Lesbian Pulp Fiction (Mills & Boon Spice)

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, "e;gay"e; 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 "e;life in the shadows,"e; 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 BarracksVin Packer: Spring FireAnne Herbert: Summer CampSloane Britain: These Curious PleasuresJoan Ellis: The Third StreetRandy Salem: ChrisArtemis Smith: The Third exValerie Taylor: The Girls in 3-BValerie Taylor: Return to LesbosMiriam Gardner: The Strange WomenDorcas Knight: The Flesh Is WillingKay Martin: The Whispered SexFay Adams: Appointment in ParisBrigid Brophy: The ing of a Rainy CountryMarch Hastings: Three WomenShirley Verel: The Dark Side of VenusDella Martin: Twilight GirlPaula Christian: Edge of TwilightPaula Christian: Another Kind of LoveAnn Bannon: Beebo Brinker