Fiction Wednesday

As I was looking for information, last week, on Odd Girl Out..I found the fiction side of it.

Odd Girl Out was written back in the 50's by a housewife named Anne Bannon. She was in her early twenties and just out of college. From that novel came the Beebo Brinker Chronicals. It wasn't long until Bannon became the icon of Lesbian Pulp Fiction. Her novels were in paperback, ready for eager readers to read in secret.

In the 1950s, Ann Bannon broke through the shame and isolation typically portrayed in lesbian pulps, offering instead women characters who embraced their sexuality. With Odd Girl Out, Bannon introduces Laura Landon, whose love affair with her college roommate Beth launched the lesbian pulp fiction genre.

Thankfully, these novels have been reprinted and can be appreciated by a whole new generation.

It was Bannon who created a lesbian character who wasn't destroyed (by suicide, homicide, or insanity) as a consequence of her sexuality. As in the movie THE CHILDREN'S HOUR (An Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine movie about two teachers who are singled out at school by a student that they are lesbians. Tragic ending..needless to say).  Though the story, ODD GIRL OUT is written in a prose of the time, it might be hard to linger on.Still it is a novel that some will treasure.

The Beebo Brinker Chronicals has been a successful stage play.

Ann Bannon

Other Lesbian Pulp Fiction:
Spring Fire by Vin Packer
World of women by Carol Caine
Twilight Girl by Delia Martin