{"id":70307,"date":"2026-11-14T12:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T12:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/?p=70307"},"modified":"2026-11-14T12:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T12:37:09","slug":"old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/","title":{"rendered":"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling emotional barriers as played out in suburban New Jersey during the turbulent 1960s. To a casual observer, the Haas family-mother Tommie, father Frank, son Brighton, daughter Helen-might appear the nuclear ideal. But Tommie’s miserable, Frank’s remote, Brighton broods and Helen tries to figure it all out. Tommie, it turns out, had a satisfying lesbian relationship with her college roommate, Jeanne Ann Love, and married Frank because, given the times, she believed she had no choice. Her best friend and next-door neighbor is Hal Chapin, who endured six months of an awful marriage before he could admit that he was gay. Brighton and Helen, tormented by their mother’s misery and by their father’s silence, struggle with the pains of adolescence and sexual questions of their own. The novel begins promisingly, especially with the engaging voice of the troubled Brighton; but after a while, the spectacle of all five main characters wrestling with similar sexual identity conflicts grows wearisome. Tommie begins drinking, and her frustration and confusion come to a climax on her 40th birthday, culminating in an accident that leads her to leave her family for a commune of women in Vermont. Eventual reconciliation with her family comes hard, though not as hard as the patience that a reader, despite Erhart’s genuine compassion and insight, needs to finish this frustratingly elusive work. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.<\/p>\n\n

From Booklist During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Haases had a bad time. Father Frank’s income kept them comfortable, but mother Tommie’s restiveness grew, and after the accident, she took off, first to the arms of her college roommate, then to the West Coast, then to rural Vermont. Son Brighton finished a decade of sullenness and psychotherapy to become an attractive young man (albeit gay–like mother, like son?), but as he did, daughter Helen withdrew, dropped athletics, almost stopped eating. Meanwhile, Tommie’s best friend and the family’s neighbor, Hal, came out of the closet yet always staunchly maintained ‘the halfway house for Haases.’ First one, then another of the Haases and Hal advance the story of their hard years. Each speaks in a distinctive voice; at the same time, the testimony of each is heartbreakingly lucid, simple, and intelligent. Together, they represent the human condition in late-twentieth-century America: craving the meaning family might give but living an arid individualism, suffering but not guilty. The author of the marvelous Augusta Cotton (1992) gives us another quiet novel that reverberates to the depths of the soul. Ray Olson<\/p>\n\n

Genre:<\/strong> Fiction<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling emotional barriers as played out in suburban New Jersey during the turbulent 1960s. To a casual observer, the Haas family-mother Tommie, father Frank, son Brighton, daughter Helen-might appear the nuclear ideal. But Tommie’s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5275,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4318],"tags":[],"pub_year":[],"class_list":["post-70307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\nOld Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions) - Lesbian Bibliography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesbian Bibliography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-11-14T12:37:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"304\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"475\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"NorthShore Noir Press\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"NorthShore Noir Press\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"NorthShore Noir Press\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/47475bc37f43183328c7cf208b3d817f\"},\"headline\":\"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions)\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-14T12:37:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":454,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Fiction\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions) - Lesbian Bibliography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-11-14T12:37:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg\",\"width\":304,\"height\":475},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/\",\"name\":\"Lesbian Bibliography\",\"description\":\"The Lesbian Literature Bibliography\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Lesbian Fun World Books\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/cropped-LFW-HDLogo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/06\\\/cropped-LFW-HDLogo.jpg\",\"width\":1157,\"height\":598,\"caption\":\"Lesbian Fun World Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/lesbianfunworld.com\\\/books\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/47475bc37f43183328c7cf208b3d817f\",\"name\":\"NorthShore Noir Press\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a5ffb32eedf79f1cf201ae2e46198120d552a5a48e907f4d5c5e8d6087a83bba?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a5ffb32eedf79f1cf201ae2e46198120d552a5a48e907f4d5c5e8d6087a83bba?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/a5ffb32eedf79f1cf201ae2e46198120d552a5a48e907f4d5c5e8d6087a83bba?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"NorthShore Noir Press\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions) - Lesbian Bibliography","description":"From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions)","og_description":"From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling...","og_url":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/","og_site_name":"Lesbian Bibliography","article_published_time":"2026-11-14T12:37:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":304,"height":475,"url":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"NorthShore Noir Press","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"NorthShore Noir Press","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/"},"author":{"name":"NorthShore Noir Press","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#\/schema\/person\/47475bc37f43183328c7cf208b3d817f"},"headline":"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions)","datePublished":"2026-11-14T12:37:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/"},"wordCount":454,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg","articleSection":["Fiction"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/","url":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/","name":"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions) - Lesbian Bibliography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg","datePublished":"2026-11-14T12:37:09+00:00","description":"From Publishers Weekly With mixed results, Erhart (Augusta Cotton, 1992) uses five first-person narrators to explore issues of sexual identity and stifling...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/OldLoveMargaretErhart19330_f.jpg","width":304,"height":475},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/old-love-by-margaret-erhart-all-editions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Old Love by Margaret Erhart (All Editions)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#website","url":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/","name":"Lesbian Bibliography","description":"The Lesbian Literature Bibliography","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#organization","name":"Lesbian Fun World Books","url":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/cropped-LFW-HDLogo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/cropped-LFW-HDLogo.jpg","width":1157,"height":598,"caption":"Lesbian Fun World Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/#\/schema\/person\/47475bc37f43183328c7cf208b3d817f","name":"NorthShore Noir Press","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5ffb32eedf79f1cf201ae2e46198120d552a5a48e907f4d5c5e8d6087a83bba?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5ffb32eedf79f1cf201ae2e46198120d552a5a48e907f4d5c5e8d6087a83bba?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a5ffb32eedf79f1cf201ae2e46198120d552a5a48e907f4d5c5e8d6087a83bba?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"NorthShore Noir Press"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71331,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70307\/revisions\/71331"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70307"},{"taxonomy":"pub_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesbianfunworld.com\/books\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pub_year?post=70307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}