Ghost Pains

Overview

Ghost Pains was published in London by Sheba Feminist Publishers in 1992. Public bibliographic records identify Jane Severance as author and record the book as a young adult novel. The local collection description notes that the story focuses on two teenage girls and their mother's alcoholism, while also featuring a lesbian mother. That makes the item different from Severance's earlier picture books: it is not an early-childhood family-recognition book, but a young adult work about family pain, survival, and complicated care. Its collection value comes through Severance's larger career. She had already written When Megan Went Away and Lots of Mommies, two major early records in lesbian children's literature.^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

Young Adult Shift

The local collection note describes Ghost Pains as primarily about two teenage girls and the effects of their mother's alcoholism. That emphasis matters. Severance's earlier books are often discussed as picture-book landmarks, while this item moves into young adult fiction and into a more difficult family situation. The lesbian mother is part of the family structure, but the novel's emotional center is also illness, dependence, and survival.^[1][2][3]

Severance Lineage

Jane Severance's larger bibliography is essential to reading this item. Open Library and scholarship identify When Megan Went Away as a 1979 picture book about a child whose mother separates from her female partner. The Crisp interview record places Severance's work inside a distinctive, emotionally direct strand of lesbian children's literature. Ghost Pains continues that pattern of difficult family material rather than offering only affirmative representation.^[5][4][6]

Sheba Context

Sheba Feminist Publishers gives the novel a second context beyond American children's literature. LSE describes Sheba as a London feminist publishing collective active from 1980 to 1994, publishing feminist subjects and prioritizing writers including Black women, working-class women, new writers, and lesbians. Ghost Pains therefore connects the collection to transatlantic feminist publishing networks as well as to LGBTQ youth literature.^[7][8][2]

Incidental Lesbianism

The record is especially useful because the lesbian mother is not the only subject of the book. Later summaries of Severance's career describe Ghost Pains as a novel about a lesbian mother dealing with alcoholism and note that Severance wanted lesbianism to be incidental rather than the sole focus. That approach complicates collection categories: the item belongs to LGBTQ-family literature, but it also insists on other family pressures and adolescent experience.^[9][4][1]

Timeline

1. 1979When Megan Went AwaySeverance's first picture book was published by Lollipop Power and is treated in library records and scholarship as an early landmark in LGBTQ picture-book history.^[5][6]
2. 1980Sheba foundedLSE describes Sheba Feminist Publishers as a feminist publishing collective founded in London in 1980.^[7]
3. 1983Lots of MommiesSeverance's second picture book, Lots of Mommies, continued her early work with non-nuclear and lesbian family structures.^[6][4]
4. 1992Ghost PainsOBNB and Open Library records place Ghost Pains with Sheba Feminist Publishers in 1992.^[2][3]
5. 2010Scholarly interview recordThomas Crisp's interview with Severance documented her work and its position in children's literature history.^[4]

Severance Lineage

Ghost Pains is strongest when read with Severance's earlier books for young readers.

Citation

Ghost Pains. Jane Severance. Sheba Feminist Publishers, 1992. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-186.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for Ghost Pains · catalog
2. Open British National Bibliography record for Ghost Pains · library
3. Open Library ISBN record for Ghost Pains · library
4. Thomas Crisp, Setting the Record Straight: An Interview with Jane Severance · scholarship
5. Open Library work record for When Megan Went Away · library
6. LGBTQ+ Studies open textbook profile of LGBTQ children's picture books · scholarship
7. LSE Library project page on the Sheba Feminist Publishers archive · archive
8. Open Library publisher page for Sheba Feminist Publishers · library
9. Jane Severance biography summary · reference