Elaine Williams

Elaine Williams was born as Elaine H. Cumming in Richmond Hill, Queens, New York on December 28, 1932.[1][2] Her father was Alexander Cumming and her mother was Edna Louise Westpfal or Westphall Cumming.[2][3][4] Fellow pulp author Gilbert Fox said of Williams: "Her family refused to accept the fact that she was a lesbian".[5]

Williams married Ernest E Williams in 1950 and thus changed her name to Elaine Cumming Williams.[6] Together, they had four children and lived in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York.[2]

Cover of These Curious Pleasures by Sloane Britain - Illustration by Paul Rader - 1961

Williams became one of the first editors at Midwood Books in 1959.[7] Along with editing for Midwood, Williams was asked to author her own lesbian pulp books.[8]

At the same time, Williams began writing her own paperback lesbian pulps under a collection of pseudonyms following a similar pattern: Sloan Britain, Sloane Britain, Sloane Britton, Sloan Britton, and possibly other variations.[8] She published her first two novels in 1959: First Person-Third Sex and The Needle. These books were published by Newsstand Library and Beacon, respectively. Both books contained lesbian or bisexual themes,[7] thus placing Williams' work in the canon of lesbian pulp fiction of the 50s and 60s. Further, Williams' early work contained positive portrayals of lesbian relationships, making her one of the pro-lesbian pulp authors.[9] Literary scholar Yvonne Keller named Williams as one of a small group of writers whose work formed the subgenre of "pro-lesbian" pulp fiction; others include Ann Bannon, Paula Christian, Joan Ellis, March Hastings, Marjorie Lee, Della Martin, Rea Michaels, Claire Morgan, Vin Packer, Randy Salem, Artemis Smith, Valerie Taylor, Tereska Torres, and Shirley Verel.[10]^{:6, 20}

Her 1961 novel These Curious Pleasures revolves around a main character named Sloane Britain. It is thought that the plot is somewhat autobiographical of Williams, or at least depicts a lesbian relationship which Williams dreamed of. Also in this book is a character named Harry “Happy” Broadman, who is curiously similar to Midwood Books co-founder and publisher Harry Shorten. Both in real life and fiction, Shorten has been said to have been an unpredictable and at times aggressive man.[7] Williams' inclusion of this character might clue readers into what it was like as one of the first editors and writers at Midwood.

Williams published eight other lesbian pulp novels in her career, plus two posthumous short novels published as Midwood Doubles.[7] She was and still is praised for her realistic and sympathetic portrayals of lesbian and bisexual characters, but her later novels are notably more cynical, with dismal endings.[9]

Williams died just six days before her 32nd birthday, December 23, 1963. She and her husband had been driving home from a workplace holiday party for the hotel at which her husband was a chef.[2] Newspaper reports from the time disagree on who was driving; around 3am and a block from home the car skidded on snow and hit a tree head-on, killing Williams and gravely injuring her husband.[2][11][12]

She is buried in Barrytown, New York.[2]

• First Person-Third Sex, 1959[13]
• The Needle, 1959
• Meet Marilyn, 1960
• Unnatural, 1960[14]
• Insatiable, 1960
• These Curious Pleasures, 1961
• That Other Hunger, 1961
• Woman Doctor, 1962
• Ladder of Flesh, 1962[15]
• The Delicate Vice, 1963[16][17]
• Finders Keepers, 1965
• Summer of Sin
• Peep Booth