Lesbian pulp fiction is a genre of lesbian literature that refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel or pulp magazine with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 1960s by many of the same paperback publishing houses as other genres of fiction, including westerns, romances, and detective fiction. Because very little other literature was available for and about lesbians at this time, quite often these books were the only reference the public (lesbian and otherwise) had for modeling what lesbians were. English professor Stephanie Foote commented on the importance of lesbian pulp novels to the lesbian identity prior to the rise of organized feminism: "Pulps have been understood as signs of a secret history of readers, and they have been valued because they have been read. The more they are read, the more they are valued, and the more they are read, the closer the relationship between the very act of circulation and reading and the construction of a lesbian community becomes…. Characters use the reading of novels as a way to understand that they are not alone." Joan Nestle refers to lesbian pulp fiction as “survival literature.” Lesbian pulp fiction provided representation for lesbian identities, brought a surge of awareness to lesbians, and created space for lesbian organizing leading up to Stonewall.
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 (hence both the brand-name and the generalized term "pocket books") and cheap enough to throw away when the reader was through with them.
Development of the genre
In the early to mid-20th century, only a handful of books were published that addressed lesbians as characters in relationships with women. Those notable novels were published in hardcover and were as follows:
The Well of Loneliness (1928) Radclyffe Hall, Jonathan Cape We Too Are Drifting (1935) Gale Wilhelm, Random House Pity for Women (1937) Helen Anderson, Doubleday Torchlight to Valhalla (1938, later titled The Strange Path when reissued in paperback in 1953) Gale Wilhem, Random House
During World War II, the military distributed small paperbacks to its forces, causing a large population of Americans to become accustomed to having access to cheap books and thus creating a demand for the same easy access to reading material when the soldiers returned home. As a result, in the years after the war, there appeared a new and often subversive trend in publishing that allowed for books to be written, cheaply produced, and widely distributed using technology previously unavailable. These books were dubbed "pulp" fiction because they were inexpensive and usually sensational or low-brow, much like the "pulp" magazines of the first half of the 20th century. Pulps were not necessarily "low brow." Many pulp authors are now celebrated with commemorative hardcover editions. These mass market paperbacks, printed and bound on cheap paper, often addressed "dirty" topics like drugs, gangs, white slavery, crime, murder, and homosexuality. Because the literature was not respected, it was not censored as readily, although most of the larger paperback publishers were wary of postal censorship, and, for instance, took care not to publish works that were overly supportive of "deviant" lifestyles. In terms of lesbian fiction, these books were the only ones available in many locations to people who had no previous access to information or stories that involved lesbian characters.
Several publishing houses created special imprints, such as Fawcett's "Gold Medal" division, to satisfy the demand for pulp fiction. Unlike many publishers, Fawcett made a point of publishing lesbian pulp written by lesbians, or sometimes by heterosexual women, rather than by heterosexual men. It made a significant contribution to the lesbian community to have lesbian authors writing more or less authentic stories about what it was like to be a lesbian, as opposed to only having heterosexual men writing stories about lesbians for the titillation of other men. During the time it was unlikely for most lesbians to find a “happily ever after” outside of these pulps, which still often ended unhappily and were explicitly homophobic. Many lesbians were fueled by this to write their own pulps and defy these norms for the genre.
With the publishing of Women’s Barracks in 1950 began the emergence of “the golden age” of lesbian pulps. Hundreds of lesbian pulp titles were published between 1950 and 1969, and millions of copies of each title were often sold. This was part of no social agenda on the publishers' parts: they were making quite a bit of money. However prevalent the books were, purchasing and reading them for many women was the equivalent to coming out to the cashier. Author Joan Nestle called them "survival books" and described purchasing them: The act of taking one of these books off the drugstore rack and paying for it at the counter was a frightening and difficult move for most women. This was especially true during the atmosphere of the McCarthy trials...Although tame by today's standards...these volumes were so threatening then that women hid them, burnt them, and threw them out.Nestle, Joan. A Restricted Country. Cleis Press, 2003.
Women's Barracks
The first paperback to address a lesbian relationship was published as early as 1950 with Women's Barracks by Tereska Torrès, published by Gold Medal Books. The story was a fictionalized account of Torres' experiences in the Free French Forces in London during World War II. Women's Barracks sold 4 million copies and was selected in 1952 to become an example of how paperback books were promoting moral degeneracy by the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials. The Committee concluded their investigation with a report that required publishers to conform to certain moral standards in the content and publicizing of their books, or else face fines or imprisonment. As a result, authors were forced to limit their stories to fit these requirements. However, as the decade went on, publishers became bolder in printing material that might be judged as immoral.
Spring Fire and the establishment of a formula
After the success of Women's Barracks, Gold Medal Books published another paperback with lesbian themes, Spring Fire. Golden Medal Books eventually published some of the least homophobic books in the genre.
Spring Fire, by Marijane Meaker written under the pseudonym "Vin Packer," is considered to be the first lesbian paperback novel, since the plot focused on the relationship of the two main characters, as opposed to the various relationships examined in Women's Barracks. It is also the first modern lesbian novel written by a lesbian. Spring Fire, which was published by Gold Medal Books 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. Spring Fire inspired one of the best-known authors of lesbian pulp, Ann Bannon. Bannon wrote to Meaker after reading the novel, and Meaker convinced her to submit her own manuscript to Gold Medal Books for publication in the genre.
The tragic endings of Women's Barracks and Spring Fire (suicide and insanity) are typical of lesbian pulp novels. Meaker was told by her editor that because the books traveled through the mail and 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.Packer, Vin. Spring Fire, Introduction. 2004, Cleis Press No character was allowed to be both homosexual and happy at the story's end. A character had either to turn heterosexual and end up coupled with a man or, if she remained homosexual, suffer death, insanity or some equally unappealing fate.
The first exception to this formula, and technically not a pulp fiction, is the 1952 romance novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, published in hardcover by Coward-McCann under the pseudonym of "Claire Morgan". It was republished in 1953 as a Bantam Books lesbian pulp fiction paperback. Satisfactory endings for women who accepted their homosexuality were rare.
Some authors defied the tragic endings. Ann Bannon published six lesbian novels between 1957 and 1962, a series known as the Beebo Brinker Chronicles. Bannon's novels ended happily, which changed the societal perception of lesbianism. Rather than being seen as "neurotic, frigid, immature, and even psychotic", lesbians were viewed as warm and loving. Bannon's novels paved the way for social acceptance of lesbianism and the queer sexual revolution.
Content
Content and quality of the books varied widely. Writer Yvonne Keller divides books within the lesbian pulp fiction genre into subclasses she labels "pro-lesbian" and "virile adventures". Pro-lesbian paperbacks were generally written about and by women, featured a love story between women, had fairly well-developed characters, and tended not to feature gratuitous or graphic sexual encounters. Virile adventures were more male centered, perhaps with at least one male main character, and featured graphic depictions of sex. According to Keller, the difference between pro-lesbian and virile adventure novels could often be seen on the front covers of the books. Pro-lesbian novels featured covers that were much less sexual, with women typically fully clothed and alone, such as seen on the cover of Beebo Brinker. Because of their tame covers, pro-lesbian novels generally relied on subtle cues to hint at their lesbian content. Virile adventures, on the other hand, had covers that were considerably more sexualized, and would frequently feature men in the pictures, conveying their voyeuristic natures.
Between 1952 and 1957, only virile adventures were published and pro-lesbian fiction started to emerge after 1957. The cause for this surge of the new subclass was due to pro-lesbian authors reading virile adventure stories. Virile adventures were homophobic, voyeuristic, and focused on catering to the male audience.
A trend virile adventures followed near the end of their stories is a reclaiming of morality, specifically pertaining to heterosexual norms. While authors and publishers were constrained with presenting ideological moral codes to their audiences, these virile adventures presented lesbianism as both temporal and unnatural. Everything would circulate back to the idea that virile adventures needed to end within the throes of heterosexuality to counteract the effects lesbianism could have had on its audiences.
Due to their popularity, these books set the standard of what consisted of lesbian pulp fiction, accounting for about 85% of the genre. Pro-lesbian authors focused on subverting the norm with stories that weren't homophobic, focusing on the relationship between the couple and ending the story where they officially were together. Author Paula Christian described her inspiration to write during this period: "Contemporary fiction showed such instability, violence, and sensationalism...I simply wanted to show the other side." Despite how much virile adventures consisted of the genre, pro-lesbian books are the most loved and re-published in the genre.