First Digital Edition; Grier Rating: A*** Frances has been married to Bill for many years. Their son, Bob, is in high school. Frances had been left alone too often. Bill's occupation with business, his insensitivity, his indifference had drained their marriage of meaning and warmth. Yet, it never occurred to her to think of divorce – or to have an affair with another man. It was easier to shut herself off from all desire, all feeling. It was like being dead… but it was safe. Then she met Mary Baker – Bake, for short. Bake… with her dark, knowing eyes, her young body, so alive, so full of passion and hunger. Shy Frances is drawn to Bake immediately and accepts her invitations for socializing… which leads to a certain amount of drinking and flirting. Before long, the relationship becomes much more than just a friendship – the two fall hard for each other and Frances becomes Bake’s girl. It’s not a smooth road for them, though, as Frances is married… still living at home with Bill and her son. With Bake’s encouragement, Frances regains strength as an individual and finds employment outside of the home. The independence she gains as a result of having her own money does wonders for Frances. For the first time in her life, she feels confident and courageous – strong enough, perhaps, to consider pursuing a new life for herself. Can she trust Bake's feelings for her? Will she leave Bill and her son? Can she trust Bake to stay with her if she does divorce her husband? Will our lovers fight against all odds to make their relationship survive?

From homicidal homos to locked-up lesbians, and almost every sexually dangerous combination in between, Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback is the first complete expose of queer sexuality in mid-twentieth century paperbacks. Compellingly written by historian Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp gives a complete overview of the cultural, political, and economic factors involved in the boom of queer paperbacks. With chapters covering gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexually oriented books, a lively overview of the genres, and loads of scorching paperback covers, Queer Pulp reveals the complicated and fascinating history of alternative sexual literature and book publishing. Featuring the work of well-known authors such as W. Somerset Maugham and Truman Capote to the low-brow and no-brow scribes who worked under several names, Queer Pulp is the entertaining and informative introduction to these lost, salacious literary genres.

First Digital Edition; Grier Rating: A*** Frances and her new husband, Bill, have recently moved to the Midwest to set up house in 1960s suburbia. Frances is determined to pull off a straight marriage in the wake of a bad lesbian affair, but it’s not working. No matter what she does, no matter what she tells herself, Frances knows she will never truly be happy or fulfilled with a man. While Bill is at work she ventures out in search of a woman to love. Frances meets Erika at a bookstore and is drawn to her immediately. The two women soon begin spending time together and before long, Frances falls head over heels in love with Erika. Fortunately, Erika also fancies Frances… and the women embark on a passionate love affair. Frances realizes she has never loved anyone as much as she loves Erika. Will she have the courage to extricate herself from a loveless marriage and make a life with Erika? Once again, novelist Valerie Taylor solidifies her position as one of the premiere writers in the Lesbian Pulp Fiction genre. Certainly few can match her dramatic realism and artistic sensitivity when writing about this subject matter.

The greatest noir romance of all time, Laura won lasting renown as an Academy Award-nominated 1944 film: “an intriguing melodrama. . . . A top-drawer mystery.” (The New York Times) A brutal murder. A tough detective. And a woman who kept men spellbound—even after her death. Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful, elegant, highly ambitious, and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charms—not even the hardboiled NYPD detective sent to investigate her murder. As this cop probes the mystery of Laura’s death, he finds himself drawn to the mere idea of her. As the circumstances surrounding her death become more intriguing, he comes to a startling realization—he’s in love with a dead woman. But is she even dead? Vera Caspary’s equally haunting novel is remarkable for its stylish, hardboiled writing, its electrifying plot twists, and its darkly complex characters—including a woman who stands as the ultimate femme fatale. Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era.

A coming of age novel set in post-war France by an author who “launched the modern genre of the lesbian paperback” (Susan Stryker, author of Queer Pulp). When eighteen-year-old Cécile is orphaned at the end of World War II, the curious and adventurous Catholic student finds refuge in Paris, and with an older man. A former member of the Resistance with Cécile’s parents, Maurice is handsome, a thrilling cultured patron of the arts, and a mentor eager to introduce the budding young author to his intimate circle of friends—Cocteau, Sartre, and Eartha Kitt! As liberating an influence as he is, Maurice also encourages Cécile to shed her inhibitions he sees as bourgeois. Possessing a sensual and passionate temperament, Cécile is eager to begin exploring—by sharing Maurice’s mistress, and writing of every life-changing and delightfully scandalous new experience. Credited with penning the first, candidly lesbian novel—Women’s Barracks, in 1950—Tereska Torrès “scandalized mid-century America” (The New York Times). In By Cécile, written in 1963, “Madame Torres has re-imagined a youthful Colette (here called Cécile) in the infinitely seductive post-World War II period in Paris, where she moves like a sleeping princess through the perverse fairy tales of man-made cafe society. [It’s] a sharply perceptive novel” (Joan Schenkar, author of The Talented Miss Highsmith).

Beginning in 1869, when the study of homosexuality can be said to have begun with the establishment of sexology, this Encyclopedia offers accounts of the most important international developments in an area that now occupies a critical place in many fields of academic endeavours. While gays and lesbians have shared many aspects of life, their histories and cultures developed in profoundly different ways. To reflect this crucial fact, the Encyclopedia has been prepared in two separate volumes assuring that both histories receive full, unbiased attention and that a broad range of human experience is covered. Written by some of the most famous names in the field, as well as new researchers this is intended as a reference for students and scholars in all areas of study, as well as the general public.

The iconic American melodrama that inspired the 1943 cult classic film starring Bette Davis. “Charlotte Vale a timeless and very sophisticated Cinderella.” —Patricia Gaffney, New York Times bestselling author “Don’t let’s ask for the moon! We have the stars!” The film Now, Voyager concludes with these famous words, which reaffirmed Bette Davis’s own stardom and changed the way Americans smoked cigarettes. But few fans of this rich story know its source. Olive Higgins Prouty’s 1941 novel provides a rich, complex portrait of the inner life of its protagonist and the society she inhabits. Over half a century later, it still offers fresh and quietly radical takes on psychiatric treatment, traditional family life, female desire, and women’s agency. Boston blueblood Charlotte Vale has led an unhappy, sheltered life. Dowdy, repressed, and pushing forty, Charlotte finds salvation in the unlikely form of a nervous breakdown, placing her at a sanitarium, where she undergoes treatment to rebuild her ravaged self-esteem and uncover her true intelligence and charm. Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. “Like the film it inspired, Olive Higgins Prouty’s Now, Voyager is as striking for the conventions it bucks as for the ones it embraces: a vivid reminder of a time when people crossed the ocean in liners and wore hats, and a hymn to an American ideal of social, moral, and emotional independence.” —David Leavitt, author of Shelter in Place