SURVIVAL LITERATURE

Joan Nestle, one of the founders of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, called lesbian pulp fiction "survival literature." She believes that the act of "taking one of these paperbacks off the drugstore rack and paying for it at the counter was a frightening and difficult experience for most," but that lesbians did buy them, making them extremely influential in the coming out process. Perhaps as influential as the bars.

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Purpose of This Area

Given the above, I see lesbian pulp fiction's most important and perhaps most difficult to document role as being that of survival literature. I never was able to find out much about this on the Web. My hope is that we can find those women for whom this literature functioned as some kind of validation (positive, negative or a mix of both) in their life, particularly 'pre-Stonewall.'

I am moderating this area because I do not want anything edited OUT. Anonymous postings are totally welcome. No story too long or too short. 

EX:  My own example of survival literature came a little bit later than the pulps. It was Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle and the Martin / Lyon non-fiction Lesbian / Woman (I first read it at my community college library hidden away in one of the study rooms). I read Rubyfruit Jungle in one day after I ordered it from a book club in 1980. Not too long after that I discovered the Arno Press series in the HQ's at the state college and then came all of the Naiad Press and FireBrand books.