Making girls into women : American women's writing and the rise of lesbian identity / Kathryn R. Kent.

Durham [N.C.] ; London : Duke University Press, 2003.

xi, 355 pages ; 24 cm.

"Single white female": the sexual politics of spinsterhood in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Oldtown folks -- "Trying all kinds": Louisa May Alcott's pedagogic erotics -- "Scouting for girls": reading and recruitment in the early twentieth century -- "Excreate a no sense": the erotic currency of Gertrude Stein's Tender buttons -- The M multiplying: Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop and the pleasure of influence, part I -- Influence and invitation: Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, and the pleasures of influence, part 2.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [313]-344) and index.