These paperbacks included full-color covers with racy titles and stories that addressed taboo subjects like prostitution, rape, and interracial romance. Gay male pulp fiction, while less popular than lesbian pulp novels, enjoyed a large following that peaked in the early 1950s. Women soon understood pulp cover art as a type of code – two women in a suggestive pose with the words ‘strange’ or ‘twilight’ in the title indicated that the book had lesbian content.
In an era before the feminist and gay liberation movements, the sensationalized images on the books’ covers were often the only way for women to read about lesbianism. Now coveted by collectors and sold online for up to $950 each, these novels began as an affordable form of titillating popular art. Lesbian pulp novels from the 50s and 60s featured lurid cover art, with colorful visual innuendo, knowing glances and lots of skin.
