 1959 cover by James Alfred Meese | |
| Author | Valerie Taylor |
|---|---|
| Published | 1959 (Fawcett Publications) |
The Girls in 3-B is a classic work of lesbian pulp fiction by Valerie Taylor which was published in 1959 by Fawcett. Its happy ending for a lesbian character was unusual for the time period. It was one of the first three novels of any pulp fiction genre to be reprinted in 2003 by Feminist Press.
Three eighteen-year-old women, Annice, Pat, and Barby, leave their rural Iowa town and move to Chicago to find jobs and an apartment together. [1] Each falls in love and must make a decision about whether to accept or reject the contemporary morality of the 1950s, which pressures them to make traditional marriages as young as possible. [2] [3] The book deals with themes of rape, incest, racism, abortion, closeted sexuality, workplace discrimination and sexual harassment, and recreational drugs. [3] It explores the Beat culture, "satirizing [its] sexism and machismo". [2]
In the afterword to the 2003 edition, Lisa Walker, associate professor of English at the University of Southern Maine, called it "part of the unofficial history of women in the 1950s". [2] [4] Barbara Grier, in her annual survey of lesbian literature, The Lesbian in Literature: A Bibliography , gave the book three asterisks, indicating it was "among the few titles that stand out above all the rest and must properly belong to any collection of Lesbian literature." [5] Curve said Taylor "depict(s) a world where the stereotypical image of the 1950's female is turned on its head." [6] Publishers Weekly , reviewing the 2003 edition, says, "This is a refreshing entry for the genre, mercifully devoid of the moralistic and cautionary elements common in much 1950s pulp." [3] The New York Times called it a "delicious [example] of the pulp genre". [7] Literary scholar Michelle Ann Abate called it out, along with Spring Fire and The Price of Salt , as a book that had become an "important source of identity" among the lesbian community in the 1950s. [8] : 172 [9] : 160
Most early works of lesbian pulp fiction were cautionary tales that warned women lesbianism was immoral. [2] Lillian Faderman wrote that they "warned females that lesbianism was sick or evil and that if a woman dared to love another woman she would end up lonely and suicidal." [10] According to Walker, The Girls in 3-B, like other early works of lesbian pulp fiction authored by women, was among the first to "treat lesbianism sympathetically". [2] Literary scholar Maureen Corrigan in a review of the book for NPR said the book was one of the few pre-Stonewall novels in which lesbian characters do not kill themselves. [11] According to Walker, "Barby's story provides a remarkably positive representation of lesbianism for the time period, especially in contrast to the novel's relatively negative representations of heterosexual experiences." [2] Walker writes, "Lesbianism here is presented as sheltering and nurturing, and it allows Barby the economic and emotional security of a heterosexual marriage, without the danger of rape, pregnancy, and abortion" and that "Barby's discovery of lesbianism is self-affirming". [2] Walker calls the book "remarkable in providing a happy ending for the lesbian character", particularly for the time and genre. [2] Go called it "a positive, non-exploitive look at lesbian life in an era when lesbians were not supposed to have positive, non-exploitive existences." [12] David Ulin, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that "by writing about a lesbian couple that stay together, [Taylor] violated the standards of the genre, which dictated unhappy endings for those who ignored the mores of straight society." [4]
Walker points out that while Annice's first sexual experience is fully described, including penetration, the description of Barby's first sexual experience breaks off with an invitation to spend the night and resumes with the two women, after sex, watching a snowfall through the bedroom window. [2] She says that while contemporary readers may see this as "a capitulation to the 1950s taboo around representing lesbians, and a reinforcement of the cultural invisibility of lesbianism", she finds it more probable that Taylor, a lesbian herself, was avoiding fulfilling male readers' voyeuristic expectations, at the time common in lesbian pulp fiction. [2] Literary scholar Yvonne Keller agrees, referring to Taylor as a "paradigmatic example" of a lesbian writer who refused to provide the genre's expected voyeuristic opportunities for men. [13] Walker concludes that "according to this argument, then, Taylor takes advantage of pulp's ability to provide lesbians with images of themselves while resisting ... the most exploitative patterns of representation in lesbian pulp." [2]
Walker also points out that Taylor provided a psychological "explanation" of Barby's lesbianism in the character's story, which includes a rape at age 13 and another at 18, and that a history of rape was common in the lives of lesbian characters in Taylor's other books, but says that Taylor refused to present lesbianism as a neurosis. [2] Keller named Taylor as one of a small group of writers whose work formed the subgenre of "pro-lesbian" pulp fiction; others include Ann Bannon, Sloane Britain, Paula Christian, Joan Ellis, March Hastings, Marjorie Lee, Della Martin, Rea Michaels, Claire Morgan, Vin Packer, Randy Salem, Artemis Smith, Tereska Torres, and Shirley Verel. [13] : 6, 20
Curve noted that the lesbian plotline is not the central theme of the book, but that nevertheless the book was labelled lesbian pulp. [6]
According to NPR, the comic strip Apartment 3-G was loosely based on the book. [11] In season 3 of the American television series Riverdale, Veronica is seen reading a copy. [1]
The Girls in 3-B was first published by Fawcett Crest in 1959 with cover art by James Alfred Meese. [14] It was reprinted in 1965 by Fawcett Gold Medal. [14] It appeared with a new foreword and afterword in 2003 from Feminist Press, one of the first three novels of any pulp fiction genre in their Femmes Fatales imprint. [11] [4]
A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexuality or same-sex attraction. The concept of "lesbian" to differentiate women with a shared sexual orientation evolved in the 20th century. Throughout history, women have not had the same freedom or independence as men to pursue homosexual relationships, but neither have they met the same harsh punishment as gay men in some societies. Instead, lesbian relationships have often been regarded as harmless, unless a participant attempts to assert privileges traditionally enjoyed by men. As a result, little in history was documented to give an accurate description of how female homosexuality was expressed. When early sexologists in the late 19th century began to categorize and describe homosexual behavior, hampered by a lack of knowledge about homosexuality or women's sexuality, they distinguished lesbians as women who did not adhere to female gender roles. They classified them as mentally ill—a designation which has been reversed since the late 20th century in the global scientific community.
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Larissa Lai is an American-born Canadian novelist and literary critic. She is a recipient of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Fiction and Lambda Literary Foundation's 2020 Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize.
Lesbian pulp fiction is a genre of lesbian literature that refers to any mid-20th century paperback novel or pulp magazine with overtly lesbian themes and content. Lesbian pulp fiction was published in the 1950s and 1960s by many of the same paperback publishing houses as other genres of fiction, including westerns, romances, and detective fiction. Because very little other literature was available for and about lesbians at this time, quite often these books were the only reference the public had for modeling what lesbians were. English professor Stephanie Foote commented on the importance of lesbian pulp novels to the lesbian identity prior to the rise of organized feminism: "Pulps have been understood as signs of a secret history of readers, and they have been valued because they have been read. The more they are read, the more they are valued, and the more they are read, the closer the relationship between the very act of circulation and reading and the construction of a lesbian community becomes…. Characters use the reading of novels as a way to understand that they are not alone." Joan Nestle refers to lesbian pulp fiction as “survival literature.” Lesbian pulp fiction provided representation for lesbian identities, brought a surge of awareness to lesbians, and created space for lesbian organizing leading up to Stonewall.
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The Price of Salt is a 1952 romance novel by Patricia Highsmith, first published under the pseudonym "Claire Morgan." Highsmith—known as a suspense writer based on her psychological thriller Strangers on a Train—used an alias as she did not want to be tagged as "a lesbian-book writer", and she also used her own life references for characters and occurrences in the story.
Ann Weldy, better known by her pen name Ann Bannon, is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction". Bannon was a young housewife trying to address her own issues of sexuality when she was inspired to write her first novel. Her subsequent books featured four characters who reappeared throughout the series, including her eponymous heroine, Beebo Brinker, who came to embody the archetype of a butch lesbian. The majority of her characters mirrored people she knew, but their stories reflected a life she did not feel she was able to live. Despite her traditional upbringing and role in married life, her novels defied conventions for romance stories and depictions of lesbians by addressing complex homosexual relationships.
Valerie Taylor was an American author of books published in the lesbian pulp fiction genre, as well as poetry and novels after the "golden age" of lesbian pulp fiction. She also published as Nacella Young, Francine Davenport, and Velma Tate. Her publishers included Naiad Press, Banned Books, Universal, Gold Medal Books, Womanpress, Ace and Midwood-Tower.
Marijane Agnes Meaker was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s.
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Spring Fire, is a 1952 paperback novel written by Marijane Meaker, under the pseudonym "Vin Packer". It is the first lesbian paperback novel, and the beginning of the lesbian pulp fiction genre; it also addresses issues of conformity in 1950s American society. The novel tells the story of Susan "Mitch" Mitchell, an awkward, lonely freshman at a Midwestern college who falls in love with Leda, her popular but troubled sorority sister. Published by Gold Medal Books, Spring Fire sold 1.5 million copies through at least three printings.
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Tereska Torrès was a French writer known for the 1950 book Women's Barracks, the first "original paperback bestseller." In 2008 historians credited the republished book as the first pulp fiction book published in America to candidly address lesbian relationships, although Torrès did not agree with this analysis.
Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers: A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America is a non-fiction book by Lillian Faderman chronicling lesbian life in the 20th century. In 1992, it won the Stonewall Book Award for non-fiction and was selected as the "Editor's Choice" at the Lambda Literary Awards. In September 2011, Ms. magazine ranked the book 99th on its list of the top 100 feminist non-fiction books.
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Julie Ellis was an early lesbian pulp fiction author of the 1960s, writing pro-lesbian romance and erotica under varied pseudonyms for Midwood-Tower Publications. She changed her writing pseudonyms and legal name usage numerous times and later in life she wrote historical and romance fiction under the name Julie Ellis.
Women's Barracks: The Frank Autobiography of a French Girl Soldier is a classic work of lesbian pulp fiction by French writer Tereska Torrès published in 1950. Historians credit it as the first US paperback-original bestseller, as the first lesbian pulp fiction book published in America, and as "the pioneer of lesbian fiction". As the first of its genre, it received heavy backlash, and it was banned in Canada. Its popularity prompted the formation of the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials in the United States. Its original cover art is considered a classic image of lesbian fiction.
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