Lesbian pulp fiction
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Lesbian pulp fiction refers to any mid-century pulp novel with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 60s by many of the same publishing houses that other subgenres of pulp fiction including Westerns, Romances, and Detective Fiction. Pulp fiction novels got their name from the cheap wood pulp paper they were printed on (note: the pulp fiction novels of the 1950s and 60s evolved out of the pulp magazines of earlier decades). These books were sold at drugstores, magazine stands, bus terminals and other places where one might look to purchase cheap, consumable entertainment. The books were small enough to fit in a purse or back pocket and cheap enough to throw away when the reader was through with it.
Spring Fire by Vin Packer is generally considered to be the first lesbian pulp novel. Spring Fire, which was published by Gold Medal in 1952 and sold more than 1.5 million copies, is about two college girls, Mitch and Leda, who fall in love and have an affair. The tragic ending of this book is typical of lesbian pulp novels. Because the books travelled through the mail and because anything sent through the U.S. Postal Service was subject to government censorship, publishers had to make sure that the books seemed in no way to proselytize homosexuality, which in the 1950s was generally thought to be either pathological or immoral or both. No character was allowed to be both homosexual and happy at the book's end. A character had to either turn straight and end up coupled with a man or, if she remained homosexual, she had to suffer death, insanity or some equally unappealing fate. One notable exception to this formula is the book The Price of Salt written by Patricia Highsmith under the pen name Claire Morgan.
Lesbian pulp novels typically had lurid, titillating cover art. Although many women (both straight and lesbian) bought and read these novels, book publishers marketed them to men as erotic fantasy. Covers might have a few provocative lines of text meant to draw attention to the sexy and scandalous nature of what was between the covers. Publishers inserted words such as "twilight", "odd", "strange", "shadows" and "queer" in the titles of these books, which made it easy for a consumer to guess what might be inside.
Lesbian pulps were written by both women and men. Some of the better and better-known writers include Ann Bannon, Valerie Taylor, Gale Wilhelm, Miriam Gardner and Paula Christian (all pen names).
[edit] External links
- Lesbian pulp fiction covers
- Lesbian pulp fiction published by Cleis Press
- Large Collection of Lesbian Paperback Artwork
- GLBTQ: the history of gay and lesbian Romance novels: GLBTQ
