The public television show History Detectives had a surprising and fascinating story this evening concerning an early book about a woman who discovers she is a lesbian, Diana: A Strange Autobiography. This book originally appeared in 1939, under the name Diana Frederics. But the book indicated this was a pseudonym; no author writing in that era would have been open about her lesbianism because it would have endangered her writing career, especially since the book is sympathetic to lesbianism and has a happy ending. The History Detectives were asked to find out who the author really was; the Detective Zukufu Zuberi investigated. His efforts led him to the Library of Congress, which has an enormous card catalog (actual paper cards in wooden cabinets) for books published before 1977 (more recent titles are electronically cataloged). The card for Diana indicated that the name Diana Frederics was a pseudonym but it also indicated that the author's name was Francis Rummell. Further work determined that the author was Frances V. Rummell, who taught at Stevens College (a college for women in Missouri), and who died in 1969. The book turns out (not surprisingly) to be a novel not an autobiography, but Rummell was in fact a lesbian and many aspects of her life were inspiration for her book. These details were confirmed by her niece, who Zuberi interviewed. Her niece, who remembered her aunt fondly, said she would have been delighted to learn that her book has positively affected so many people and is still available (as a quick check on amazon.com confirms). (This story aired on Episode 6 of Season 8 of History Detectives.)