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.

“Suspenseful parallel lesbian love stories deftly illuminate important events in LGBTQ history” in the New York Times–bestselling author’s YA novel (Kirkus Reviews). In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It’s not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet. As she juggles a romance she must keep hidden and a newfound ambition to write and publish her own story, she risks exposing herself—and Marie—to a danger all too real. Sixty-two years later, Abby Zimet can’t stop thinking about her senior project and its subject—classic 1950s lesbian pulp fiction. Between the pages of her favorite book, the stresses of Abby’s own life are lost to the fictional hopes, desires, and tragedies of the characters she’s reading about. She feels especially connected to one author, a woman who wrote under the pseudonym “Marian Love,” and becomes determined to track her down and discover her true identity. In this novel told in dual narratives, New York Times–bestselling author Robin Talley weaves together the lives of two young women connected across generations through the power of words. A stunning story of bravery, love, how far we’ve come and how much farther we have to go.

Adresboekje geïllustreerd met covers van klassieke homo-pulpromans.

A collection of gay erotic writings tracing the development of a gay identity from the late 19th century to just before the Stonewall Inn riots Long before the rise of the modern gay movement, an unnoticed literary revolution was occurring, mostly between the covers of the cheaply produced pulp paperbacks of the post-World War II era. Cultural critic Michael Bronski collects a sampling of these now little-known gay erotic writings—some by writers long forgotten, some never known and a few now famous. Through them, Bronski challenges many long-held views of American postwar fiction and the rise of gay literature, as well as of the culture at large. CONTENTS Part One Mainstream Fiction: Not Particularly Hiding in the Shadows Harrison Dowd, The Night Air, Dial Press, 1950 Lonnie Coleman, Sam, David McKay, 1959 Part Two The New Gay Novel: Happier Homos and Happier Endings James Barr, "Spurr Piece" from Derricks, Greenberg, 1951 Jay Little, Maybe—Tomorrow, Pageant Press, 1952 Part Three Truly Pulp: "Gay" Life in the Shadows Michael De Forrest, The Gay Year, Woodford Press, 1949 Vin Packer (Marijane Meaker), Whisper His Sin, Fawcett Gold Medal Books, 1954 Ben Travis, The Strange Ones, Beacon Book, 1959 James Colton (Joseph Hansen), Lost on Twilight Road, National Library, 1964 Jeff X, The Memoirs of Jeff X, Zil, 1968 Part Four Out of the Twilight World: The Sexual Revolution Goes Lavender The Boys of Muscle Beach, Guild Press, 1969 (reprint from the 1950s) Richard Amory, Song of the Loon, Greenleaf Classics, 1966 Carl Corley, My Purple Winter, PEC French Line, 1966 Jack Love, Gay Whore, PEC French Line, 1967 Chris Davidson, A Different Drum, Ember Library/Greenleaf Classics, 1967 Part Five The World Split Open: Life and Literature After Stonewall Marcus Miller, Gay Revolution, Pleasure Reader, 1969 Bruce Benderson, Kyle, Crusier Classics, 1975 Victor Jay, The Gay Haunt, Traveller's Companion, 1970 John Ironstone, Gay Rights, El Dorado Editions, 1978 Appendix: Gay Novels, 1940-1969 Bibliography

As a result of a series of court cases, by the mid-1960s the U.S. post office could no longer interdict books that contained homosexuality. Gay writers were eager to take advantage of this new freedom, but the only houses poised to capitalize on the outpouring of manuscripts were "adult" paperback publishers who marketed their products with salacious covers. Gay critics, unlike their lesbian counterparts, have for the most part declined to take these works seriously, even though they cover an enormous range of genres: adventures, blue-collar and gray-flannel novels, coming-out stories, detective fiction, gothic novels, historical romances, military stories, political novels, prison fiction, romances, satires, sports stories, and spy thrillers -- with far more short story collections than is generally realized. Twelve scholars have now banded together to begin a recovery of this largely forgotten explosion of gay writing that occurred in the 1960s. Descriptions of these pulps have often been inadequate and misinforming, the result of misleading covers, unrepresentative sampling of texts, and a political blindness that refuses to grant worth to pre-Stonewall writing. This volume charts the broader implications of this state of affairs before examining some of the more significant pulp writers from the period. It brings together a diverse range of scholars, methodologies, and reading strategies. The evidence that these essays amass clearly demonstrates the significance of gay pulps for gay literary history, queer cultural studies, and book history.

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 fiction and poetry of Queer Little Nightmares reimagines monsters old and new through a queer lens, subverting the horror gaze to celebrate ideas and identities canonically feared in monster lit. Throughout history, monsters have appeared in popular culture as stand-ins for the non-conforming, the marginalized of society. Pushed into the shadows as objects of fear, revulsion, and hostility, these characters have long conjured fascination and self-identification in the LGBTQ+ community, and over time, monsters have become queer icons. In Queer Little Nightmares, creatures of myth and folklore seek belonging and intimate connection, cryptids challenge their outcast status, and classic movie monsters explore the experience of coming into queerness. The characters in these stories and poems—the Minotaur camouflaged in a crowd of cosplayers, a pubescent werewolf, a Hindu revenant waiting to reunite with her lover, a tender-hearted kaiju, a lagoon creature aching for the swimmers above him, a ghost of Pride past—relish their new sparkle in the spotlight. Pushing against tropes that have historically been used to demonize, the queer creators of this collection instead ask: What does it mean to be (and to love) a monster? Contributors include Amber Dawn, David Demchuk, Hiromi Goto, jaye simpson, Eddy Boudel Tan, and Kai Cheng Thom. This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. A Simple book with few images, which is defined with accessible structural markup. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative text for images, table of contents, page-list, landmark, reading order and semantic structure.