Isabel Miller was the pen name of Alma Routsong, who was born in Traverse City, Michigan in 1924. Her first two novels in the 1950s were published under her real name; when she self-published her classic lesbian novel A Place for Us in 1969, she used "Isabel Miller," a combination of an anagram of "Lesbia" and her mother's maiden name. A Place for Us was re-published by McGraw-Hill in 1971, under the new title Patience & Sarah. Arsenal Pulp Press published a new edition of Patience & Sarah in 2005, featuring an introduction by Emma Donaghue. Alma Routsong died in 1996.
