20 Facts About Jane Rule

Jane Rule became an active anti-censorship campaigner, and served on the executive of the Writers' Union of Canada.

Jane Rule described her mother as "a materially spoiled and emotionally depraved only child".

Jane Rule was the middle of three children, with an older brother and a younger sister.

Jane Rule says she was a tomboy growing up and felt like an outsider for reaching six feet tall by age 12 and being dyslexic.

Jane Rule graduated with a degree in English from Mills College in California in 1952.

Jane Rule returned to the US to work at the writing department at Stanford University, but she quit after a few months because of "the competitive, commercial atmosphere of the school, the condescending attitude toward women students".

Jane Rule then lived at home with her parents until 1954.

Worried about politics and McCarthyism of the 50s in America, Jane Rule moved with her friend and literary critic, John Hulcoop, to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1956.

Jane Rule wrote 11 more novels in the 70s and 80s, including her book Lesbian Images, a study of lesbian writers.

Jane Rule's wish was to be remembered as a Canadian writer, more-so than a lesbian or woman writer.

Jane Rule served on the executive of the Writers' Union of Canada.

Jane Rule was an outspoken advocate of both free speech and gay rights, included in the various controversies surrounding the gay magazine The Body Politic, which she wrote for regularly, along with The Ladder.

Jane Rule was a prominent anti-censorship figure.

In 1989, Jane Rule donated a collection of her writings to the University of British Columbia.

Jane Rule was inducted into the Order of British Columbia in 1998, and into the Order of Canada in 2007, both award ceremonies taking place, at Jane Rule's initiative, in her home community of Galiano Island.

Jane Rule received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement from Publishing Triangle in 2002.

In 1976, Jane Rule moved to Galiano Island along with Helen Sonthoff, and the two remained there until the end of both their lives.

Jane Rule refused any radical treatment and instead continued swimming and living her life as usual.

Jane Rule died later that year, at the age of 76 on November 28,2007, at home on Galiano Island.

The manuscript of Jane Rule's memoir was found and published posthumously, Taking My Life, published in 2011.