Through the darkness, you can see figures gathered in twos and threes – the glowing tip of a cigarette, a close-manicured hand draped over a shoulder, heads turning to study the new arrival. Someone moves toward you, snapping a lighter open. Step into the twilight world of lesbian pulps. In 1950, Fawcett founded their 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 their confirmation that they were not alone and that darkly glamorous, “gay” places like Greenwich Village existed. In the over-heated prose typical of the genre, these books document the emergence of a lesbian subculture in postwar America. 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. Grande dame of lesbian literature Katherine V. Forrest presents a rich survey of the best of the pulps, including work by Ann Bannon, Vin Packer, Marion Zimmer Bradley (writing as Miriam Gardner), Brigid Brophy, and many others. Contains: Tereska Torres: Women's Barracks Vin Packer: Spring Fire Anne Herbert: Summer Camp Sloane Britain: These Curious Pleasures Joan Ellis: The Third Street Randy Salem: Chris Artemis Smith: The Third ex Valerie Taylor: The Girls in 3-B Valerie Taylor: Return to Lesbos Miriam Gardner: The Strange Women Dorcas Knight: The Flesh Is Willing Kay Martin: The Whispered Sex Fay Adams: Appointment in Paris Brigid Brophy: The ing of a Rainy Country March Hastings: Three Women Shirley Verel: The Dark Side of Venus Della Martin: Twilight Girl Paula Christian: Edge of Twilight Paula Christian: Another Kind of Love Ann Bannon: Beebo Brinker

The classic pulps were detective stories, horror, fantasy, and science fiction, but in the midst of this melange developed a significant subcategory of lurid, titillating tales of lesbian love. Aimed primarily at a heterosexual audience they offered readers a glimpse into a secret world of illicit passion and scandalous sex between delicious and devilish dames. This book is the first to be devoted to the cover art of these wildly wicked novels. Bold, kitschy, colourful, they are fraught with sexual tension. Includes 200 full colour illustrations.

From the award-winning author Robin Talley comes an inspiring new novel about the power of love to fight prejudice and hate. Two women connected across generations through the power of words.

Ann Bannon was designated the “Queen of Lesbian Pulp” for authoring several landmark novels in the ’50s. Unlike many writers of the period, however, Bannon broke through the shame and isolation typically portrayed in lesbian pulps, offering instead characters who embraced their sexuality. With Beebo Brinker, Bannon introduces a butch 17-year-old farm girl newly arrived in Beat-era Greenwich Village.

Designated the ?Queen of Lesbian Pulp” for her series of landmark novels beginning in 1957, Ann Bannon defined lesbian fiction for the pre-Stonewall generation. Following the release of Cleis Press's new editions of Beebo Brinker and Odd Girl Out, Women in the Shadows finds Laura in love among the lesbian bohemia of Greenwich Village. This edition features a new introduction by the author. ?Sex. Sleaze. Depravity. Oh, the twisted passions of the twilight world of lesbian pulp fiction.” ? Chicago Free Press ?Shameless tales of wanton dyke lust are finally unveiled!” ? Out magazine

First Digital Edition; Grier Rating: A*** This is the true-life story of what happens when scores of young girls live intimately together in a French military barracks. Many of these girls, utterly innocent and inexperienced, meet other women who have lived every type of existence. Their problems, their temptations, their fights and failures are those faced by all women who are forced to live together during dangerous and stressful times. The girls who chose Tereska Torres, the author, as their confidante poured out to her their most intimate feelings, their secret thoughts. With all of its revelations and tenderness, Women’s Barracks is an important book because it tells a story that had never been truly told before--the story of women in war. It also has the special distinction of being the first “lesbian pulp” novel ever published and became a record-breaking bestseller. This autobiographical novel takes place in London, England during World War II. The terror of the V-1 and V-2 rocket bombings, and the resulting fires and destruction, are an unknown experience to most readers. The women enduring these events were not even 20 years old when they first arrived. Many volunteered to be there. They were French, or of French heritage, and wanted to be part of the effort to help protect France from invasion by the Nazis. Throughout it all, passions flare, long-standing taboos are tossed to the wind, and passionate relationships are begun between older, more experienced butch officers and the young, inexperienced femme girls under their charge. In her telling of these women’s stories, Torres remains nonjudgmental of the lesbian relationships these women explored. Perhaps as a result, Women’s Barracks was banned in several states for being obscene. The House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials denounced the book in 1952 as an illustration of how the newly emerging paperback industry was breeding and promoting moral depravity. By today’s standards, of course, the book is somewhat tame; however, the eroticism and honesty with which Torres writes immerses the reader in the love, tenderness, loyalty and passion that women share with each other.

"Your tummy's a veritable oasis for a thirsty hunter." Her head dipped again, lips moving lower. They stopped their wandering completely and settled down for an extended stay. They had apparent-ly found an abundant supply of what they were after. They opened wider, pressed tighter. The tongue flicked faster and harder. And Mary Ann completely forgot the rules of the game. She twisted, lunged, arched, clawed. She squealed, screamed, moaned, squealed again. Her body be-came an unward arched bow, supported only at head and heel, helped by the tight grip of Charlene's hands on the tensed, quivering buttocks. "Charley! Stop, please! Oh God, darling, please stop!" Satan was a Lesbian is the infamous pulp novel that launched a thousand t-shirts, and coffee mugs and posters and notecards and on and on and on. Many people have seen this cover, but few have read the book or even realized that it was a real book that was published in a simpler, more ignorant time. Following our anti-hero Charlene, Satan was a Lesbian paints of a picture of a woman who no man could resist, until they looked into her cold, black eyes. Only one person, Cynthia -- who became completely 'turned on' when she was thoroughly frightened--inspired something even remotely close to love in Charlene which of course led to a deadly end. For completists and those not easily triggered.