In 1923, Elsa Gidlow published the U.S.'s first book of lesbian poetry, titled On A Grey Thread. 

She authored thirteen books and appeared as herself in the documentary Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives.

Her autobiography, Elsa, I Come with My Songs, completed just before her death, narrates her life story. It is the first fully autobiographical account of a lesbian who didn’t use a pseudonym. 

I’m sharing here one of her poems, “For the Goddess Too Well Known” – 

I have robbed the garrulous streets,
Thieved a fair girl from their blight,
I have stolen her for a sacrifice
That I shall make to this night.

I have brought her, laughing,
To my quietly dreaming garden.
For what will be done there
I ask no man pardon.

I brush the rouge from her cheeks,
Clean the black kohl from the rims
Of her eyes; loose her hair;
Uncover the glimmering, shy limbs.

I break wild roses, scatter them over her.
The thorns between us sting like love’s pain.
Her flesh, bitter and salt to my tongue,
I taste with endless kisses and taste again.

At dawn I leave her
Asleep in my wakening garden.
(For what was done there
I ask no man pardon.)