Hissy Cat: Lesbian Pulp Fiction Archives

March 31, 2006

The Price Of Salt

I know it's early for for the Paperback of the Week, but since Maud pointed yesterday to an exhibit of Patricia Highsmith's life taking place in Switzerland I thought it would be an opportune moment to share one my favorite lesbian pulp novels-- one of my favorite novels, period-- with anyone who happens to be reading.

Patricia Highsmith wrote The Price of Salt in 1950 and published it in 1951 under the pen name Clare Morgan. It is a strange, beautiful novel; a romance about two women, and a suspence novel, too. It is deliciously moody and strange. I wrote a blurb about Price of Salt on Wikipedia, if you'd like more background info (be kind-- I wrote it either right after or right before I was finishing my thesis, so I was totally cracked out and my spelling is totally cracked out. Also, I just checked that outside link-- which I so did not add-- and it leads to the dumbest review/ essay I have ever read ever. Please don't read it. It will only discourage you/ make you sad.) There are no murderers, but there is a private detective and a cross-country chase and all kinds of issues about identity.

The Price of Salt is one of the four novels I covered in my thesis on lesbian pulps (the other three were Spring Fire, Odd Girl Out, and The Girls in 3-B). This sounds really corny, but I got really attached to Carol and Therese. I lived with them day in and day out for so very long. I miss them.

On a side note, the article Maud linked to I found to be very, very strange. It's titled, first of all, "Patricia Highsmith's secret life revealed." And then there's this:

"We didn't know until now how intense or excessive her love life was when she was young," Ulrich Weber, the curator in charge of the author's literary archive, told swissinfo.

"She experienced her homosexuality and didn't suppress it, as was the case for her fictitious hero, Tom Ripley."

"Excessive"? I find that to be a rather odd remark for a biographer to make about a subject. Or anyone. In any event, Highsmith made no secret of her sexual preferences. In the introduction Highsmith wrote to the Naiad Press reissue of The Price of Salt in 1986 that comes across pretty clearly (I don't know if this essay is included in the 2004 WW Norton reissue of the Price of Salt, which was released under the name Patricia Highsmith, because I don't own and haven't had a chance to take a look, but if not try to get your hand on the old Naiad edition. They're still around in used bookshops and they have that essay which provides some interesting publication history.) Descripitions of her in her youth paint her as a WASPish, butch lesbian. She lived in Greenwich Village, frequented dyke bars, and vacationed on Fire Island. I once heard a radio interview in which Marijane Meaker, a lover of Highsmith's and the author of the lesbian pulp Spring Fire, the memoir Highsmith: A Romance of the Fifties, described Pat as looking like Prince Valiant. It's hard for me to understand what the curator is finding so surprising unless it just never occured to him that even in the 1950s lesbians had lesbian sex.

The article also says nothing about her rabid anti-semitism and racism. I love Highsmith's writing. I think she is a fascinating artist, but she was, by all accounts a very difficult person.

But she also loved her cats.

Posted by hissycat at 04:16 AM | Comments (516)

March 27, 2006

Paperback of the Week

Another expert/ psychologist/ scientist - authored pulp book. After novels with tragic/ punishing endings, this was the most popular format pulp publishers used for homosexual content. Dressing titillating material in a cloak-- ok, a skinny scarf-- of scientific and social value was a reliable strategy for getting their books through the mail without disturbance from the censors.

I think what I love best about this cover is the color scheme. Ouch. That so-called "normal" woman is like, totally modular, man. She's about to run away with someone named Spring Rayne she met in her pottery class. They think about going to California eventually; right now, they're just living on the road and the power of female-to-female love. If you move the book around, the women, like, totally, leave trails behind them, like, in the air. Whoa, dude. Those colors are, like, seriously intense. Love on.

Posted by hissycat at 06:22 AM | Comments (28)

March 19, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

Posted by hissycat at 06:44 PM | Comments (4)

March 10, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

Posted by hissycat at 04:41 PM | Comments (1)

March 05, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

Posted by hissycat at 04:02 AM | Comments (5)

February 27, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

Posted by hissycat at 05:10 PM | Comments (6)

February 19, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

What I love about this cover is just how goofy this "dance of desire" is. Like, here, let me express my ravenous hunger for your body by flapping my elbows in the air like a woozy pigeon. I'll sort of march in place to demonstrate the fire that burns in my loins. Then I hold up pieces of my hair and pretend I have horns. 'Cause I'm horny. For you, baby. Oh, and I cross my eyes, too. This is The Dance Of Desire.

Look, her lover's so whipped up she got tangled in the sheet. I mean, look at her! It's like she tried to do the dance, but she wasn't woman enough. The Dance of Desire! It'll get her, oh boy oh boy. Look at that stupified grin-- totally defenless against the hair horns of desire. Putty in her lover's hands.

By the by, I bought some new (old) pulps today from some dude who was selling them on the street. Very exciting.

Posted by hissycat at 06:08 PM | Comments (11)

February 07, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

My sincerest apologies for the delay.

Posted by hissycat at 04:07 PM | Comments (5)

January 28, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

The exceptionally bad cover art mini-series continues.

Posted by hissycat at 01:18 PM | Comments (7237)

January 22, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

Now that's quality cover art if I ever saw it.

Posted by hissycat at 12:29 PM | Comments (17)

January 16, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

Posted by hissycat at 12:42 PM | Comments (17)

January 08, 2006

Paperback Of The Week

That is the saddest gym I have ever seen. Just one small pair of weights in an otherwise bare room. Look, the blonde's going to have to use saddle shoes as weights. So sad!

Now let's everyone say, 'Thank you Title IV!'

Posted by hissycat at 03:05 PM | Comments (8)

December 30, 2005

Paperback Of The Week

Because I'm throwing a New Year's party and I'm stressed the fuck out because Karaoke machines don't just rent themselves, and I don't have time to write a freaking entry, ok?

Also, I just got back to SF from my own personal Lesbian Bars of New York Appreciation Week. So there.