Author's abstract: 'The article offers both a reading of the multiple life stories of Aileen Palmer (1915-1988), daughter of one of Australia's most famous literary families, and a reading of the author's role as a lesbian historian examining the nature of 'evidence' in the recovery of lesbian lives .... In her reading of the letters, drafts of novels, diaries and autobiographical fiction [in the Palmer archives in the National Library of Australia], the author teases out the threads of alternative life stories that can be discerned in Aileen Palmer's private/public papers that point to her hidden history; a history she could not consign to total silence' (p.505).