Lesbian Pulp Fiction

Introduction to the Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection
at the Mount Saint Vincent University Library

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What is Lesbian Pulp Fiction?

The year is 1952. Imagine yourself in a small town. The internet, cell phones and mobile devices will not exist for several decades. Lesbian, gay, transgendered, queer and other sexual minorities (LGBTQ+) issues are seldom discussed in public, but when they are, they appear in a negative context usually related to the purges taking place in the civil service, military, and public schools. Under Canada's criminal law, homosexuality is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. This law will not be struck down until 1969. Yet, as you browse the wire rack of paperbacks at the convenience store, you pick up a slender book with two women on the cover and read the blurb on its opening pages:

Her silky black hair. Her low-cut gown. Her sparkling sorority pin. It’s autumn rush in the Tri Epsilon house, and the new pledge, Susan Mitchell – “Mitch” to her friends – shivers as the fastest girl on campus, the lovely Leda Taylor, crosses the room toward her for a dance. Will Leda corrupt Mitch? Or will the strong and silent Mitch draw the queen of Tri Ep in to the forbidden world of Lesbian Love?

Spring Fire was (one of) the first lesbian paperback novels and sold an incredible 1.5 million copies when it first appeared in 1952. The story ends sadly for Mitch and Leda (as these stories often did), but lesbian pulp fiction provided one of the very few sources of lesbian representation (both positive and negative) in popular culture until the rise of LGBTQ+ rights movements at the end of the 1960s.

Strange Breed front cover. Two women are on a bed, seemingly naked and partially covered with sheets. One, a redhead woman, is closest to the viewer and lies on her back, head toward the left of the image, with eyes closed, a smile, and her hands folded over her chest, under which a sheet covers the rest of her body. She seems to have both her knees bent. Her face is fully lit. The other woman, a brunette, is next to her in the background, her feet facing the opposite direction to that of the redhead's. Her torso is leaning on her elbows, which rest on her slightly bent knees. Her back faces the viewer in a three-quarter angle and is fully bare. A ray of light shines on it. Her legs are covered with a sheet from her hip down. Her face is bowed down with eyes open, also looking down. Her hair is partly tied up behind her nape. The scene is lit from the top right.
The Third Street front cover. The cover shows a night scene, outdoors in a city or town street. Two women, their backs to the reader, walk holding hands. The one on the left is a blonde with hair flipped outwards at her shoulders. She is wearing a yellow, sleeveless dress with an adjusted waist, and black, high heels. She carries a clutch-type black handbag in her left hand and her head is turned sharply to her right, looking straight out at the other woman, a brunette with short hair who is wearing a black blouse with long sleeves, brown pants tapered at the ankles, and black low heels. Her right arm is extended downwards. The street looks wet and there are buildings, some neon signs and a lamp post in the background. The scene is lit from the top right.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was lesbian pulp fiction the precursor to today’s lesbian fiction?

Not exactly. Lesbian pulp fiction in the 1950s and early 1960 was primarily marketed to men as erotica and seldom ended happily for the lesbian protagonists. Although the books were marketed to men as ‘men adventure stories’ the morality and censorship codes of the time meant that the language used and scenes depicted are very tame by today’s standards. The tone of the books was heavily moralistic, and many ended with one of the women leaving the lesbian relationship for a man.

Nevertheless, a small percentage of lesbian pulp fiction was written by lesbians who, within the constraints of the publishing formula managed to include somewhat sympathetic (though by today's standards, bleak and closeted) lesbian portrayals. These books were heavily sought after by lesbians of the time as they were one of the only sources of popular culture lesbian representation. Read more about sympathetic lesbian depictions in lesbian pulp fiction books on the Lesbian Survival Literature page.

The Soft Sin front cover. Towards the bottom right of the image, a brunette faces the reader, visible from the chest up. Her hair is curly and apparently tied to the back in a pony tail, bangs across her forehead. She is wearing a long-sleeved white blouse, unbuttoned, revealing part of her breasts and her neck. She looks straight at the reader with half-closed eyes and lips slightly parted. Behind her is a pink couch facing the reader. On it lays a blonde with her back to the reader, head toward the left. Her hair seems to be in disarray. Her left arm hangs over the edge of the couch, hand rested on a black tiled floor, palm-up. She is wearing a light blue dress and a bracelet on her left wrist. The scene is lit from the front.
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Are there any Canadian lesbian pulp fiction titles or authors?

We do not have any Canadian titles in the collection. Although there were Canadian pulp novels, we do not know of any that were predominantly lesbian pulp fiction. Please contact us if you know of any! The titles in our collection are largely from publishers in the United States. They occasionally reprinted books from British and European authors. Lesbian fiction by Canadian citizens or publishers (e.g. Jane Rule’s Desert of the Heart), were published in the feminist era after the lesbian pulp fiction heyday.

The Lesbian in Our Society front cover. A blond woman leans over to her left, her back to the reader at a three-quarter angle, at the left of the image and occupying most of the visual space. She is fully naked and is visible from her head to her calves. The book's title type covers her buttocks partially. Her legs seem to be together, and the back of her right arm is only partially visible, tucked in front of her hips. Her head is turned sharply to the right, and she looks over her right shoulder at something behind her, at a lower level. Her hair is tied at the back and is straight. Her expression is serene, yet ambiguous.
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Some books appear to be non-fiction. Why are they part of the pulp fiction collection?

The collection includes a small sample of non-fiction titles, issued at the same time as the pulp fiction. It was a tactic used by publishers to circumvent potential censors by claiming the books were produced for educational rather than prurient purposes. The books purported to provide serious scientific and medical investigations of lesbianism, but in reality, they were thinly disguised erotica written in the format of case studies or journalistic expose.

Of Love Forbidden front cover. A naked woman is sitting on the floor facing the viewer with arms and legs crossed, her chin resting on her right, bent knee. The background is a textured turquoise colour field, and the scene is lit from the top right in a hard light.
The Loving and the Daring front cover. To the left of the image, a woman, redhead, is shown descending the steps of a stone stairway with a wrought iron railing. She wears a green, knee-high skirt, an orange-red cardigan, and brown, high heel shoes. Her left hand is on the railing, her right arm is stretched over her right side. Her eyes are slightly closed and look toward another woman, whose face and shoulders are seen in the foreground, to the bottom-right of the image. She is a brunette with short, curly hair. Her face is heavily made up and partly faces the reader, slightly bent towards the right bottom corner of the image. Her eyes are slightly closed and look back toward the woman on the stairway but do not look straight at her. Her lips are slightly parted and her eyebrows appear raised. She seems to be wearing an off-shoulders gold and black-trimmed gown, and earrings. The scene is lit from the top left.

Are there any books that are not written in English?

All the books in the MSVU collection are in the English language. However, we have a small number of titles translated from other languages. The pulp publishers occasionally published or reprinted books from European authors, playing into the North American perception that European sexual mores differed from those in the United States. 

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Why is this type of book called pulp fiction?

The term pulp fiction comes from the cheap, low-quality pulp paper used in the production of the books. In the early 1950s, the average price of a paperback novel was 25 cents. Pulp fiction is also associated with the quality of the writing. One factor that distinguishes "literary fiction" from "pulp fiction" is the dependence of the pulps on a plot that follows a formula rather than style or language. Read more about mid-20th-century paperback publishing.

Baby Face front cover. The image is divided into two fields. The upper field shows black and blue text over a solid pink background. The bottom half of the cover contains the illustration of an indoors scene. One woman, a blonde, sits up against a pillow propped on the pink headboard of a bed that has pink sheets and pillowcase, and an orange blanket. The blonde's hair is combed up, with a lock falling over her right shoulder. Her head is bowed forward and her eyes are directed towards the reader, and she has a slight smile. She is wearing a white negligee, left strap down and right strap hanging over her arm. Her left leg is bent at the knee and sprawled open. She touches the blanket with her left hand and her face with her right hand. At the foot of a bed, a brunette with long hair sits, legs crossed. She too is wearing a white negligee and has her arms crossed over her knees. Her left hand lays rested over her thigh, palm-up. With her right hand, she holds up a hand mirror to her left. Her head is turned to her left but her eyes gaze directly towards the reader, with half-shut eyes and a slight smile on her lips. Behind them on the wall, a mirror can be partially seen, and a dresser. The wall has purple and pink wallpaper on it. The scene is lit from the front-left.
This Bed We Made front cover. Two women and one man are in a bedroom. A brunette with short, curly hair and a black negligee, lays on her back on a bed with a pink blanket, her shoulders and head on a propped-up pillow, looking slightly toward the right of the image with a slight smile and half-closed eyes. Behind the pillow, a wrought brass headboard is partly in view. Her left arm is bent at the elbow; hand curled inwards. She holds a cigarette in her right hand; outer side rested on her right thigh. She also wears stockings to the middle of her thighs. Sitting up on the bed by the brunette's legs is a blonde. Her body is at a three-quarter angle facing right of the image, and she appears to be fully naked except for a nylon, light blue shawl which is wrapped around her hips and across her chest, covering her breasts. She holds the shawl with both arms crossed in front of her under her breasts and on her right hip. Her hair is tied in a ponytail with a light green bow, and her head is turned towards the brunette. In the background to the left, a man stands against the wall. He has short, brown hair parted to the side, and is wearing a dark blue t-shirt and gray pants with a black belt. His right hand is on his waist; the left arm stretched down across his side. He also looks down toward the brunette, with a slight smile on his lips. To his left, a bowl with fruits can be seen on a bedside table. The background matches the pink of the bed spread, and the scene seems to be lit from the right of the reader.

Why is lesbian pulp fiction of interest to scholars and book collectors?

Feminist and queer theory scholars are interested in lesbian pulp fiction novels for their popular culture representation of white lesbians during a period in North America that was homophobic and repressive of all sexual minorities. Read more about how scholars define which paperbacks should be considered to be part of the lesbian pulp fiction genre.

Lesbian pulp fiction is also collected for the vivid artwork portrayed on the covers of the books. Read more about the lesbian pulp fiction book covers.

Sources

Davis, Kenneth C. Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America. Houghton Mifflin, 1984.

Keller, Y. (2005). "Was it right to love her brother's wife so passionately?": Lesbian pulp novels and U.S. lesbian identity, 1950-1965. American Quarterly, 57(2), 385-410.

Rabinowitz, Paula. American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street. Princeton University Press, 2014.

Lesbian Pulp Fiction