career girl – Pulp & Pep https://monicanolan.com/pulppep An exploration of lesbian pulps and 1950s teen romance Wed, 20 Feb 2019 19:09:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.0.3 120614702 Designing Lesbians https://monicanolan.com/pulppep/2013/10/21/designing-lesbians/ Mon, 21 Oct 2013 18:55:42 +0000 http://monicanolan.jayuen.com/pulppep/?p=384 The Odd Ones, Edwina Mark, Berkley Books, 1959

“Jean discovered her true sexual nature through the expert teachings of sleek Sherri Lancaster.”

The Plot: Orphaned outcast Jean Grant is so desperate to get out of her hick town and discover her “true nature” she elopes with sensitive Tim, the unhappy son of the lecherous druggist (who is also Jean’s employer). After gritting her teeth through their wedding night, Jean steals Tim’s $1000 nest egg and hightails it to New York. There she checks into a cheap hotel and sets out to explore the city, alternately racked by guilt and overflowing with delirious joy at her newfound freedom.

Stumbling into … Read more

]]> 384 The Wonderful World of Work https://monicanolan.com/pulppep/2012/02/06/the-wonderful-world-of-work/ https://monicanolan.com/pulppep/2012/02/06/the-wonderful-world-of-work/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:40:54 +0000 http://monicanolan.jayuen.com/pulppep/?p=42 Maureen Corrigan, in her review of recent novels about the unemployed, started by saying that historically “the workaday world…has been considered too mundane to be of much interest.”  Poor Maureen–another otherwise well-read person completely unaware of the world of Career Girl books. I’m talking about books like Betty Loring, Illustrator (1948), Patti Lewis, Home Economist (1956), and A Flair for People (1955–the heroine is a personnel director). Despite growing up with the Beany Malone books (which she analyzes in her memoir Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading, Maureen somehow missed out on books like Date With A Career (1958), and Phoebe’s First Campaign (1963).

These are the books a girl … Read more

]]> https://monicanolan.com/pulppep/2012/02/06/the-wonderful-world-of-work/feed/ 1 42 Career Girls, 1942 Style https://monicanolan.com/pulppep/2012/01/26/career-girls-1942-style/ Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:29:26 +0000 http://monicanolan.jayuen.com/pulppep/?p=28 There was a double feature playing a few nights ago, Laura and Bedelia, both based on books by Vera Caspary. I was so exhausted from the grueling Noir City Film Festival pace (four movies on Saturday) that I thought I’d skip the movie version of Laura (which I’ve seen more times than I can remember) and read the book instead.

Caspary wrote Laura in 1942, and the eponymous heroine is a curtain opener for the career girls who would later flood the fiction market. In 1943 the New York Times called this story of an advertising executive who is presumed murdered and then turns up alive and becomes a … Read more

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