Chloe Plus Olivia: An Anthology of Lesbian and Bisexual Literature from the 17th Century to the Present|date=1994|edition=1st|publisher=Viking Books|isbn=0670846384|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/chloeplusolivia00lill}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|last2=Xiong|first2=Ghia|title=I Begin My Life All Over: The Hmong and the American Immigrant Experience|date=1998|edition=1st|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=0-8070-7234-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ibeginmylifeallo00lill}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=To Believe in Women: What Lesbians Have Done For America – A History |date=1999|edition=1st|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|isbn=039585010X}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir|date=2003|edition=1st|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|isbn=0-618-12875-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/nakedinpromisedl00fade}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|last2=Timmons|first2=Stuart|title=Gay L. A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians|date=2006|edition=1st|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=978-0465022885|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/gaylahistoryofse00lill}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=My Mother's Wars|date=2013|edition=1st|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0807050521}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle|date=2015|edition=1st|publisher=Simon & Schuster|isbn=978-1451694116}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death|date=2018|edition=1st|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300222616}}
- {{cite book|last1=Faderman|first1=Lillian|title=Woman: The American History of an Idea|date=2022|edition=1st|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0300249903}}
Adaptations
Filming on an adaption of the book Scotch Verdict by Flora Nicholson and Sophie Heldman took place in 2025, with the title Miss Pirie and Miss Woods. The story was also the inspiration for Lillian Hellman's 1934 play The Children's Hour.{{cite web|url= https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2025/04/filming-of-new-period-drama-in-charlotte-square/|website=The Edinburgh Reporter|accessdate=9 April 2025|title= Filming of new period drama in Charlotte Square|first=Phyllis|last=Stephen |date=April 7, 2025}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.lillianfaderman.net Official website]
- [http://www.csufresno.edu/journal/vol7/09/newsmakers/LillianFaderman.shtml Award-winner Lillian Faderman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723034529/http://www.csufresno.edu/journal/vol7/09/newsmakers/LillianFaderman.shtml |date=2011-07-23 }}
- [http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10710 Interview with Lilian Faderman] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111015071544/http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=10710 |date=2011-10-15 }}
- [http://www.c-span.org/video/?328566-1/lilian-faderman-gay-revolution C-Span Book TV]
- [http://www.lillianfaderman.net/ Lillian Faderman]
- {{IMDb name|id=7616007|name=Lillian Faderman}}
{{Lesbian feminism}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faderman, Lillian}}
Category:21st-century American historians
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American memoirists
Category:American women historians
Category:Historians of LGBTQ topics
Category:Historians of the United States
Category:Jewish American historians
Category:American lesbian writers
Category:American LGBTQ historians
Category:GLAAD Media Awards winners
Category:American women memoirists
Category:American people of Latvian-Jewish descent
Category:LGBTQ people from New York (state)
Category:Writers from Fresno, California
Category:California State University, Fresno faculty
Category:Lambda Literary Award winners
Category:Stonewall Book Award winners
Category:21st-century American Jews