Book excerpt: "This Historical Dictionary of Lesbian Literature serves two primary functions: to provide further information to those already familiar with the field and to explain it to those discovering it for the first time. A chronology provides a historical perspective, an introduction gives a general yet detailed overview, and the dictionary contains several hundred cross-referenced entries on important writers such as Sappho, Colette, and Mary Wollstonecraft, styles, themes, literary movement, publishers, and outstanding works of the genre. Completed by an extensive bibliography, this book examines the factors influencing the development of the lesbian identity as an interaction between readers and writers of all kinds of literature."--BOOK JACKET.