Lesbian Life: You wrote non-fiction lesbian books under the pseudonym Ann Aldrich telling of lesbian life in the 50s. These books especially cherished by lesbians of the times because they described a world that many of them longed to be a part of. What kind of research did you do for those books?

Marijane Meaker: Those books were inspired by Donald Webster Cory's great study of male homosexuality.

I wanted to do for the female what he'd done for the male. The "research" was my life, my friends, bars I visited, parts of New York where I lived - everything I knew about the life, everyone I knew and got to know though the vast amount of letters, almost as many as I received for Spring Fire five years earlier.

And now, your books are being re-released as eBooks. What do you think it is about your stories that have lasted the test of time?

I think there was so little knowledge of homosexuality, for one thing, and so many homosexuals who knew nothing about others like them. We were people without a recorded history, people who didn't know they had peers and if they did know, didn't know how to meet them, where to go, how to find friends - all of it. And we were punished for being what we were, our stories censored, our lives minimalized in every way, a shame to our families and ourselves.

Is there anything else you wanted to touch upon that I did not ask?

You covered pretty much everything.

Except...people like you. Without the Kathy Belges and others who help us fight for our entitlements and glimpse the lives we lived without them, we wouldn't be where we are, or ever arrive where we're going, Thank you,
Marijane Meaker, Vin Packer, Ann Aldrich, M.E. Kerr

"Marijane's next book will be published by Magnus. This is a new GLBT house headed by the former publisher of Alyson, Don Weise. New York Nights is the title. It is the story of New York City lesbian life in the 50's, from the Mafia-run bars to the differences between the uptown and downtown lesbians. It will be out in 2013. Meaker is not sure yet if she will use her real name as she did in Shockproof Sydney Skate, or publish this as Vin Packer."