Read more
A neglected 1950’s housewife discovers the delights and degradations of a forbidden love—and is forced to choose between safety and freedom.When Frances becomes bored with her suburban life and enrolls in a class at the local community college, she doesn’t expect much—but then she meets Blake, a butch lesbian, and everything changes. In thrall to a forbidden world of martini lunches, late nights at queer bars, and a sexual passion she never knew was possible, Frances must choose between the safety of heterosexual marriage or the dangers of life on the edge of society.
Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s 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. Enjoy the series:
Bedelia; Bunny Lake Is Missing; By Cecile; The G-String Murders; The Girls in 3-B; Laura; The Man Who Loved His Wife; Mother Finds a Body; Now, Voyager; Return to Lesbos; Skyscraper; Stranger on Lesbos; Stella Dallas; Women's Barracks.
About the author
Valerie Taylor is the pen name of Velma Young, author of the lesbian pulp classics Whisper Their Love (1957), The Girls in 3-B (1959), World Without Men (1963), Journey to Fulfillment (1964), and Ripening (1988). With the $500 proceeds of her first novel, Hired Girl (1953), Taylor bought a pair of shoes, two dresses, and hired a divorce lawyer. After leaving her husband, she kicked off a prolific career as the author of pulp fiction novels, poetry (under the name of Nacella Young), and romances (under the name Francine Davenport). A long-time activist for gay and lesbian rights, she was a co-founder of Mattachine Midwest and the Lesbian Writers Conference in Chicago.
