Editing Radclyffe Hall (section)

===''The Well of Loneliness''===
[[File:The_Well_Of_Loneliness_by_Radclyffe_Hall_-_Permabooks_P112_1951.jpg|thumb|upright|1951 cover of ''The Well of Loneliness'']]

Hall's most well-known work is ''[[The Well of Loneliness]]'', the only one of her eight novels to have overt lesbian themes.<ref>Radclyffe Hall. (2024). ''Britannica Biographies'', 1.</ref> Published in 1928, ''The Well of Loneliness'' deals with the life of Stephen Gordon, a masculine lesbian who, like Hall herself, identifies as an "invert". The novel paints a vulnerable, sympathetic portrayal of lesbians.

Although ''The Well of Loneliness'' is not sexually explicit, it was nevertheless the subject of an obscenity trial in the UK, which resulted in an order for the destruction of all copies of the book. The United States allowed its publication only after a long court battle. It is currently published in the UK by [[Virago Press|Virago]], and by [[Anchor Press]] in the United States. ''The Well of Loneliness'' was number seven on a list of the top 100 lesbian and gay novels compiled by [[The Publishing Triangle]] in 1999.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Publishing Triangle's list of the 100 best lesbian and gay novels|url=http://www.publishingtriangle.org/100best.asp}}</ref> It is now noted as the predecessor to the [[Lesbian pulp fiction|golden age of lesbian pulp fiction.]]

====''The Girls of Radcliff Hall''====
{{Main|The Girls of Radcliff Hall}}

British composer and bon vivant [[Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners]], wrote a [[roman à clef]] titled ''[[The Girls of Radcliff Hall]]'', in which he depicts himself and his circle of friends, including [[Cecil Beaton]] and [[Oliver Messel]], as lesbian schoolgirls at a school named Radcliff Hall. The novel was written under the pseudonym Adela Quebec and published and distributed privately; the indiscretions to which it alluded created an uproar among Berners' intimates and acquaintances, making the whole affair widely discussed in the 1930s. Cecil Beaton attempted to have all the copies destroyed.<ref>Florence Tamagne, "History of Homosexuality in Europe, 1919–1939", Algora Publishing, 2004; {{ISBN|0-87586-356-6}}, p 124</ref><ref>Bryony Jones, ''The music of Lord Berners (1883–1950): the versatile peer'', Ashgate Publishing, 2003; {{ISBN|0-7546-0852-2}}, pp 9, 101, 143</ref><ref>Beverly Lyon Clark, ''Regendering the school story: sassy sissies and tattling tomboys'', Routledge, 2001; {{ISBN|0-415-92891-5}}, p 143</ref> The book subsequently disappeared from circulation, making it extremely rare. The story is, however, included in Berners' ''Collected Tales and Fantasies''.