Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965
    Unavailable
    Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965
    Unavailable
    Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965
    Ebook689 pages8 hours

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

    By Cleis Press

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Long before the rise of the modern gay movement, an unnoticed literary revolution was occurring between the covers of the cheaply produced lesbian pulp paperbacks of the post–World War II era. In 1950, publisher Fawcett Books founded its Gold Medal imprint, inaugurating the reign of lesbian pulp fiction. These were the books that small-town lesbians and prurient men 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. Some — especially those written by lesbians — offered sympathetic and realistic depictions of "life in the shadows," while others (no less fun to read now) were smutty, sensational tales of innocent girls led astray. In the overheated prose typical of the genre, this collection documents the emergence of a lesbian subculture in postwar America.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCleis Press
    Release dateJun 1, 2005
    ISBN9781573444866
    Unavailable
    Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965

    Related to Lesbian Pulp Fiction

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hunting For A Lesbian Canon

      May 17, 2018

      Hunting For A Lesbian Canon
      8 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Brandon-Croft, Tate, Millner, and More

      Feb 7, 2023

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new release titles from Barbara Brandon-Croft, Dizz Tate, Maggie Millner, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to h

      5 min read

    • Article

      Akala, Bernardine Evaristo, Ben Okri And More Pick 20 Classic Books By Writers Of Colour

      Oct 3, 2021

      It wasn’t until I started university in 2008 that I truly realised how little regard there was for Black authors. My creative writing lecturer was a Black poet, whose teaching material and reading lists were saturated with authors of colour, but each

      16 min read

    • Article

      Most Anticipated: The Great 2023A Book Preview

      Jan 9, 2023

      Welcome to our biannual Great Book Preview! We’ve assembled the best books of 2023A (that is, the first half of 2023), including new work from Nicole Chung, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Claire Dederer, Brian Dillon, Samantha Irby, Heidi Julavits, Catherine La

      29 min read

    • Article

      Historical Fiction

      Aug 14, 2019

      Historical Fiction
      11 min read

    • Article

      Guest-edited by Kim Jones

      Mar 26, 2021

      Guest-edited by Kim Jones
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

      Dec 7, 2020

      At the beginning of August, the United States Postal Service delivered a box of books I had shipped when I moved from Iowa City to Boston with only five books inside and thirty seven books missing. The post A Year in Reading: Novuyo Rosa Tshuma appea

      4 min read

    • Article

      Why We Write

      Feb 14, 2018

      STEPHANIE STOKES OLIVER has spent her career in magazine and book publishing. Formerly the fashion and beauty merchandising editor at Glamour, founding editor in chief of Heart & Soul, and editor in chief of Essence.com, she most recently served as v

      7 min read

    • Article

      Why We Write

      Feb 7, 2018

      STEPHANIE STOKES OLIVER has spent her career in magazine and book publishing. Formerly the fashion and beauty merchandising editor at Glamour, founding editor in chief of Heart & Soul, and editor in chief of Essence.com, she most recently served as v

      7 min read

    • Article

      The California Gaze

      Apr 1, 2023

      The California Gaze
      7 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Aug 15, 2023

      Barbara Kingsolver is a Pulitzer Prize-winning US author. Her new book, Demon Copperhead (winner of the Fiction award in the Indie Book Awards 2023), is out now, published by Faber Little Women, Louisa May Alcott I read this book in the back of a car

      1 min read

    • Article

      Writing Queer

      Dec 27, 2018

      Ididn’t know it, but I was mentally ill until about age 16. Anybody queer was considered “mentally ill” until 1973, when the American Psychiatric Association removed the diagnosis of homosexuality as a disorder (though “sexual orientation disturbance

      8 min read

    • Article

      Chris Bohjalian

      Apr 12, 2021

      Chris Bohjalian
      12 min read

    • Article

      'Well-Read Black Girl' Turns Books Into Community

      Dec 2, 2018

      With her new anthology, Glory Edim says she wants to "capture the energy and vibrancy of what it means to be a black woman in the literary space."

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Bill Morris

      Dec 20, 2020

      This was the year I finally, belatedly, decided to figure out why people make such a fuss about Joy Williams. The post A Year in Reading: Bill Morris appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Reading and Writing California

      Jun 30, 2020

      Reading and Writing California
      9 min read

    • Article

      How To Become A Cult Writer

      Apr 1, 2022

      How To Become A Cult Writer
      8 min read

    • Article

      Lan Samantha Chang Revisits ‘Hunger,’ 25 Years Later

      Sep 26, 2023

      "I had a piercing sense that I had completed a work encompassing everything I’d written over the seven years." The post Lan Samantha Chang Revisits ‘Hunger,’ 25 Years Later appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Anita Felicelli

      Dec 16, 2019

      These two lives of mine sat in tension. Why was I reading one thing to talk about, to be part of society, and another thing to experience privately? The post A Year in Reading: Anita Felicelli appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    Reviews for Lesbian Pulp Fiction

    4/5

    29 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Lesbian pulp fiction intrigues me. Sure, I'd read lesbian romances before stumbling upon Ann Bannon's series (quite accidentally), but there's something...different...about these books from the fifties and sixties. Some of them are poorly written, and many of them have unrealistic parts to them, but still, the books are important to our queer history and culture. They're like mini-time capsules, and every time I finish reading one, I find myself thankful that I live in the present. Katherine V. Forrest's introduction is worth the price of the book alone, in my opinion. I am queer in a rural area, but I have the internet, and online bookstores, and e-readers to find community and literature. Forrest didn't have any of that. I can only imagine what it felt like to discover that one wasn't alone, that there were other women out there like us, and how nerve-wracking it was to march up to a counter and purchase a book like that (usually with somewhat suggestive covers). And the excerpts themselves are interesting, as well. There are some real pulp gems, and I added a few different pulps to my "to be read" pile because of this book. Altogether, recommended - not necessarily for the literary value (although some of the excerpts, even today, are pretty good), but for historical/cultural value.
    • 4/5
      This anthology (lesbian paperback fiction from 1950 – 1965) is worth reading both for its historical value and, often, for the writing itself. I came out in the 80s, so I missed all this, and it was quite fascinating to become acquainted with such famous characters as Beebo Brinker. I was mesmerized.

      Prevailing social beliefs are revealed – and you can see how they change in the fifteen years that are represented – but the characters themselves are motivated by love and desire. Even when they are terribly wounded by the attitudes of the times, they break through the taboos and find each other.