Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback

by Susan Stryker

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, LGBT, Queer, Books About Books, Sexuality, Cultural

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

Susan O'Neal Stryker is an American professor, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is an associate professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Arizona, and is the director of the university's Institute for LGBT Studies. She has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Simon Fraser University. She is an openly lesbian trans woman who has produced a significant body of work about transgenderism and queer culture.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Nicolas Lontel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entre le beau livre et le panorama littéraire, cet essai trace l'histoire de l'émergence des pulps gais et lesbiens avec une attention très marquée sur la présentation des couvertures de ces livres (il y a en a plusieurs en moyenne par page, parfois avec des doubles pages uniquement constituées de couverture). On note rapidement des thématiques, des résumés, certain·es auteur·es, des maisons d'édition, des tendances, on parle de censure et de loi (jamais très en détail, mais suffisamment pour comprendre certaines périodes).

Je pense que c'est un très beau survol pour un très beau livre qui donnera envie de lire des pulps du genre, avec clairement une cent-cinquantaine de suggestions. Ce ne sera toutefois pas un essai académique qui ira en détail dans l'analyse littéraire, on reste dans le panorama, ça se veut un beau livre très grand public (y compris le lectorat de ces pulps).

[Ionarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic quick overview of queer popular fiction in the mid twentieth century. It's a beautifully laid out book, with at least one colour reproduction of a book cover on each page, complete with (often hilarious) notes. There's also separate chapters for bisexual, lesbian, trans and gay representation, which I really appreciated even when they veered quickly off topic (the bisexual chapter was more of a kink catch all but at least it was there.)

It's very much a coffee-table style book. It's a quick and informative read but doesn't really go into any depth. I definitely wished it was a bit longer and had more to it although I think that's just the nature of the book. It's a fantastic introductory overview and well worth reading before looking for more information (if you can find it.)

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

really really interesting! stryker compiles the most notable, hilarious, and influential queer US paperbacks from the 1950s-60s, collecting each of their covers with additional annotated notes. i found myself wishing that this was a little bit more in depth, that it more broadly told the story behind this golden age of publishing as opposed to a seemingly endless list of anecdotes and related synopses.

stryker also seemed to have occasionally gone light on research and fact-checking - see my reading update complaints about misrepresenting plot and character details of 'the price of salt'. i also tried to research another case study she mentioned, of a publishing duo jailed for obscenity, only for available sources to differ from stryker on key details.

despite it all, this really is a greatly varied and informative introduction to the field, with sections dedicated to bisexual, lesbian, transgender and gay texts in both fiction and non-fiction. you'll recognise some now-canonical works ('giovanni's room' stands out), and stryker's commentary is witty and insightful.

for now, 3.5 stars!

[Wendy Rouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent but brief historical overview of queer pulp fiction produced in the United States between 1930s to the 1960s by Susan Stryker, a prominent scholar of the LGBTQ history. This book includes multiple visual examples of the unique cover art of the books in this genre. Highly recommended for students, scholars, and collectors of LGBTQ history.

[Tabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fascinating to learn a bit about how the queer mass market paperback market exploded after WWII, and to see how the genre flowed into science fiction, mystery and nonfiction, as well as erotica and fiction through the 50’s and 60’s. Many covers were either indiscernible as queer lit, or was overly explicit and verging on pornographic, and would sometimes deal with real-life events, such as the Kinsey report or factionalized accounts of transgender people in the news. It was also interesting to learn about the handful of known authors today that wrote under assumed names, or “house” publishing pseudonyms in this body of work, as well as the use of “twilight,” “odd,” and “lavender” to queer code these books through their titles. Interesting quick reads for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of queer American culture in broader society, or queer history in general.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed this short dive into pulp fiction. It's surprisingly inclusive when it comes to L, G, B, and T.

[emma johnsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

i found this in a used bookstore today. i was just reading about the history of lesbian pulp fiction yesterday and it was so cool to see this so bought it right away!!

[Steven Kinzler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intellectual commentary & lurid cover art reproductions. What's not to like?

[em petlev · Rating 4 out of 5]

prettyyyyy i wish it was more detailed and contained more secondary sources for further research

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stumbled across this in the library catalogue when I was trying to find something else. The first part is an interesting overview of the history of the mass market paperback. The rest is a list with summaries of various, well, trashy paperbacks. Or to be fair, paperbacks with gay characters (usually, sometimes the perceived abnormality is in the form of being trans or a swinger or whatever), with varying levels of trashy content. If you're interested in GLBT history, or the history of sexuality, then you would probably be interested in this. There is no real deep analysis after the first chapter, and the layout sometimes breaks up the text in flow-breaking ways, but it was interesting.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really hoping for a more in-depth exploration of how the books featured by this author fit in (or fought with) the surrounding cultural politics going on when they were released. While Queer Pulp certainly offered a unique starting point to "other" literature of the 1950s, it ultimately ended up being a bit too lightweight for actual serious study. The author also seemed to get tired toward the end, as evidenced by the remarkably slim coverage of specifically gay-themed paperbacks (which was in marked contrast to the wonderfully broad coverage given to the lesbian-themed books). Perhaps Stryker will return to this field in the future and give it the fuller attention it really deserves.

[James Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the title of this book is Queer Pulp, it actually has nothing to do with pulp magazines. It is about the various paperbacks made of cheap paper and issued around the fifties and sixties.

It also uses a somewhat different definition of queer, not limiting the world to gays, lesbians, etc, but defining queer as basically anything sexual other than the standard heterosexual missionary position. The book notes that that was the basic definition in the time period of the paperbacks.

The book is filled with color reproductions of paperback covers, and notes with almost all photos. It covers gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender paperbacks and also discusses some “factual” paperbacks that were turned out. It's a very, very interesting book.

[H. Givens · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun overview of pulp history, with a lot of great cover images. It's well suited to browsing, or as a coffee table book (for a certain sort of coffee table...) because there are pull-out quotes and captions with substantive information, so you can browse a bit and still take something away with you.

The content focus is on identity as seen through the pulps and their covers. One chapter each for L, G, B, and T (although the order is B, L, T, G, for no particular reason I could discern). That's probably the most useful approach for that very public coffee-table audience. It's also a nice base for more in-depth research, giving a general sense of the genre and its development, but you'll have to dig deeper for academic approaches. Unfortunately there still aren't many.

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw this book in Paris in a used bookshop and it was quite expensive but I found a nice cheap copy on Amazon when I got back. I throughly enjoyed it. It's very well written by an author who knows her subject very well. She discusses the history of queer pulp paperbacks in general and then discusses ones that are bi-sexual, lesbian, transgender and gay. I was pleased that I managed to find 39 of them availble on amazon (with only 4 or so I wanted totally out of print). She also mentioned the books that I'd already found and loved so that was very encouraging. Definitely one I'd recommend for people who are interested in early queer writing.

[Chad Schimke · Rating 4 out of 5]

QUEER PULP – The title says it all. Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback, by Susan Stryker, explores a wide range of the mid-century mass-market paperback. However, the concept of the gay lesbian ‘sleaze’ novel -prior to 1965 -was all about titillation not pornography; by today’s standards. In that light, the title is a bit misleading, because the book is an overview of the golden age of the paperback novel. At a time when that format was the chief literary form. Pulps had covers designed to-be-seen; to convey crime, alternative lifestyles, gender issues, drug abuse and laid the foundations for the sexual revolution.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Queer Pulp is an interesting enough history of the literature of alternative lifestyles both legitimate (Tennessee Williams, Radclyffe Hall, James Baldwin) and not-so-legitimate (Percy Fenster, author of Hot Pants Homo), but the clincher on this one is the cover reproductions, which are just as lurid and wonderful as the cover implies. If you collect odd titles as I do, this is a veritable treasure trove.

[Diane Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book had a lot of information about this genre, I felt it could benefit from some better organization. It would have been much more cohesive if the author had focused on the changes in publishing from the beginning to the end of the period, and discussed the societal reason s behind the progression. There are many beautiful pictures of the book covers, which is a delight since the cover art is half the fun.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly a picture-book of paperback novel covers from the golden age of pulp fiction - which included plenty of queer themed books for various audiences. Worth a read, though, for the hidden gems of cheap paperback novels written by literary lights under assumed names, and for the cover art, which runs the gamut from cheesy to campy to sleazy. An excellent reference list makes this one a keeper.

[Lorraine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The cover re-prints were fun. However I was hoping for a deeper exploration of the culture surrounding these books. The text felt, sorta-kinda, like I was simply reading breezy, snarky Amazon reviews of the books.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really thoroughly enjoyed this. Terrific illustrations, and Stryker's insights about this period of gay history / publishing history / general US history were very interesting indeed. I'm interested to read more of her work.