You take it correctly. Marijane Meaker, college classmate of
Richard Matheson, has written Gold Medals and such as Vin
Packer, and YA novels as M. E. Kerr.
And here's a (cached by Google) blurb no longer online at the
San Francisco Public Library site (and perhaps not the most
elegant telling of the tale):
MARIJANE MEAKER Marijane Agnes Meaker, a secretary at Fawcett
books, was asked by her company to write about any
homosexuality that took place at her boarding school and
college sorority. Her book, Spring Fire, published in 1952
under the pseudonym Vin Packer, was enormously popular and
offered a fairly honest account of a lesbian relationship.
She also wrote under the names Ann Aldrich, M.J. Meaker, Mary
James. As M.E. Kerr, Meaker wrote many award-winning books
for young adults such as Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!, Little
Little, and Is that You, Miss Blue? becoming recognized as "a
master of the young adult novel."
This from http://www.mekerr.com/quiz.html
2. What was "M. E. Kerr's" first pen name?
a) Slater Burr
b) M. J. Meaker
c) Eric Ranthram McKay
d) Vin Packer
Answer: They are all pen names although "b" is very close to
her real name: Marijane Meaker. Her first pen name was "c" a
play on her father's initials
"ERM." After she finished writing a story as Eric Ranthram
McKay, she would send it off with a cover letter written on
her father's stationery on which was printed "ERM." See ME ME
ME ME ME: Not a Novel for more stories about M. E. Kerr's
life.
from
http://www.gaylinkcontent.com/storydetail.cfm?storyid=478
[In] 1952, she [Highsmith] wrote The Price of Salt under the
name Claire Morgan and became a celebrity in the then
underground lesbian community. Meaker was writing lesbian
pulp novels under the name Ann Aldrich and had recently
published Spring Fire under the name Vin Packer. She would
later become known for her young adult fiction, written under
the pseudonym M.E. Kerr.
-----Original Message----- From:
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net [mailto:
DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net]
Todd wrote:
"Marijane Meaker and Patricia Highsmith had both written
lesbian novels under pen names, when they met in the
fifties."
First of all, I take it from your intro that Meaker is Vin
Packer's real name?
Have their "lesbian novels" been reprinted? Anyone know the
titles and/or pen names used?
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