Edith Eyde

Edith Eyde (aka "Edythe Eyde") was a fan, a writer, editor, and gay rights activist.

She wrote one of the first gay utopias, in Vice Versa, the first lesbian journal in the US; it was published in nine bimonthly issues, of only nine to ten copies each, from 1947 to 1948. Vice Versa included two fantasy stories and several lesbian critiques of various fantasy novels.

In 1946 she helped organize the first major West Coast SF con, Pacificon.

In the 1950s, she began rewriting many folk and popular songs, performing the lesbianized versions in local clubs. The LA chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis released a recording of some of the songs in 1960 as the frist gay folk singer.

Names

She wrote under at least two pseudonyms:

• Lisa Ben is a pseudonym (anagram of lesbian) for her work with Vice Versa
• Another pseudonym, other SF novels

Works

• "New Year's Revolution", published in Jan. 1948 issue of Vice Versa, included a gay utopia visited in a dream
• Editor & publisher, Vice Versa (1947-48)
• Other SF novels under another pseudonym

References

• Gaysweek, New York, No. 49, 1978 Jan. 23, interview with Leland Moss and Lisa Ben
• Sharon Yntema, More Than 100 Woman Science Fiction Writers (1988)
• Eric Garber and Lyn Paleo, Uranian Worlds (1983)
• Eric Marcus, Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990: An Oral History (1992)
• Steve Hogan & Lee Hudson, Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia