‘Chocolates for Breakfast’ is sometimes included in lists of early Lesbian Fiction, for the depiction of the relationship of two schoolgirls at an East Coast boarding school — the protagonist Courtney Farrell and her best friend Janet Parker — the strong bond between Courtney and her teacher Miss Rosen, and the backlash against them from the other boarding school teachers and students.
Pamela Moore finished Chocolates for Breakfast shortly before her eighteenth birthday, and its publication in 1956 made her an international celebrity. The New York Times called her an American Sagan, critics compared the book to Bonjour Tristesse, and it was translated into eleven languages. Bantam's paperback edition followed in 1957.
For lesbian readers the novel matters because of how it begins. It opens in an East Coast boarding school, where Courtney Farrell's intense attachment to her English teacher, Miss Rosen, has become the subject of gossip and warnings that she will turn queer; when the friendship is broken off, Courtney leaves for Los Angeles and an affair with an older man. The book is regularly included in lists of early lesbian fiction, and its lesbian content shifted from edition to edition. A French edition carried passages about Courtney's desire that the earlier printing had removed, and the 2013 American reissue prints a comparison of the three texts.
The novel went out of print in the United States in 1967. Harper Perennial restored it in 2013 with a foreword by Emma Straub and an essay by Moore's son, nearly fifty years after Moore's death in 1964 at the age of twenty-six.
Publication History
Copyright Date
1956
Publication Date
1956
Publisher
Rinehart and Company
Format
Hardcover
No. of Pages
252
Language
English
Notes
Pamela Moore was eighteen when her first novel, Chocolates for Breakfast, became a sensation in three languages. Readers in France, Italy, England and the U.S. snapped up hundreds of thousands of copies
Rating
Not Rated
Copyright Date
1956
Publication Date
1957
Publisher
Bantam
Format
Mass Market Paperback
No. of Pages
167
Language
English
Notes
Bantam A1630
Pamela Moore was eighteen when her first novel, Chocolates for Breakfast, became a sensation in three languages. Readers in France, Italy, England and the U.S. snapped up hundreds of thousands of copies
Rating
Not Rated
Copyright Date
1956
Publication Date
1957
Publisher
Bantam
Format
Mass Market Paperback
No. of Pages
167
Language
English
Notes
A2862???
Pamela Moore was eighteen when her first novel, Chocolates for Breakfast, became a sensation in three languages. Readers in France, Italy, England and the U.S. snapped up hundreds of thousands of copies
Rating
Not Rated
Copyright Date
1956
Publication Date
1957
Publisher
Longmans, Green & Co.
Format
Hardcover
No. of Pages
252
Language
English
Notes
Pamela Moore was eighteen when her first novel, Chocolates for Breakfast, became a sensation in three languages. Readers in France, Italy, England and the U.S. snapped up hundreds of thousands of copies
Rating
Not Rated
Copyright Date
1956
Publication Date
1959
Publisher
Ace
Format
Mass Market Paperback
Language
English
Notes
Ace Books H286
Pamela Moore was eighteen when her first novel, Chocolates for Breakfast, became a sensation in three languages. Readers in France, Italy, England and the U.S. snapped up hundreds of thousands of copies
Rating
Not Rated
Copyright Date
1960
Publication Date
1960
Publisher
Bantam
Format
Mass Market Paperback
Language
English
Notes
Bantam A2092
Rating
Not Rated
Copyright Date
1956
Publication Date
1964
Publisher
Bantam Sixty
Format
Mass Market Paperback
No. of Pages
167
Language
English
Notes
H2726
Pamela Moore was eighteen when her first novel, Chocolates for Breakfast, became a sensation in three languages. Readers in France, Italy, England and the U.S. snapped up hundreds of thousands of copies
Rating
Not Rated
Copyright Date
1956
Publication Date
1964
Publisher
Four Square Book
Format
Mass Market Paperback
Language
English
Notes
Sexual Paperback Book No 1112
Pamela Moore was eighteen when her first novel, Chocolates for Breakfast, became a sensation in three languages. Readers in France, Italy, England and the U.S. snapped up hundreds of thousands of copies
Comment
Pamela Moore finished Chocolates for Breakfast shortly before her eighteenth birthday, and its publication in 1956 made her an international celebrity. The New York Times called her an American Sagan, critics compared the book to Bonjour Tristesse, and it was translated into eleven languages. Bantam's paperback edition followed in 1957.
For lesbian readers the novel matters because of how it begins. It opens in an East Coast boarding school, where Courtney Farrell's intense attachment to her English teacher, Miss Rosen, has become the subject of gossip and warnings that she will turn queer; when the friendship is broken off, Courtney leaves for Los Angeles and an affair with an older man. The book is regularly included in lists of early lesbian fiction, and its lesbian content shifted from edition to edition. A French edition carried passages about Courtney's desire that the earlier printing had removed, and the 2013 American reissue prints a comparison of the three texts.
The novel went out of print in the United States in 1967. Harper Perennial restored it in 2013 with a foreword by Emma Straub and an essay by Moore's son, nearly fifty years after Moore's death in 1964 at the age of twenty-six.