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Steamy Saturday

Women in the Shadows by the celebrated lesbian pulp-fiction writer Ann Bannon (pseudonym for Ann Weldy, b. 1932), published in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1959 by Gold Medal Books, a division of Fawcett Publications, is the third novel in the iconic 5-volume Beebo Brinker Chronicles. We hold all of the titles (including a sixth, The Marriage, sometimes considered part of the series) except the eponymous Beebo Brinker published in 1962.

At the end of the previous novel in the series, I Am a Woman, also published in 1959, the series' main character Laura Landon has embarked on a relationship with Beebo Brinker, a tall, handsome, Wisconsin-born butch character. In Women in the Shadows, their relationship is now two years old and is no longer satisfying.

Eventually, Beebo becomes physically abusive and Laura, who has been quietly developing a relationship with a black woman named Tris who is passing herself off as a dancer from India, leaves Beebo (although there are a couple of attempts at reconciliation). Things don't work out so well with Tris, and Laura turns to her gay friend Jack Mann who is also despondent over a failed relationship. In an attempt to save each other, they agree to marry with the understanding that their sexual interests lie elsewhere. In the end, Laura is pregnant through artificial insemination and settles into her domestic life with Jack. Of Beebo, Laura tells Jack:

With controversial topics of interracial relationships, domestic violence, self-loathing, and passing as heterosexual to live some semblance of what was considered a normal life at the time, Women in the Shadows proved to be the least popular of Bannon's novels with her readers. Bannon recognized this and decades later stated that the narrative paralleled Bannon's own frustrations in her marriage at the time: "I think I was overwhelmed with grief and anger that I was not able to express" and "Beebo really, in a way, had my nervous breakdown for me."

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Steamy Saturday

Young Lonny knew who he was and what he desired, but the machinations of others forced their values and desires on him . . . until he met Gene Styles. Such is the premise of Lost on Twilight Road by James Colton, published in Fresno, California by National Library Books in 1964. Fortunately, there is a happy ending for Lonny and Gene, which is not always the case in 1950s and 60s gay fiction.

James Colton is a pseudonym for the popular American crime writer and poet Joseph Hansen (1923–2004). In the 1960s he wrote for the American pro-gay publication ONE, and later hosted a radio show called Homosexuality Today, and helped organize the first Gay Pride Parade in Hollywood. His Dave Brandstetter private-eye series features a hardboiled private investigator who is also openly gay, and is cited as a groundbreaking character in gay fiction and crime fiction. Hansen was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, as well as two Lambda Literary Awards for Gay Mystery from the Lambda Literary Foundation.

The publisher, National Library Books, was founded by Sanford Aday and Wallace de Ortega Maxey, members of the American gay rights organization, Mattachine Society.

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Steamy Saturday

Artemis Smith, the pen name for the eccentric writer, poet, and social activist Anselm Morpurgo (Baroness Annaselma Larsen Nilsen Vik/Vinje Morpurgo, b. 1934), sometimes co-credited with her life partner Billie Ann Taulman (1929-2008), sits atop the pantheon of lesbian fiction writers. Her 1959 pulp novel The Third Sex, a Beacon Book published in New York by Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation, is one of the most oft-cited titles for positive lesbian characters of the 1950s and 60s. The narrative features the sexually confused Joan who marries a gay man, frequents queer clubs, enters into a couple failed lesbian relationships, but finally finds fulfillment with "the blond, enchanting Ruth."

Despite the portents of doom on the cover copy, the novel ends positively in an all-woman celebration party for the coming marriage of Joan and Ruth:

We don't know who did the cover art, but we love the 1950s noir butch/femme illustration.

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Steamy Saturday

Senator Swish by Aaron Thomas (misspelled Arron on the cover), published in 1968 by adult-book publisher William Hamling's Phenix Publishing/Greenleaf Classics in San Diego as part of its Companion Book series, has a plot line where the main character goes beyond binary choice and learns to accept his bisexuality.

The story line is a little complicated, but here's a synopsis: Van is a successful L.A. lawyer tapped to run for senator. His girlfriend Jennifer works in the fashion industry and is off on assignment for a couple of weeks. While she's gone, her college-student brother Jeff shows up, and Van soon learns that Jeff is gay, which upsets him greatly. Nevertheless, Jeff manages to seduce Van, and while he's conflicted about his sexuality, Van certainly enjoys his time with Jeff. Still, if this affair came out, it would jeopardize his run for senator, and then of course there's Jennifer. Van decides to get Jeff an apartment so he can be with Jennifer and have her brother on the side. Yeah, that'll work out great; problem solved.

Jennifer eventually returns and Van tells her that her brother has returned from college. Jennifer is confused and proves to him that her brother is still in Ohio at college. Plot twist! Jeff is not who he says he is! Turns out, this rather elaborate ruse by ersatz-Jeff was just a complicated (and not very believable) frame to blackmail Van! Oh no! But, Jennifer and Van turn the tables on counterfeit-Jeff (how? No spoiler here!), and Jennifer, while hurt by the affair that almost ruined their lives, forgives Van because, after all, she works in the fashion industry and understands the queer world where men can "go both ways." Oh, lucky Van! They agree to marry, and presumably live happily ever after. We never do learn whether Van becomes a senator, however.

We don't have any information on the author Aaron Thomas, although the name is used as author for quite a number of gay pulp novels, but we do know that the cover art (apparently trying to appeal to multiple sexual orientations?) is by noted artist and illustrator Darrel Millsap (1931-2012).

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Steamy Saturday

Several months ago, we posted about the 1960 lesbian romance novel Stranger on Lesbos by the well-respected lesbian pulp novelist Valerie Taylor (1913-1997). That story, about married suburbanite Frances Ollenfield's edgy romance with butch barfly Mary Baker (Bake to her friends), ends with the dissolution of the relationship and Frances's return to her husband. Very dissatisfying.

Apparently, Taylor thought so too and sought to rectify it in this sequel Return to Lesbos, a Midwood-Tower Book published in New York by Tower Publications in 1963. Here, Frances, after trying to stay with a husband she cannot love, returns to the clandestine queer bar scene, meets and falls in love with Holocaust survivor Erika Frohmann, and this time never returns. Now that's more like it!

This novel forms part of Taylor's Frances Ollenfield Series, which along with Stranger on Lesbos also includes A World Without Men (1963), in which Erika Frohmann is introduced; Journey to Fulfillment (1964), which offers Erika's backstory; and the much-later Ripening (1988), where Erika and Frances grow old together and come out.

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Steamy Saturday

For 1959, this was steam beyond steam. But even in its time, Sam by American novelist and playwright Lonnie Coleman (1920-1982), published in New York by David McKay Publications, and issued as a pulp paperback a year later by Pyramid Books, was praised for its sharp writing, witty dialogue, well-developed characters, and its frank, sensitive treatment of a subject that was quite taboo in its day. This is not surprising, as Coleman, who was an editor at Ladies' Home Journal and Collier's, was already a very successful author of eight novels and several short stories before writing Sam. And his success continued after Sam, especially with his 1973 Civil War-themed New York Times Best Seller Beulah Land, which along with its sequel Look Away, Beulah Land (1977) was turned into the highly-popular but critically-panned 1980 NBC tv miniseries Beulah Land starring Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Sarrazin. Meredith Baxter, and Don Johnson.

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Steamy Saturday

All parents should read this book? Well yes, according to the notorious "Park Avenue psychiatrist" Richard H. Hoffmann (1887–1967): "Those who do must leave it with the conviction that they are derelict in their duties if they abandon their responsibilities to immature girls and boys. . . ."

Whisper Their Love by noted lesbian pulp fiction writer Valerie Taylor (1913-1997), published in Greenwich, Connecticut by Fawcett Publications' Gold Medal Books in 1957, is a story about lonely 18-year-old freshman Joyce who is seduced by the much older Edith, dean of the college. Oh, the depravity! But as usual in lesbian romances of the 1950s, a man comes along and saves the day. Nevertheless, this first lesbian romance by Taylor was praised for its authentic depiction of lesbian relationships. American writer and publisher Barbara Grier, in her oft-cited "Grier ratings," gave Whisper Their Love an A** for its sympathetic lesbian characters.

Taylor's own title for this novel was The Heart Takes Many Paths, but the publisher changed it to Whisper Their Love, which Taylor found "disgusting" because it alluded to secrecy and forbidden relationships, a more societally-acceptable understanding of lesbianism. In subsequent lesbian romances, Taylor tried to maintain greater control over content production, because in writing fiction centered on lesbians she believed "we should have some stories about real people," not the imagined lives of lesbians that were written mainly by men at the time.

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Steamy Saturday

The world of dance, as depicted in numerous media iterations, is just bathed in steam! Very often in queer steam. And so it is with Mr. Ballerina by American writer, dancer, and film actor Ronn Marvin (1919-1998), published in Evanston, Illinois by Regency Books (another William Hamling imprint) in 1961. Despite the genre and its inevitable tragic ending, Mr. Ballerina is actually fairly well-written, with authentic dialogue and believable depictions of gay relationships.

The story centers on dancer Dana Bates who works under dance director Lee Apollo at Hemisphere. Dana's lover is musician Ralph Matthews, who is convinced that he is probably straight, and that it was actually his mother and then Dana, playing on his sexual needs, who turned him into a homosexual. Ralph seeks a way out and turns to a woman who herself is trying to rescue her mother from a lesbian relationship. Ralph breaks up with Dana, punches him in the nose (breaking it), has sex with the woman and proposes to her. Meanwhile, Dana barely escapes a police raid on an all-male party at Lee Apollo's place but is outed to the police by some jealous flames, leading to the tragic ending that we present above.

In an October 1961 review in The Ladder, Barbara Grier (as Gene Damon) laments the negative aspects of the story, but praises its author:

Ronn Marvin began his career as a dancer, but a foot injury ended that line of work, so he turned to writing novels and television scripts. He also appeared in four movies during the 1940s: The North Star (1943); Step Lively (1944); George White's Scandals (1945); and he was Pulaski in the 1947 film Gas House Kids Go West. The cover art for Mr. Ballerina is credited to "Dillon." While we have found no direct evidence, based on the characteristic style, we believe this to be the legendary illustrating duo Leo and Diane Dillon.

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Steamy Saturday

One finds steam where one can get it, and for Frances, trapped in a loveless marriage, she finds it in the arms of butch lesbian Mary Baker, Bake to her friends. But can Frances find true fulfillment in the Martini-fueled queer bar life of the lesbian underground? And even so, is that worth abandoning her marriage and her 16-year-old son? Apparently not, because in the end she's back where she started with her self-absorbed husband, Bill:

Doesn't seem like a satisfying ending to us. But, in this novel, Stranger on Lesbos by the well-respected lesbian pulp novelist Valerie Taylor, published in Greenwich, Connecticut as a Crest Book in the Gold Medal imprint of Fawcett Publications in 1960, the lesbian life is just as selfish and self-absorbed as her one-sided marriage, with the addition of alcoholism. So, is it happily ever after, then? We'll find out when we showcase the sequel Return to Lesbos (1963) in a later post.

Valerie Taylor, one of the pen names for Velma Nacella Young (1913-1997), was a heralded social activist and author of poetry and lesbian and romance fiction. She was a long-time member of the Daughters of Bilitis, was instrumental in starting the gay and lesbian advocacy group Mattachine Midwest along with Pearl Hart in 1965, helped to found the Lesbian Writers Conference in Chicago in 1974, received the Paul R. Goldman award from the Chicago Chapter of One, Inc. in 1975, and was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1992.

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Steamy Saturday

Oh, how the stealthy devolve into steam! An intrepid magazine reporter is sent to California to infiltrate and report on the Hollywood gay scene -- "snooping to find out what makes homosexuals tick!" Despite having a girlfriend and trying to maintain his journalistic objectivity, he is nevertheless drawn deep into gay sex life. But can he extricate himself from this seductive but deviant underworld? In the end, he convinces himself that he has --

Or is he?

The Dungaree Jungle by Riley Benton was published in West Hollywood as an original All Star Book, a division of Challenge Publications, in 1966. Unfortunately, we could find nothing on the author (a pseudonym, no doubt), the publisher, or the cover artist. Please let us know if you have any information.

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Steamy Saturday

Oh, the steamy, tormented life of the serial lesbian! How can she break free of this "half-world of erotic cravings"? Well, find the right man, of course! Which inevitably she does in this uber-pulpy, "Original Nightstand Book," Sin Girls by the pseudonymous Marlene Longman, published in 1960 by Nightstand Books, the earliest of the numerous erotic-literature imprints of Greenleaf Classics. The ending is so absurdly predictable and suggestive that we include it here for your amusement.

So, who is this Marlene Longman (an equally suggestive pen name) who would write such pulpy trash? Well, none other than the heralded, multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning American science fiction author Robert Silverberg (b. 1935). When science fiction popularity tanked a bit in the late 50s and early 60s, Silverberg turned to writing in other genres, including soft porn. In this, he was aided by science fiction enthusiast, pulp writer, and founder of Greenleaf Classics William Hamling (1921-2017), who was later tried and convicted of obscenity and did jail time. Other notable science fiction writers who wrote for Hamling's erotic-lit imprints were Algis Budrys, Harlan Ellison, and Marion Zimmer Bradley. Silverberg wrote hundreds of erotic novels under various pseudonyms. In a 2000 interview, Silverberg reflected on this period:

The cover art for Sin Girls is by the prolific pulp and science fiction illustrator Harold W. McCauley (1913-1977).

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Steamy Saturday

Bud Clifton's Muscle Boy may not have a whole lot of romance, but it is steamy for all kinds of other reasons. Published in 1958 by Ace Books, the story centers on the travails of teenage bodybuilder Jerry Carpenter who is naively seduced by an unscrupulous photographer into the netherworld of gay beefcake publications. Along the way, Jerry encounters a full cast of nefarious noir-inflected characters keeping him rooted in the seedy underbelly of light porn. It seemed like easy money, but now he wanted out. Oh, the shame of it all! But all is not lost; there's still his young sweetheart who still believes in him.

Bud Clifton is the pen name of American novelist David Derek Stacton (1923-1968), who under his own name wrote several well-received novels, mainly historical fiction, and works of non-fiction. In his short 15-year career, Stacton published 14 novels and three lengthy non-fiction works. The Guardian called him "the most unjustly neglected American novelist of the post-second world war era." Reportedly gay himself with a penchant for drag, his pulp novels under the Clifton nom de plume, with lurid stories of violent youth, proved particularly popular and were top sellers for Ace. Wikipedia notes this about Muscle Boy:

Ace Books is especially well known for its line of science fiction paperbacks, but in the 1950s it also ventured into a line of juvenile delinquent novels in its now quite collectable "D" series. Muscle Boy is D-330 in the series and bears original cover art by American painter and prolific crime noir cover artist Robert Maguire (1921-2005).

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Steamy Saturday

Oh, the steaminess of it all!! Carol Emory's pulp novel Queer Affair was published in New York as a Beacon Book, an imprint of Universal Publishing and Distributing Corp., in 1957, and even by today's standards, the sexual frankness of the novel is pretty steamy. Unfortunately, because it's the 1950s, a fully-realized lesbian relationship will not stand. At least one of the partners has to be off her nut (in this case, Jo), while in the end male heroes come to the rescue.

The story centers around up-and-coming dancer Draga Hamilton who is introduced to celebrity sculptor Jo Stanhope by Draga's lawyer Gilbert Young who is desperately in love with Jo. Jo, however, has other ideas, as she seduces the vulnerable Draga and they begin a torrid love affair, which, as already stated, is quite frankly narrated. Draga is head-over-heels, until of course her old flame Ronnie Marsh shows up on the scene and ruins everything for Jo.

In the end, the whole sordid love quadrangle literally devolves into a barely-suppressed S&M encounter. Jo takes her revenge on Draga's infidelity by grabbing a bullwhip that is inexplicably hung on the wall and beats Draga almost senseless with it. The whipping, however, sends both into a building sexual frenzy until both Gilbert and Ronnie come bursting through the door. Ronnie whisks Draga out of harm's way (at least as he perceives it), and Gilbert gives Jo a taste of her own whipping medicine, to which both react with this memorable passage:

Meanwhile, Draga is recovering in Ronnie's soothing arms, to which she responds, "Move over a little, sweetheart . . . I want to sit in your lap." THE END. Ugh!!

Despite Queer Affair being mentioned in several texts on early lesbian pulp novels, we could find nothing on the author Carol Emory, who we suspect is possibly a man. Nevertheless, the author makes sure early on that the reader knows Emery has done their homework on lesbianism:

Appropriately, Barbara Grier, in her iconic The Lesbian in Literature, gives Queer Affair a rating of A for having "a major lesbian component but not sympathetically portrayed." While we may not know who Carol Emory is, we do know that the butch/femme cover art is by Frank Uppwall and was first painted for another pulp novel, Gutter Star by Dorine B. Clark, published in 1954, and then reissued for the cover of Queer Affair three years later.

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Steamy Saturday

Oh, the steamy mystery! Dr. Tony Page is a successful psychiatrist, and when his friend Julian Leclerc, a handsome and talented young barrister -- and Tony's former lover -- is found dead, an apparent suicide, something doesn't seem right, and Tony sets out to uncover the truth. His quest takes him from the parties and pubs of the gay underworld of 1950s London to Scotland Yard and the House of Commons as he uses his shrewd and penetrating insight to find who or what was responsible for Julian's death.

Such is the premise of Rodney Garland's The Heart in Exile, a groundbreaking classic of gay fiction and considered the first gay detective story, published in this pulp paperback edition by Lion Library Editions in 1956. The novel, written by Hungarian émigré Adam de Hegedus (1906-1958) using the pen name Rodney Garland, was first published in London by W. H. Allen in 1953. It was a commercial success and was positively reviewed by mainstream publications, and it continues to maintain a significant presence in the queer cultural imagination. The cover art for this first American pulp edition is by noted American artist Arthur Shilstone (1922-2020).

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Steamy Saturday

Spring Fire by Vin Packer, the pen name of American writer Marijane Meaker (1927-2022), was the first lesbian paperback novel and was published in New York by Gold Medal Books in 1952. It was an instant bestseller, outselling other popular titles of that year, including James M. Cain's The Postman Always Rings Twice and Daphne du Maurier's  My Cousin Rachel, and its publication marks the beginning of the lesbian pulp fiction genre.

The story, based on Meaker's own experience, revolves around the relationship between the shy and awkward, freshman sorority sister Susan ("Mitch") Mitchell and her more experienced roommate Leda Taylor. Both play at heterosexual "normality," while engaging in and at the same time questioning their same-sex attraction. Unfortunately, because it's the early 1950s, the relationship had to end in tragedy, with Leda bound for an insane asylum and Mitch denying to herself that she ever loved Leda.

Meaker was always distressed about having to write that ending. When Cleis Press approached her to republish the novel, she was very reticent. But the project went forward, and according to Wikipedia, Meaker wrote about this in the introduction to that reissue:

Beside lesbian romances, Marijane Meaker also wrote mystery and crime novels, nonfiction books about lesbians (as Ann Aldrich), children's books (as Mary James), and young adult fiction (as M. E. Kerr), for which she received the 1993 Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association. The butch/fem cover illustration is by noted American artist and pulp-fiction cover illustrator Barye Phillips.

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Steamy Saturday

"Could a woman cure this man's warped desires?" Apparently not. Ray, handsome and muscular, always thought of himself as a typical heterosexual fellow until he becomes wracked by guilt after being seduced by the randy New York sophisticate Bruce Carton. It was easy and Bruce paid well, but was Ray truly gay? He tries to find redemption as the paid consort for the wealthy Amelia, but to little avail. Desperately, he reverts to sexually assaulting Emily, an aspiring actress. The despicable act only deepens his self-loathing. What to do? Well, if you can't beat 'em. . . . In the end "Ray recognized himself as a no-good bastard. But he didn't care, and he knew now that he never would."

There's much steam, not all of it good, in Ben Travis's 1959 pulp novel The Stange Ones, published in New York as a Beacon Book, an imprint of Universal Publishing and Distributing Corp. Beacon Books included Universal's line of queer pulp fiction. Although The Strange One's is often mentioned in the history of early gay pulps, we could not turn up any information on its author, Ben Travis (a pseudonym, no doubt). However, the provocative cover art of a tortured man turning away in despair from a sultry, raven-haired seductress is by the prolific and highly successful pulp-cover artist Ernest "Darcy" Chiriacka (1913-2010).

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Steamy Saturday

Oh, yes, quite steamy! Right down to the provocative cover art by prolific pulp-cover illustrator (Isaac) Paul Rader (1906-1986). This week we bring you another lesbian pulp romance, The Jealous and the Free, by March Hastings, one of the pseudonyms used by lesbian romance fiction author Sally Singer (b. 1930), published in New York by Midwood Tower in 1961.

The story revolves around long-time roommates Michele and Leda who fall for each other; Michele the newbie, and Leda the more experienced. Michele's jealousy, however, drives them apart, and Michele seeks refuge in the arms of the older and wealthy Corrine. But, as you might imagine, Michele still longs for Leda, however . . . can she find her way back to her?

Spoiler! Well, of course she can, silly! And, "She would never leave the girl again. Never. 'The coffee's boiling,' Leda said against her ear. 'Let it,' Michele said." However, half a decade earlier, it wouldn't have been silly for the average reader to expect that such a relationship would end in disaster, and that Michele would only find solace in the man she left behind. Although Singer, who was one of the few lesbian pulp authors who lived openly as a lesbian nearly her entire life, did write such dire endings in her early career, by the late 1950s most of her lesbian romances would end with positive resolutions of fully-realized lesbian love, more realistically reflecting Singer's own lived experience.

Both Singer and illustrator Paul Rader were mainstays of the Midwood Books line of Tower Publications romance novels, which specialized in lesbian pulp fiction.

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