Valerie Taylor

Valerie Taylor (September 7, 1913 – October 22, 1997) was an American author of books published in the lesbian pulp fiction genre, as well as poetry and novels after the "golden age" of lesbian pulp fiction. She also published as Nacella Young (under which she wrote her poetry), Francine Davenport (under which she wrote her romances), and Velma Tate. Her publishers included Naiad Press, Banned Books, Universal, Gold Medal Books, Womanpress, Ace and Midwood-Tower. Early life and education Velma Nacella Young was born on September 7, 1913, in Aurora, Illinois, to Elsie M. Collins and Marshall J. Young. She grew up on her family's farm, with her younger sister Rose Marie and her paternal grandparents. She came from a "tradition of women's activism"; one of her great-grandmothers marched in the first suffrage parade in Elgin, Illinois in 1889. Additionally, many of her family members were avid readers -- "her family had little money but plenty of books." Taylor also frequently and proudly referred to her Potawatomi heritage. Young graduated from Elgin High School. Five years later, she was granted a two-year scholarship to Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois where she studied education, during the Great Depression. There, she gained the credentials to teach at country schools, and was introduced to grassroots activism and "made her a socialist." She joined the American Socialist Party at age twenty-two. Feeling that social norms compelled her to find a husband, she married William Jerry Tate in 1939, thus changing her name to Velma Tate. In the same year that they married, she had her first son, Marshall, and then two years later they had twins Jerry and Jim. After fourteen years of marriage, she described how her husband had proved to be an alcoholic bum. The same year that she published her first novel, Hired Girl, which she received $500 for, she "bought a pair of shoes, two dresses, and hired a divorce lawyer." In 1953, they divorced, and Velma left with her sons to “The Colony” in Chicago.