2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

A reading from the recently published letters of Jane Rule and Rick Bébout by the editor, Marilyn R. Schuster, along with Alix Korn and Jenn Maer. Jane Rule, author of the ground-breaking 1964 lesbian novel Desert of the Heart, and Rick Bébout, editor of the Toronto-based radical LGBTQ gay magazine The Body Politic, exchanged letters every month until Jane died in 2007. Written just before and during the age of AIDS, the letters reveal a loving, generative cross-generational and cross-gender relationship marked by spirited debate, intellectual discovery and affection. The letters reflect the sometimes tough love Rule and Bébout felt for their queer communities. Their willingness to disagree, to reveal their vulnerabilities and to share their most intimate thoughts provide a model for engaged citizenship and, even more, for friendship.

Marilyn Schuster is Andrew W. Mellon Professor emerita in the Program for the Study of Women & Gender, Smith College; Alix Korn, co-editor and Smith alumna, is Senior Cultural Strategist at DCX, New York, and Jenn Maer, Smith alumna, is Portfolio Director at IDEO, San Francisco.