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

Katherine Forrest

Cleis Press, Jun 1, 2005 - Fiction - 440 pages

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.

About the author

Katherine V. Forrest is the author of 15 novels including Hancock Park, Curious Wine, and Daughters of a Coral Dawn. She is twice winner of the Lambda Literary Award for best mystery: for The Beverly Malibu and Murder by Tradition, both part of the Kate Delafield series. She has two books due to be published in 2005, Daughters of an Emerald Dusk (Alyson) and the anthology Women of Mystery (Alice Street Editions). A winner of the Lambda Literary Foundation’s Pioneer Award, Katherine Forrest lives in San Francisco. Lesbian Pulp Fiction "A pioneer in lesbian literature.... A believer in the power of stories." —Lambda Book Report "Forrest moves beyond the narrow confines of an ordinary suspense novel.... She has come of age as a writer on the national scene." —The Advocate "Ms. Forrest's Los Angeles homicide detective Kate Delafield makes a strong impression...[she] plies her trade with admirable efficiency and hard-to-come-by integrity." —New York Times Book Review "Forrest writes extremely well, and she manages to address the social and sexual issues of being gay...while never losing sight of the story she's telling.... She's one of the best in the trade..." —Women's Review of Books "Few mystery writers combine such an intelligent take on issues with such solid storytelling." — Publishers Weekly

Bibliographic information

• Title: Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965
• Editor: Katherine Forrest
• Publisher: Cleis Press, 2005
• ISBN: 1573444863, 9781573444866
• Length: 440 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Erotica / General; Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Lesbian; Literary Collections / American / General