24 Facts About Barbara Grier

Barbara Grier was an American writer and publisher.

Barbara Grier is credited for having built the lesbian book industry.

Barbara Grier built a major collection of lesbian literature, catalogued with detailed indexing of topics.

Barbara Glycine Grier was born on November 4,1933, in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Barbara Grier's mother was Dorothy Vernon Black, a secretary, and her father was Philip Strang Grier, a doctor.

Barbara Grier's sister Diane was a lesbian, a fact Barbara attributed to how feminist their mother was, as well as genetics.

Barbara Grier's parents separated when she was 10 and divorced when she was 13 years old.

Barbara Grier grew up in several midwestern US cities, spending most of her life between Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas.

Barbara Grier realized she was a lesbian at age twelve after researching the topic at the library.

When Barbara Grier was fifteen, her mother gifted her a copy of The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall and Of Lena Geyer by Marcia Davenport.

Shortly after Barbara Grier graduated high school in 1951, she met Helen Bennett in a public library.

In 1957, Barbara Grier subscribed to The Ladder, a magazine edited by members of the Daughters of Bilitis.

Barbara Grier began writing book reviews for The Ladder, using multiple pen names in her writings including Gene Damon, Marilyn Barrow, Gladys Casey, Terry Cook, Dorthy Lyle, Vern Niven, Lennox Strong, and Lee Stuart.

Barbara Grier worked as The Ladder's poetry and fiction editor from 1966 until 1968, when Barbara Grier took over editing The Ladder with the goal of expanding the magazine to include more feminist ideals.

Barbara Grier's tenure took place at a time when the Daughters of Bilitis were in conflict about the direction of the organization.

Barbara Grier used the name Gene Damon for this bibliography but her rating system for lesbian literature would come to be known as Grier Ratings.

Barbara Grier rated lesbian literature on a letter scale for how prominent the lesbian subject was to the story and a range of 1 to 3 asterisks for the quality of the representation:.

In 1973, Barbara Grier co-founded Naiad Press along with Donna McBride, Anyda Marchant, and Muriel Crawford.

Barbara Grier worked with Jeannette Howard Foster and Marion Zimmer Bradley in the late 1950s to compile the largest collection of books with lesbian themes in the English language, which they originally called Checklist 1960 and was later published as The Lesbian in Literature.

Barbara Grier was very supportive of Bella Books, and noted that almost all of the Naiad writers have signed on with Smith.

In 1985 Barbara Grier earned the President's Award for Lifetime Service from the Gay Academic Union.

Barbara Grier paid ex-nuns Rosemary Kurb and Nancy Manahan a half million dollars for the book which landed Barbara Grier on numerous talk shows.

Barbara Grier had first met Grier because of McBride's position as a reference librarian at the Kansas City public library.

Barbara Grier died of lung cancer in Tallahassee, Florida, on November 10,2011.