The Art of Lesbian Pulp Fiction

January 8, 2003 3:26 PM

Angie was a marked woman, paying her own ransom with a body none could resist.
Someone has spent an incredible amount of time and energy scanning in lesbian pulp fiction covers from the 50's and 60's. An interesting look into what was considered titillating 40 years ago.
posted by patrickje (21 comments total)

Fap fap.
posted by dhoyt at 3:45 PM on January 8, 2003

A lot of those titles would make for excellent band names.
posted by rainking at 3:48 PM on January 8, 2003

I bags Art Colony Perverts, rainking.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:52 PM on January 8, 2003

I just did my daily IM screen name rotation to "art colony pervert".
Thank you, patrickje, for a non-SUV story!
posted by hammurderer at 3:56 PM on January 8, 2003

Yes, like a breath of fresh air, the art colony perverts paint their way to profligacy!

Thanks.
posted by hama7 at 4:01 PM on January 8, 2003

Hey, now THERE'S an AA I can, uh, get behind!!

Hard to do the 12 steps in heels, nevertheless, we soldier on.

Great link, I love shtuff like this.
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:08 PM on January 8, 2003

I note that this one is appears to be by this guy.
posted by wobh at 4:58 PM on January 8, 2003

Good catch, wobh!
posted by muckster at 5:51 PM on January 8, 2003

Some more pulp fiction covers (may have been linked before at some point): Lurid Paperback Cover of the Week, Pulp Fiction Postcards, Joe Bates's collection (page is hideous and has background MIDI, but don't miss pages 2 through 9, linked about halfway down).
posted by staggernation at 6:47 PM on January 8, 2003

Lesbian Pulp Fiction... the three greatest words ever strung together...
posted by jonson at 8:56 PM on January 8, 2003

Hrmm that book on stagger's link, 'psychedelic sex party' sounds like a good read...
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 9:21 PM on January 8, 2003

Great... now I want to read one of these things...
posted by RylandDotNet at 9:33 PM on January 8, 2003

Great... now I want to read one of these things...

Me too. But I wonder just how much the cover art has to do with the book itself. I mean, what is Art Colony Perverts about, anyway?

I also find it fascinating how some of the artwork is really well done, and some, well, isn't (the brunette looks like the love child of Rodney Dangerfield and Divine...the artist officially Just Didn't Care).

Awesome link, patrickje!
posted by biscotti at 10:50 PM on January 8, 2003

Is it just me, or is the title schoolteacher of Dominatrix Ayn Rand?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:57 PM on January 8, 2003

Oh, and ya gotta wonder why Art Frahm never did one. Falling Panties of Lust, it could be called, and it could feature DEPRAVED VIXENS working their PERVERTED WILL ON INNOCENT COEDS with *gasp* STALKS OF CELERY!!!!!!!!
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:03 PM on January 8, 2003

biscotti - Art Colony Perverts is an extremely misleading title/front cover. It's about an old man on a fishing boat, who spends the entire story struggling with a giant marlin, only to have sharks eat the fish once he has caught it.
posted by jonson at 11:14 PM on January 8, 2003

jonson: but they're LESBIAN sharks, right?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:16 PM on January 8, 2003

Patricia Highsmith wrote this one. And the editor of The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Fiction (and novelist), R.V. Cassill, wrote one (not shown) called Dormitory Women. Duke University's Women in the shadows exhibit briefly describes their collection.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:12 AM on January 9, 2003

Wonder who the audience was for these books - what the breakdown was between male and lesbian readers was...
posted by orange swan at 10:56 AM on January 9, 2003

Ah, as I expected:

It's clear from the back cover blurbs alone that the lion's share of these paperbacks are soft porn with loads of thin plots and lots of heavy breathing, the kind of books rated "T" for "Trash" in Barbara Grier's The Lesbian In Literature. In fact, the first edition of Grier's book - originally compiled by Gene Damon and Lee Stuart - "contains over 1000 entries deliberately deleted from the second edition because they were paperback original novels authored by males for a male audience, with a 'T' rating throughout".

I thought as much when I saw the covers. It's pseudo-lesbianism - lesbianism as done by men and imbued by male attitudes of physical beauty and sexuality.
posted by orange swan at 11:06 AM on January 9, 2003

You say that like it's a bad thing!
posted by five fresh fish at 12:29 PM on January 9, 2003