The Love That Dares

An Anthology of Queer Love Letters

Rachel Smith, Barbara Vesey, Mark Gatiss

$24.99

Paperback

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QTY:

English

Ilex
11 March 2025

Diaries, letters & journals; Gay & Lesbian studies

""What this charming, moving and fascinating collection proves is that the [letter] form itself - a scribbled note, a declaration of love, an outpouring of passion, a bitter word - has always been with us."" - Mark Gatiss

A good love letter can speak across centuries, and reassure us that the agony and the ecstasy one might feel today have been shared by lovers long gone. In The Love That Dares, queer love speaks its name through a wonderful selection of surviving letters between lovers and friends, confidants and companions.

Alongside the more famous names coexist beautifully written letters by lesser-known lovers. Together, they weave a narrative of queer love through the centuries, through the romantic, often funny, and always poignant words of those who lived it.

Including letters written by:

John Cage

Audre Lorde

Benjamin Britten

Lorraine Hansberry

Walt Whitman

Vita Sackville-West

Radclyffe Hall

Allen Ginsberg

By: Rachel Smith, Barbara Vesey
Foreword by: Mark Gatiss
Imprint: Ilex
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 196mm, Width: 126mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 200g
ISBN: 9781781579695
ISBN 10: 1781579695
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 11 March 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Rachel Smith was born in Providence, raised in Hope, Rhode Island, and currently resides in London, where she is an archivist at Bishopsgate Institute. She is also an award-winning screenwriter. The Love That Dares is her first work of non-fiction, after releasing a collection of her poetry and photography, Words & Pictures, in 2016. In her free time, Rachel enjoys coffee, travel, knitting, her dog and her wife. Barbara Vesey was raised in New York but, having seen Mary Poppins at an impressionable age, eventually moved to London. Once accused of being a 'rampant feminist' - an epithet she was delighted to receive - after 25 years as a writer, editor and proofreader she retrained as an archivist. She is proud to work at the archives of both the Bishopsgate Institute and the Society of the Sacred Heart. Through sheer luck she has two amazing children and a world-class collection of art postcards.