Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965

edited by Katherine V. Forrest

 

Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965

Edited by Katherine V. Forrest

Cleis Press

 

 

In 1950, Fawcett founded its Gold Medal imprint, inaugurating the reign of lesbian pulp fiction. These were the books that small-town lesbians bought by the millions - cheap, easy to find in drugstores and immediately recognizable by their lurid covers: often a hard- looking brunette standing over a scantily-clad blonde or a man gazing in tormented lust at a lovely, unobtainable lesbian.

For women leading straight lives, here was confirmation that they were not alone and that darkly glamorous, “gay” places like Greenwich Village existed. In the over-heated prose typical of the genre, these books document the emergence of a lesbian subculture in postwar America. Some - especially those written by lesbians - offer sympathetic and realistic depictions of “life in the shadows,” while others (no less fun to read now) are smutty, sensational tales of innocent girls led astray.

Thanks to reissues of classic pulps by publishers like Cleis Press, the lesbian pulp genre is now delighting a new generation of avid readers. Authors like Ann Bannon (Odd Girl Out, Beebo Brinker) and Vin Packer (Spring Fire) are celebrated as pioneers. Bannon routinely draws hundreds of enthusiastic fans to her book signings, and readers of the Chicago Free Press even named her their favorite author of last year, even though her books were originally published more than 40 years ago.

In Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965, grand dame of lesbian literature, Katherine V. Forrest, offers a superb survey of the best of the pulps, 22 in all, presented with the original, sensational jacket copy, which reads: ”Through the darkness, you can see figures gathered in twos and threes - the glowing tip of a cigarette, a close-manicured hand draped over a shoulder, heads turning to study the new arrival. Someone moves toward you, snapping a lighter open. Step into the twilight world of lesbian pulps.”

(as published in Family & Friends Magazine, August 2005)