What Price Love? 1950s Lesbian Pulp Fiction Relationships

Carol,  sophisticated woman of means meets
young department store clerk during the holidays.

"Carol" starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara was sold-out at NY's LGBT FilmFest this week, darn. I'm looking forward to seeing if it's as good as the book. Patricia Highsmith's "The Price of Salt" was written under the pen name Claire Morgan in 1952.

The author also penned "The Talented Mr. Ripley" which starred Matt Damon and again Cate Blanchett in the movie version.

You film buffs may also know the psychological thriller she wrote "Strangers on a Train" which became a movie in 1951.

"Price of Salt" later published under the name "Carol"

Originally Mia Wasikowska was set to play opposite Blanchett, don't know why she dropped out but who isn't excited to have Rooney Mara, star of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" as her replacement.

Rooney Mara to play Blanchett's love interest

Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Cate and Matt in The Talented Mr. Ripley


Authentic Vintage Lesbian Pulpfiction Books at LavenderPulp.com

A Good Day for Lesbian & Gay Pulp!

I'm slowly getting together my vintage pulp books for the upcoming Rainbow Book Fair. I have so many to choose from in my collection but there are only so many I can cart. This year I'm bringing a collection of Male Pulps too! Including "The Gay Year" and "Sky Eyes" which is about a Native American Indian and a young man from Louisiana who fall in love.

I also have a copy of Midnight Cowboy that came with a small collection of Gay Pulp books I got at auction. Did you know it was written in 1965? I had no idea it was that long ago. I also never saw the movie because I thought it was a western not a movie about a male prostitute with suppressed homosexual feelings!



There will be lots of 'new' old Lesbian Pulp Fiction books this year. Classics like Ann Bannon's 1969 'I am a Woman in Love with a Woman' and Tereska Torres' 'Women's Barracks'. One of my favorites is "Lesbian Gang' with its trashy (tacky?) cover but pretty good well-written story about a lesbian gang called 'Leskits' (lesbian kittens..hey, what can I say?).

So if you are in NYC please come over to the 7th Annual Rainbow Book Fair and visit 'LavenderPulp'. The Book Fair will have readings, panels and loads of booksellers and exhibitors (most of whom have little candies or chocolates at their tables to keep you going!).

Vintage Pulp Books at www.lavenderpulp.com

Vintage Lesbian Photos from the 20's 30's 40's 50's & 60's

Hitched! Wedding Vows 1968

circa 1932

I'm Home

Love is in the air.

Chicago Bois

1940's lesbian San Francisco (1945)

Women who wear monocles...1920s lesbian fashion

Mabel Hampton 1902-1989

Lesbian Pulp and Media Mail

Remember to submit your email address above right if you  are not already getting notices of every new post. Don't miss out on the fun!

These are some of the great lesbian pulp books I got from a lovely woman in Florida a couple of weeks ago. We never met but I feel like we are almost friends now.

We did a lot of emailing, discussing books, prices, Post Offices and Media Mail, and about creating collections and then wanting to thin out your possessions in later years.

Well right now thanks to 'M', our new website (in the works) will have a few of these lesbian pulp fiction novels for sale. www.lavenderpulp.com

When M mailed the books, she thought this local post office would be closed since it was Christmas Eve, so she mailed me the books from another nearby branch. How cute is this?

It's a gay gay world

serious and sexy gay girls

There were a lot of gay girls in the 1950s!

campy and crazy gay girls

gay girls on lesbian mugs and framed prints
at www.lavenderpulp.com

hot gay girls

really, it's a gay, gay world

For fun vintage LGBTIQ Gifts and Lesbian Books visit www.lavenderpulp.com

HOLIDAY SPECIAL 40% OFF ALL PRODUCTS!

For 1950s queer and lesbian pulp fiction art and pix,

visit us on FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/lavender.pulp

NYC Annual Dyke March 2014

The 22nd Annual Dyke March was June 28th this year in NYC.  It started at 42 Street by the main branch of the New York Public Library and proceeded downtown on 5th Avenue all the way to Washington Square Park. 

March goes to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village

One of the highlights of the day was running into political activist Maxine Wolfe, one of the founders of the Lesbian Avengers and the Dyke March. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures!  And remember our facebook page www.facebook.com/lavender.pulp and for vintage lesbian books and fun lgbtq gifts go to www.lavenderpulp.com!

Washington Square Park Fountain

What Happens Under the Covers in Lesbian Pulp Fiction

1959 Lesbian Pulpfiction by Valerie Taylor
available at LavenderPulp.com

Best friends Annice, Barby and Pat leave behind Small Town, USA to live in the Windy City of Chicago in this lesbian pulp novel, "The Girls in 3B".

Surprisingly modern for its genre, Valerie Taylor's much-loved coming of age story deals with sexual identity, infidelity, drug experimentation, the glass ceiling and double standards. A friend of mine said the best word to describe the book was "desire".

Author Valerie Taylor was inducted into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame in 1992 for her work as a LGBT and social activist.

Valerie Taylor

Taylor explains "I began writing gay novels around 1957. There was suddenly a plethora of them on sale in drugstores and bookstores... many written by men who had never knowingly spoken to a lesbian. Wish fulfillment stuff, pure erotic daydreaming. I wanted to make some money, of course, but I also thought that we should have some stories about real people."

Other Cover Art by Meese

The delicious cover art for "The Girls in 3B" was painted by James Meese showing his trademark subtlety and transparency in skin tones. He also created a lot of covers for Mickey Spillane and Agatha Christie books.

Notice in the first draft of "The Girls in 3B" there are four women compared to three in the final cover art. Probably typical of the times (and even today) blonde haired Pat seems awfully thin for someone described as big boned in the novel. Nevertheless Meese created one of the most alluring lesbian pulp covers.

Get your hands on a sexy Authentic Vintage copy of "The Girls in 3B" and other 1950s Lesbian Pulp Fiction Novels at LavenderPulp.com

Valerie Taylor 1913-1997