https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/11/books/marijane-meaker-dead.html

By Neil Genzlinger
Published Dec. 11, 2022Updated Dec. 13, 2022

Marijane Meaker, a versatile and prolific author whose 1952 novel, “Spring Fire,” was among the first lesbian-themed paperback originals and sold so briskly that it jump-started the genre of lesbian pulp fiction, died on Nov. 21 at her home in East Hampton, N.Y. She was 95.

Zoe Kamitses, a longtime friend, said the cause was cardiopulmonary arrest.

Ms. Meaker wrote dozens of books in multiple genres under multiple pen names. As M.E. Kerr she wrote young adult novels and was regarded as “a pioneer in realistic fiction for teenagers,” as the Young Adult Library Services Association said in presenting her with its Margaret A. Edwards Award in 1993.

As Ann Aldrich, she wrote groundbreaking nonfiction books that chronicled lesbian life in Greenwich Village and beyond — “We Walk Alone” (1955), “We, Too, Must Love” (1958) and others.

She used Mary James for quirky books aimed at younger children, like “Shoebag” (1990), about a cockroach that turns into a boy. Her books under her own name included “Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950s” (2003), about her two-year relationship with the author Patricia Highsmith.

But the work that put her on the map and may have had as much impact as any of the others was “Spring Fire,” published by Gold Medal Books under the name Vin Packer, which Ms. Meaker later used for a series of suspense novels. The book was about a college freshman who falls in love with one of her sorority sisters.

Ms. Meaker said she had wanted to call the book “Sorority Girl,” but her editor, Dick Carroll, had a different idea.

“James Michener had just published his book ‘Fires of Spring,’” she said in a 2012 interview with Windy City Times, the L.G.B.T.Q. publication in Chicago. “Dick hoped if we called mine ‘Spring Fire’ the public might confuse it with Michener and we’d sell more copies.”

That ruse may have sold a few books, but far more important was that the novel spoke to a significant segment of women who, in the early 1950s, were not seeing themselves in fiction.

“‘Spring Fire’ went into 15 printings,” she told The Chicago Tribune in 2003. “They had never seen such mail. We suddenly realized that out there were a lot of women with these feelings who had absolutely no way to express them, deal with them or cope.”...

Last paragraphs:

....She retired Packer in 1966 and in 1972, as M.E. Kerr, tried the youth market with “Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!,” a story about a girl with a weight problem who longs for more attention from her mother, a good Samaritan type who works with drug addicts.

It was well received and was followed by a number of others mixing wit and humor with serious themes. Some had gay characters, but their themes ranged far and wide, including antisemitism, suicide, drugs and more.

She was drawn to the young adult genre, she told The New York Times in 1974, by the conviction that teenagers were “entitled to honest, up-to-date good stories with characters their own age to relate to — books that are about them and what bothers them, not about their parents.”

She was annoyed, she said, by youth books that were “goody two shoes sagas” or that blamed parents for everything.

“This is the age when kids are going through great emotional upheavals,” she said. “And they are looking for truths. But until young adult novels started growing up, five years ago or so, they couldn’t find books about themselves, about their feelings, their problems.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/13/marijane-meaker-dead-lesbian-fiction/

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-and-features/articles/author-marijane-meaker-dies-at-95/

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/14/1142786089/remembering-marijane-meaker-a-pioneer-of-lesbian-pulp-fiction
(remembrance)
________________________________________

What I posted in 2017:

One of her more popular books is the 1990 "Deliver Us from Evie."

"Told by her brother Parr, this is the story of 18-year-old Evie, her Missouri farm family, and the turmoil created by Evie's love for the local banker's daughter."

http://www.mekerr.com/
(This includes two interviews, photos, a message board, and readers'
comments on her books.)

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1620/Meaker-Marijane-Agnes-1927.html
(her awards, bibliography, and more)

https://theinkbrain.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/highsmith-by-marijane-meaker/
(amazing 2012 blog on Kerr's 2003 memoir and her romance with Patricia Highsmith)

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/k/m-e-kerr/
(some book covers)

https://openroadmedia.com/contributor/m-e-kerr
(recent book covers)

https://www.google.com/search?q=m+e+kerr+books&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj4u8nd7ZjUAhUi0YMKHS1ZCa0Q_AUIDCgD&biw=1600&bih=789
(more covers)

https://www.google.com/search?q=m+e+kerr+kirkus&oq=m+e+kerr+kirkus&gs_l=serp.3..33i160k1l2.17407.18170.0.18346.6.6.0.0.0.0.200.635.0j3j1.4.0....0...1.1.64.serp..2.4.633...0i22i30k1.qVwVxql5p3A
(Kirkus reviews)

https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=me+kerr
(reviews of her YA novels)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/431012.Mary_James?from_search=true
(reviews of her books for younger children)

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/72317.Marijane_Meaker
(reviews of her books for adults)

Under the Vin Packer entry:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/71874.Vin_Packer

Marijane Meaker (born May 27, 1927) is an American novelist and short story writer in several genres using different pen names. From 1952 to 1969 she wrote twenty mystery and crime novels as Vin Packer, including Spring Fire which is credited with launching the genre of lesbian pulp fiction (although few of Packer's books address homosexuality or feature gay characters). Using her own observations of lesbians in the 1950s and 1960s, she wrote a series of nonfiction books as Ann Aldrich from 1955 to 1972. In 1972 she switched genres and pen names once more to begin writing for young adults, and became quite successful as M.E. Kerr, producing over 20 novels and winning multiple awards, including the American Library Association's lifetime award for young-adult literature (Edwards Award). She was described by The New York Times Book Review as "one of the grand masters of young adult fiction.." As Mary James, she has written four books for younger children...

Critique:
http://www.balkinbuddies.com/kerr/index.html
(link is broken)

Excerpt:

"The primary issues Kerr deals with in her books are the
development and functions of the relationships between her
characters. The relationships that arise are familial, student-
teacher, peer/friend and of course, romantic; she often writes of
first loves in general. The themes that arise in her books are
serious ones, though not without comic and entertaining aspects. Kerr
enjoys injecting humor into her writing - an element that is not lost
on her audience, younger and older. At the same time, her fresh
perspective is mingled with recurring themes and personalities
throughout her body of work, resulting in a sense of continuity and
familiarity for her readers. Tolerance, prejudices, denial and
acceptance of different kinds of people with different backgrounds,
beliefs, lifestyles and socio-economic statuses are topics apparent in
all of her books. Class issues and classism are common underlying
themes as Kerr often contrasts blue collar, middle class and upper
class teens and families as well as the attitudes members of each
class have about others."

BTW, "Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!" (Kerr's first book) has a
deliberately misleading title. Here's a description (no real
spoilers):

"Tucker Woolf, finds a cat but has to give it away due to his father's
allergic reaction. He then meets Dinky Hocker, a girl in the
neighborhood (Brooklyn Heights), when she responds to the sign he puts
up for his cat asking, "Do you feel unwanted, in the way, and the
cause of everyone's misery?...If you know how a loser feels and want
to help, call Main 4-8415. (p. 6)" Tucker gradually gets to know Dinky
and about her "issues", a main one being that her mother is eager to
help drug users but ignores Dinky's needs. Dinky copes with neglect by
overeating....."

"If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever?" was filmed for TV in 1974.

In chapter 2, handsome, popular high-school jock Alan, who looks down
on the balding, anti-cliqueish, half-Jewish Duncan Stein (his nickname
for Stein is "Doomed"), asks Stein to try out for the basketball team.
When Alan gets a "no," Alan says, out of the blue, that there are
famous athletes "of the Jewish persuasion" and "that fact shouldn't
discourage anyone from going out for sports."

Later, Alan tells the story to his girlfriend Leah and her "militant"
sister Sophie. The latter reacts harshly. Alan gets angry. Here's what
follows that:

(Alan): "The whole point of my story was that I was trying to be very
sympathetic with Duncan Stein."

"I said empathy," Sophie answered. "Not sympathy. There's a
difference."

"He was trying to include Duncan Stein in things," Leah said. "What's
wrong with that?"

Forgot to say that she has five entries in the "Something About the Author" encyclopedia series, plus an entry in volume 29 of the "Children's Literature Review" series.

With that in mind, she has a good chance of being written commemorated on her centenary in 2027.