This bed we made

This bed we made

A paperback original. This book was published as a mass-market paperback without a hardcover printing.

141 pages

18 cm

B. G. "This Bed We Made." Ladder, vol. 5, no. 48 January 1961, p. 21.

Miss Smith, probably number three in the hierarchy of those writers in the lesbian paperback field, brings us this tale of Peter, the loafer; Nicole, the artists model, and Elaine, the very sick painter. Another of these arty, unwashed novels but very well written with good characterization and touches of humor. Sadly, the story is male-oriented and has a purely heterosexual ending, but it is so well done and so casually filled with upbeat propaganda that most Ladder readers will want to read it.

"Violates point #6 of Code.
Not fit reading for anyone. The book portrays sex in a very offensive manner and also describes lovemaking between the two women in a very vulgar way."

Contested in the U.S.A and Canada by the National Organization for Decent Literature. This Bed We Made was listed in the NODL Newsletter from 1-20-1961 until September 1961, and then again when the title was reissued, from August 1964 until December 1964.

She loved her husband - and her girlfriend

Wife or Lesbian?
Here is a daring "hip" novel of a young girl's search for sexual identity in the decadent world of today's Greenwich Village . . .
Of innocent, blonde Elaine Perkins, who married Peter Clausson because she thought he'd make a tender lover - till she learned what a man's passion demands of a woman. To escape she moved in with Nicole, a tawny-skinned artist's model who offered strange new enticements.
But Peter refused to give her up, and Elaine found herself torn between two worlds - between a man who could awaken her as a female, and a woman's world of passion without fulfillment.

Two women and one man are in a bedroom. A brunette with short, curly hair and a black negligee, lays on her back on a bed with a pink blanket, her shoulders and head on a propped-up pillow, looking slightly toward the right of the image with a slight smile and half-closed eyes. Behind the pillow, a wrought brass headboard is partly in view. Her left arm is bent at the elbow; hand curled inwards. She holds a cigarette in her right hand; outer side rested on her right thigh. She also wears stockings to the middle of her thighs. Sitting up on the bed by the brunette's legs is a blonde. Her body is at a three-quarter angle facing right of the image, and she appears to be fully naked except for a nylon, light blue shawl which is wrapped around her hips and across her chest, covering her breasts. She holds the shawl with both arms crossed in front of her under her breasts and on her right hip. Her hair is tied in a ponytail with a light green bow, and her head is turned towards the brunette. In the background to the left, a man stands against the wall. He has short, brown hair parted to the side, and is wearing a dark blue t-shirt and gray pants with a black belt. His right hand is on his waist; the left arm stretched down across his side. He also looks down toward the brunette, with a slight smile on his lips. To his left, a bowl with fruits can be seen on a bedside table. The background matches the pink of the bed spread, and the scene seems to be lit from the right of the reader.

The publishers changed the author's working title of For Immediate Demolition to This Bed We Made.