Either is love

Either is love

After the death of her husband, the narrator revisits the letters she wrote to him confessing her romantic relationship with another woman before they met.

126 pages

18 cm

Damon, Gene. "Either is Love.” Ladder, vol. 1, no. 8, May 1957

A candid story, told in the first person, of two loves. One was for the man to whom she was happily married. The other, earlier, but no less intense and absorbing, and on the other hand no less outgoing and generous, for another woman. “Either is Love” points out the author in her plea for an attitude of tolerance and understanding toward “interfemine” romance.

Yarbrough, Dona. "A Queer Form of Trauma: Lesbian, Epistolarity in Either Is Love." American Literature, vol. 75, no. 2, June 2003, p. 367-393.

"The only thing wrong with this book is its subject which is homosexuality- one woman's supposedly glorious love for another. It really doesn't break the NODL code. It is well written and is no way lewd or obscene. However, I found the book and idea of the book so odd. I don't feel competent to judge whether its suitable reading for youth. I personally would not want my own children to read it thought most young people would probably find it as strange as I did.
All the passages I marked referred to 2 women."

Contested in the U.S.A and Canada by the National Organization for Decent Literature.

"EITHER IS LOVE pleads the author. 'The woman who signs herself 'Elisabeth Craigin' tells...the candid story of two loves. One was for the man to whom she was happily married. The other, earlier, but no less intense and absorbing, and on the other hand no less outgiving and generous, had been for another woman. And, like Radclyffe Hall in 'The Well of Loneliness,' this pseudonymous author pleads here for an attitude of tolerance and understanding toward 'interfeminine' romance.' -The New York Times" -Back cover

The image is occupied mostly by a brunette seen from her chest up, her face centred, and slightly tilted to her left. Her hair has a widow's peak and it is brushed upwards and towards the back; Her two hands are hugging the trunk of a tree in front and to the left of her, her left hand above her right hand facing the reader to the right of the image. She leans her head slightly against the trunk with the left side of her face, gazing downwards towards her left. She is wearing a black, swing coat with a V-neck. Behind her, a forested landscape is seen, apparently lit by moonlight. The image is set over a gray background that shows at the top.