Jo's Girls: Tomboy Tales of High Adventure, True Grit, and Real Life

Christian McEwen's introduction to this anthology examines the different origins of the word "tomboy," from a "high spirited romping girl" to a "bold or immodest" woman or prostitute. Only in the 19th century did the word take on the positive connotations of a girl who took "a wholesome delight in...playing at active games..." and could thus be applied to a girl like Jo March of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. In celebration of Jo-like girls, this anthology gathers more than 30 stories, essays, and prose poems from writers as diverse as Colette and Leslie Feinberg, Virginia Woolf and Linda Smukler, that describe the sometimes pre-dyke state of being a tree climber, a boat rower, a happy ruffian. This wide-ranging collection makes a strong case for the historical longevity of boyish, lesbian-in- the-making girls.