Gay pulp fiction

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Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2002. Jaye Zimet; foreword by Ann Bannon. Drewey Wayne Gunn. Rather, the reason stems from how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people are discussed in these books in a way that blurs the lines between gender, sex, and sexuality. Michael Bronski. This legacy is why paperback originals, specifically those published over the 1950s and 1960s, are often called "pulps." Gay and lesbian pulps further fit into this legacy due to the way their marginality as "low culture" allowed them to venture into less socially accepted terrain.

The content of the works and the cover art of the pulps depict gay lifestyles and experiences in diverse settings.

Dates

  • Creation: 1968-1970, n.d. republications of The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall or We Too Are Drifting by Gale Wilhelm), but it was the confluence of several factors that led to lesbian pulp as a genre.

    The references to "the third sex," for example, reflect a concept stemming from Karl Heinrich Ulrichs in the 1860s and Magnus Hirschfeld in Weimar Germany, wherein gay and lesbian people were thought to occupy a third, intermediate sex between male and female. Susan Stryker. Albany, NY: MLR Press, 2012. (SPC)

  • Out/lines: Underground Gay Graphics from before Stonewall.

    Manuscripts.

Gay Pulp Fiction Collection, MS-2018-02. Scholars in queer and trans theory, such as Susan Stryker, have built on this legacy.

gay pulp fiction

(SPC, Fine Arts)

  • Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps. They range in date from 1933-1997 with the bulk published during 1953-1997. The unique ability of paperback publishers to solicit and edit original manuscripts to avoid obscenity charges while appealing to public interest led to the formation of the genre proper.

    Paperbacks with queer content existed before 1950 (e.g. Public interest in non-normative sexual practices and gender identities, as reflected in and propelled by the Kinsey Reports, was partially a result of ongoing population movements into urban centers as well as government censorship and mass firings of LGBT+ employees from government positions.

    It is the responsibility of the researcher and his/her publisher, to obtain permission to publish.