Winner of the 1969 American Library Assoc.'s first Gay Book Award

One of the "Best 100 Best Gay and Lesbian Novels of All Time" (Publishing Triangle)

Set in the nineteenth century, Isabel Miller's classic lesbian novel traces the relationship between Patience White, an educated painter, and Sarah Dowling, a farmer, whose romantic bond does not sit well with the puritanical New England farming community in which they live. Ultimately, they are forced to make life-changing decisions that depend on their courage and their commitment to one another.

First self-published in 1969 in an edition of 1,000 copies, it garnered increasing attention to the point of receiving the American Library Association's first Gay Book Award. Patience & Sarah is a historical romance that was a touchstone for the burgeoning gay and women's activism of the late 1960s and early 1970s; it celebrates the joys of an uninhibited love between two strong women with a confident defiance that remains relevant today.

This edition features an appendix of supplementary materials, as well as an introduction by Emma Donoghue, whose numerous books include Stirfry, Hood, and Life Mask, which was shortlisted for a 2005 Lambda Literary Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award. Her 2010 novel Room was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Rogers Writers Trust Fiction Prize.

Little Sister's Classic edition now in its second printing!

Isabel Miller was the author of numerous novels, including two under her real name, Alma Routsong. She died in 1996.

Isabel Miller's profile page

EMMA DONOGHUE was born in Dublin and lived in England for many years before moving to Canada. She writes in many genres, including theatre, radio drama and literary history, but is best known for her fiction, both historical (Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Astray, Frog Music) and contemporary (Stir-Fry, Hood, Landing, Touchy Subjects). Her seventh novel, Room, won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Canada and the Caribbean region) and was shortlisted for the Man Booker and Orange Prizes. It sold more than two million copies. Donoghue scripted the film adaptation, a Canadian-Irish film by Lenny Abrahamson starring Brie Larson, which was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. And her most recent novel, The Wonder, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2016.

Emma Donoghue's profile page

• Winner, American Library Assoc.'s first Gay Book Award

The writing has the directness and whimsicality of primitive paintings?it is like spiked gingerbread or surprising samplers. The tone is sweetly bold. And the tale evokes many kinds of frontier at once.
?The Village Voice

The Village Voice

Starred review:The story of a painter and a farmer in 19th-century New England. One of the first lesbian novels with a happy ending and, in 1971, the first recipient of ALA's Stonewall Book Award.
?Library Journal (May 2007)

Library Journal