The Latecomer by Sarah Aldridge (All Editions)

The Latecomer by Sarah Aldridge is a 1974 lesbian romance and a landmark in the history of lesbian publishing: it was the first title issued by Naiad Press, the pioneering lesbian publishing house co-founded by Aldridge’s partner Anyda Marchant and Muriel Crawford. The novel follows Philippa, returning by ship from Europe, whose life is upended by the woman she shares a cabin with — an entertainer whose world is entirely unlike her own. Their paths cross repeatedly across Washington DC and New York City before they come to recognise what they mean to each other. The book was reissued by Naiad in 1984 and again as a 35th Anniversary edition by A & M Books, the latter including tributes and reflections from writers and activists including Ann Bannon, Katherine V. Forrest, Holly Near, and Radclyffe.

Genre: Grier Rated; Romance

Subjects: FICTION / Lesbian; Lesbians – Fiction

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Comments

The Latecomer holds a specific place in lesbian literary history as the inaugural publication of Naiad Press, which would go on to dominate lesbian fiction publishing for the next three decades. Sarah Aldridge was the pen name of Anyda Marchant, a Washington DC lawyer who began writing lesbian fiction in her fifties. That the first Naiad title came from one of the press’s own founders is worth noting — Naiad began as a genuinely personal project, and The Latecomer has the qualities that characterise Aldridge’s work generally: restrained prose, professional women protagonists, and a commitment to the happy ending that was far from guaranteed in lesbian fiction of any era before it.

The novel is slender at 110 pages and the plot is slight by contemporary standards, but its significance lies less in the story than in what it represented: a lesbian love story published on lesbian terms, without the obligatory tragedy or pathology that commercial publishers routinely imposed. The 35th Anniversary edition’s inclusion of tributes from across lesbian literary culture underscores how widely that founding act was recognised. For readers approaching it today, the historical weight is the primary draw; as a novel it is pleasant but modest.

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Publication History