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Title: Ruth Reid autobiographical novel
Dates: 1981-2006
Collection Number: 2001-14
Creator/Collector:
Extent: 1 manuscript box
Repository:
GLBT Historical Society
San Francisco, California 94103
Abstract: This is a copy of an unpublished 400-page typewritten autobiographical novel, "Dark Birth," written by Ruth Reid. According
to her friend, writer Jacquelyn Marie, Reid used that term because she changed names and used poetic license, but the stories
were essentially true.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
[Identification of item]. Ruth Reid autobiographical novel. Collection Number: 2001-14. GLBT Historical Society
Gift of Karen Sjoholm on February 27, 2001.
Scope and Content of Collection
This is a copy of an unpublished 400-page typewritten autobiographical novel, "Dark Birth," written by Ruth Reid. According
to her friend, writer Jacquelyn Marie, Reid used that term because she changed names and used poetic license, but the stories
were essentially true. Reid (1903-1981) moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after World War II and started a 30-year relationship
with Kent Hyde, who was assigned female but lived publicly as a man. "Dark Birth" covers the ups and downs of a long-term,
non-monogamous relationship, and depicts the Bay Area lesbian scene at the time. Reid owned a weaving business with a partner.
Portions of Reid's novel appeared in print, and Marie decided to publish excerpts of it, interwoven with information about
her life and times, in "Wife of a Lesbian: A Memoir by Ruth Reed," in 2006. This version is available online with photographs,
at http://www.lulu.com/items/volume_45/549000/549225/8/print/549225.pdf and attached here on the OAC. GSSO linked terms: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000381;
http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GSSO_000130; http://purl.bioontology.org/ontology/MESH/D008091
Lesbians
Literature
Transgender people