NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

      New York and London

      Copyright © 1976, 1993 by Bertha Harris

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Harris, Bertha

      Lover / Bertha Harris ; with a new introduction by the author.

      p. cm. — (The Cutting edge)

      ISBN 0-8147-3504-5 (cloth) — ISBN 0-8147-3505-3 (pbk.)

      1. Lesbians—Fiction. I. Title. II. Series: Cutting edge

      (NewYork, N.Y.)

      PS3558.A6426L6 1993

      813’.54—dc20 93-17716

      CIP

      New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,

      and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 4 3 2

       PRAISE FOR LOVER

      “Violent, funny, beautiful, intelligent.”

      —Jane Rule

      “Lover is that rare thing, an authentic classic, with passages so lyrical they beg to be read out loud. I have two copies of the 1976 edition, one I have reread until it is frayed and soft with use, the other pristine and locked away, just in case some desperate lover were to steal the first—which they have. Quite a few copies have gone missing since 1976. Thank god someone has finally had the wisdom to reprint Bertha Harris’s opus. Now I can give women copies instead of threatening them if they touch mine.”

      —Dorothy Allison

      Author of Bastard Out of Carolina

      “The re-issuing of Lover marks the return of one of our most brilliant novelistic talents. Bertha Harris’s melancholy comic genius can now be appreciated by a new generation. And the lengthy introduction she has provided, telling the lugubrious story of Daughters Inc. in hilarious, poignant detail, is itself a stunning achievement with all the condensed complexity of a first-rate novella.”

      —Martin Duberman

      Director of the Center for Lesbian

      and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the CUNY

      Graduate School and the author of

      Cures and Stonewall

      “Harris, an American equivalent of Monique Wittig, … is ingenious, sardonic, parodie. [She] explores the various roles women have played: grandmother, mother, daughter, sister, wife and second wife, businesswoman in man’s clothing, prostitute, factory worker, movie star, muse and tutelary spirit, warrior, artist, fake saint, martyr.”

      —Catharine R. Stimpson

      “Lover seduces the reader with its playful masquerading, its lyrical language, its entwined stories of women lovers who appear as debonair actors, precarious beam-walkers, languishing beauties—sexual outlaws all, pursuing, teasing, embracing, birthing each other. The introduction, by turns funny, sad, moving, and outrageous, is alone worth the price of the book. Lover is everything a seduction should be— smart, unpredictable, witty, provocative—and sexy.”

      —Carolyn Allen

      University of Washington

       The Cutting Edge: Lesbian Life and Literature

       Series Editor: Karla Jay

      Ladies Almanack by Djuna Barnes WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SUSAN SNIADER LANSER

      Adventures of the Mind: The Memoirs of Natalie Clifford Barney TRANSLATED BY JOHN SPALDING GATTON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY KARLA JAY

      Paint It Today by H.D. (HILDA DOOLITTLE) EDITED AND WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CASSANDRA LAITY

      (Sem)Erotics: Theorizing Lesbian : Writing BY ELIZABETH A. MEESE

      The Search for a Woman-Centered Spirituality BY ANNETTE J. VAN DYKE

      I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister, 1791-1840 EDITED BY HELENA WHITBREAD

      No Priest But Love: The Journals of Anne Lister, 1824-1826 EDITED BY HELENA WHITBREAD

       Editorial Board

      Judith Butler

      Humanities Center

      The Johns Hopkins University

      Blanche Wiesen Cook

      History and Women’s Studies

      John Jay College and

      City University of New York

      Graduate Center

      Diane Griffin Crowder

      French and Women’s Studies

      Cornell College

      Joanne Glasgow

      English and Women’s Studies

      Bergen Community College

      Marny Hall

      Psychotherapist and Writer

      Celia Kitzinger

      Social Studies

      Loughborough University, UK

      Jane Marcus

      English and Women’s Studies

      City University of New York

      Graduate Center

      Biddy Martin

      German and Women’s Studies

      Cornell University

      Cornell University

      Elizabeth Meese

      English

      University of Alabama

      Esther Newton

      Anthropology

      SUNY, Purchase

      Terri de la Peña

      Novelist/Short Story Writer

      Ruthann Robson

      Writer

      Law School at Queens

      City