Alma Routsong

Alma Routsong (November 26, 1924 – October 4, 1996) was an American novelist best known for her lesbian fiction, published under the pen name Isabel Miller.

Early life Alma Routsong was born Elma Louise Routsong in Traverse City, Michigan, on November 26, 1924. Her father, Carl Routsong, was a police sergeant, and her mother, Esther Miller Routsong, was a nurse. She had an older brother Richard and a younger brother Gary. As an adolescent, Routsong read lesbian fiction including Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness, and Djuna Barnes' Nightwood.

During World War II, Routsong served in the WAVES. She trained at the Farragut, Idaho, Naval Training Center before working as a hospital apprentice. After leaving the WAVES, she graduated from Michigan State University in 1949 with a degree in art.

Literary career Routsong began her literary career in 1953 with the publication of her first novel, A Gradual Joy. She followed the success of this book with Round Shape in 1959. Both books were mainstream and lacked lesbian content; however, they were autobiographical and captured "her seemingly happy heterosexual married life."

In 1969, Routsong self-published A Place for Us under the pseudonym Isabel Miller. She used her own Bleecker Street Press imprint—named after her shared apartment with Elizabeth Deran on Bleecker Street—after numerous rejections from mainstream publishers. Routsong based this novel on the 1820s relationship between folk painter Mary Ann Willson and Florence Brundage, and as a result, it was her first explicitly lesbian work.

Routsong and Deran sold copies of the book outside Daughters of Bilitis meetings. As the book increased in popularity, McGraw-Hill took notice and republished it as Patience and Sarah in 1972.

From the mid-1970s until 1986 Routsong was a proofreader for Time magazine.

Reviews "After the G.I. Wedding", (review of A Gradual Joy), The New York Times, August 23, 1953 "When Mother Moved In" (review of Round Shape), The New York Times, September 6, 1959 "Their Love Was a Thing Apart" (review of Patience and Sarah), The New York Times, April 23, 1972

Awards Friends of American Writers award (1954, for A Gradual Joy) Bread Loaf Writers' Conference fellow (1957, for Round Shape) American Library Association Stonewall Book Award (1971, for Patience and Sarah) She was arrested during a DOB police raid.

Barbara Gittings staffed a kissing booth at the national convention of the American Library Association in Dallas in 1971, underneath the banner "Hug a Homosexual", with a "women only" side and a "men only" side. When no one took advantage of it, she and Routsong kissed in front of rolling television cameras. In describing its success, despite most of the reaction being negative, Gittings said, "We needed to get an audience. So we decided, let's show gay love live. We were offering free—mind you, free—same-sex kisses and hugs. Let me tell you, the aisles were mobbed, but no one came into the booth to get a free hug. So we hugged and kissed each other. It was shown twice on the evening news, once again in the morning. It put us on the map."

Personal life Alma married Bruce Brodie in 1947 and they had four daughters; Natalie (1949), Joyce (1952), Charlotte (1954), and Louise (1958). In 1962, Routsong met Elizabeth Deran at a church event and entered into a romantic relationship with her.