Introduction:  In 1843 the American author William Cullen Bryant wrote an essay for the Evening Post in which he glowingly described a trip to Vermont, where, among nature's beauties, he had the opportunity to observe a beautiful "female friendship" between two revered "maiden ladies."

Chapter 1, "The Loves of Women for Each Other"; "Romantic Friends" in the Twentieth Century:  Early twentieth-century women, particularly those of the middle class, had grown up in a society where love between young females was considered the norm.