LESBIAN
PULPS - A series dedicated to pulps, see
links below and follow them to those pages. Lesbian theme paperback/ pulp books
were mostly written by straight men for themselves. These pulps (written by
males) tended to have darker or more titillating undertones. Paperbacks with
sympathetic themes were usually written by women. Radclyffe Hall and
Tereska Torres are often credited with launching the golden age of publishing the
lesbian pulp; with Women's Barracks in 1950 and The Well of Loneliness reprint in
1951. However it emerged as a new market for women writers, some of them
lesbian, who might have never been published otherwise. Fifteen actual lesbians
wrote almost a hundred of these pulps, from 1950-1965, reflecting realistic lifestyles.
Many pulps written by men had probably never even known a lesbian. Imagining them
as wannabe males or sexually confused, easily remedied by the right man. Interestingly,
writer Lawrence Block--writing as Jill Emerson and Sheldon Lord--went on to pen
award winning mysteries (A Walk Among the Tombstones). This post has attempted
to show both sides of the coin: sympathetic realism and sensationalistic perversion.
Related posts on this topic:
Flying Lesbian by Del Britt
Women's Barracks by Tereska Torres
Queer Patterns by Lilyan Brock
Women Confidential by Lee Mortimer
Three Women by March Hastings
The Other Side of Desire by Paula Christian
The Unnatural Wife by Jay Carr
69 Barrow Street by Sheldon Lord
Getting Off by
Jill Emerson
Enough of Sorrow by Jill Emerson
Lesbian Web
of Evil by Harry Gregory
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
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