Born Edyth Eyde, the daughter of ranchers in northern California, studied the violin and completed two years of university. However her overbearing parents insisted that she fit their mould of a docile young woman and take a secretarial course and prepare for marriage. As a young woman of fourteen, she fell in love for the first time, with a woman.

In 1945 she left her parents and settled in Los Angeles; she created a new name for her, from the anagram of the word "lesbian" : Lisa Ben. She chose not to use her real name because she is concerned that she would upset elderly relatives who "might not take it well if they find out I'm gay."

Sparked by the occasional mewspaper article that described homosexuals as perverts, and employed at RKO studios as a secretary with little to do, Ben began typing ten copies of a magazine she created that she called Vice Versa. Her magazine, the first known extant gay American publication, established the basic format for the general gay and lesbian magazines. Although Lisa was able to produce only ten copies of each edition, her publication was almost certainly read by dozens, if not hundreds before it disappeared into history.

"When I turned out my first copy, I probably knew about four people. And the next month, they introduced me to some more, and I knew ten people. ... And eventually it grew to more girls than I had copies!"

The nine issues included editorials, short stories, petry, book and film reviews and a letter column. Its distribution network consisted of friends passing copies on to other friends and acquaintances.

After the studio closed the division in which she worked, Ben took a variety of secretarial jobs over the next three decades. In the 1950s, she attended performances of female impersonators and became inspired to create entertainment that was not demeaning or filthy. She wrote gay parodies of popular songs and sang them in clubs like the Flamingo.

Ben joyned the Daughters of Bilitis, the country's first lesbian organization, but elected to stay on the sidelines. Ben supported the political struggles of the community, but considered herself apolitical and enjoyed her retirement in a modest bungalow in a residential neighborhood in Burbank, California, with her eleven cats.

Source: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History, from Antiquity to WWII, Routledge, London, 2001- et alii