This novelâbased on the author's real-life experiencesâis credited as the first candidly lesbian novel, originally published in 1950, that âscandalized mid-century Americaâ (The New York Times). As the Blitz rains down over London, taboos are broken, affairs start and stop, and hearts are won and lost. This account of life among female Free French soldiers in a London barracks during World War II sold four million copies in the United States alone and many more worldwide. Womenâs Barracks was banned for obscenity in several states and denounced by the House Select Committee on Current Pornographic Materials in 1952 as an example of how the paperback industry was âpromoting moral degeneracy.â In spite of such effortsâor perhaps, in part, because of themâthe novel became a record-breaking bestseller and inspired a whole new genre: lesbian pulp. Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of womenâs writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era.
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