Lesbian Pulp Fiction Archive of Six Mass Market Paperbacks Reflecting Censorship, Criminalization, and Popular Representations of Lesbian Identity, 1952–1969

Lesbian Pulp Collection

Book

Jack Woodford; Les Scott; Lynton Brent; Sylvan Dillmanold. Lesbian pulp fiction Collection published between 1952 and 1969, tracing the genre from the coded love triangles and secret societies of the postwar paperback market to the explicit language s under adult reading imprints at the end of the 1960s. These inexpensive books brought representations of lesbian desire into drugstores, newsstands, and private reading spaces during a period when homosexuality remained criminalized, censored, and commonly described as pathology. Their covers and promotional copy record the commercial conventions through which publishers made same sex relationships legible to mass audiences: women appear as lovers, criminals, cult members, patients, and threats to domestic and sexual order. Twilight Women, issued in 1952 at the beginning of the genre’s rapid expansion, advertises “a strange love cult and its secret rites,” while Queer Tastes, published in 1969, openly announces a discussion of “Lesbianism” and presents its narrative through the borrowed authority of psychoanalysis.

Six mass market paperbacks, 1952 to 1969.
[1] Scott, Les. Twilight Women. New York: Arco Publishing Co., 1952. 186 pp.
[2] Woodford, Jack. Possessed. New York: Beacon Signal, undated. First paperback edition. 155 pp.
[3] Morton, Bowie. Marie. Manhasset, New York: Kozy Books, 1962. 159 pp.
[4] Greggsen, Dale. Dark Triangle. New York: Domino Books, undated. 144 pp.
[5] Brent, Lynton Wright. Lesbian Gang. North Hollywood: Firmac Publications, 1964. 192 pp.
[6] Dillman, Sylvan. Queer Tastes. Continental Classics, 1969. 160 pp.

The wrappers employ the principal visual and textual devices of lesbian pulp marketing: paired women, voyeuristic bedroom scenes, criminality, pseudo clinical authority, and promises of forbidden knowledge. Dark Triangle declares that love between two women may be broken only “by death or by another, more alluring woman”; Lesbian Gang calls its protagonist the leader of a group of “Leskits,” a term formed by combining “lesbian” and “kitten”; and Queer Tastes claims that its frank treatment of lesbian sexuality produced both commercial success and official suppression. The 1952 "Twilight Women" belongs to the earliest phase of lesbian themed mass market publishing, before the form became a stable and heavily exploited paperback category later in the decade. Its cult narrative, exposed body cover illustration, and promise of “secret rites” show how publishers encoded lesbian sexuality through danger, ritual, and male observation rather than presenting it as an ordinary social identity. "Lesbian Gang" is distinguished by its author, Lynton Wright Brent, a prolific screen actor whose career included more than two hundred film appearances before he turned to fiction. His novel joins lesbian identity to shoplifting and organized crime, preserving the persistent pulp association between sexual nonconformity and criminal behavior. Ownership inscriptions in pen and pencil appear in several volumes; all remain complete, legible, and bound, while the copyright leaf in Twilight Women is loose. Covers show rubbing, edge wear, and moderate toning consistent with circulated pulp paperbacks. Overall good condition.

Item #23651

Price: $480.00