Duke Library: Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection

http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/lesbianpulp/

In 1950, twelve years after Pocket Books published the first mass-market paperback, Fawcett began to feature the twilight world of women-loving women with its successful Gold Medal imprint series. Other publishers followed suit; soon the genre was so firmly established that readers could choose among several formulas or subgenres of lesbian pulp fiction: lesbians in institutions, love triangles, lesbians “saved” by straight men, etc. With their camp cover art and lurid prose, many of these books appealed to readers across lines of gender and sexuality, desires and tastes; although the narratives undoubtedly satisfied the prurient interests of many straight readers, they also catered to an entire generation of lesbian readers, who were anxious to find a reflection-albeit distorted and often cruel-of their own lives in a work of fiction.

Lesbian pulps were titled and pictured in “codes” that helped lesbians pick them out from amongst a drugstore rack filled with similar, often lurid, titles: a cover with a brunette towering over a reclining blonde, often with a man in the far background; titles with “strange”, “odd” or “shadows” in them. The pulps gave some women a glimpse into a world that wasn’t easy to access outside of large cities. The popularity of the pulps made them available to women across the country, providing some sense of comfort and inclusion. However, lesbian characters rarely fared well in these novels, their potential for happiness ruined by censure typical of the period: a woman engaged in illicit pleasures of one kind or another had to suffer a downfall to balance out the licentiousness of her actions. This “moral lesson” redeemed lesbian pulps from the ranks of mere pornography under the pretense of providing a public service. In addition, these stories sent a not-so-subtle message to lesbians about their place in society. “Frank” (code for “sexually explicit”) stories warned readers about: the predatory older lesbian; the dangers of a poor father-daughter relationship; the susceptibility of orphans; the perils of the big city; the “immaturity” of lesbian sex; and the general misery of a lesbian existence.

“Scientific research” was another popular premise around which to base these novels. Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior of the Human Female came out in 1953, and Masters and Johnson’s Human Sexual Response was published in 1966. Although these books were not intended to be prurient, the case studies apparently sparked the imaginations of pulp authors. Once again, pornography could be disguised as something socially acceptable, and the books had the added lure of being “based on a true story.” Bea Campbell’s Orgy of the Dolls, for example, claims to be comprised of “actual case histories”, and offers a bibliography. However, “Orgy of the Dolls” is not a particularly scientific title, and the “case histories” are filled with an incredible amount of detail for something sprung from a therapist’s notes. One of the “patients” even refers to Kinsey’s book in regard to her “condition.” Group living situations-or female-oriented workplaces, such as department stores or hospitals-were a popular setting for lesbian pulps; apparently, prolonged proximity among women inevitably results in a hotbed of lesbianism.