Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback
This pair of paeans to the paperback offers two diverse focuses,  with some crossover. Culture historian Lupoff's heavily  illustrated account traces the paperback's roots to the 1800s  but focuses primarily on the era from 1920 onward, with emphasis  on the many players who took the penny dreadful and morphed it  into a legitimate publishing form to create empires. Stryker,  executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender  Historical Society in San Francisco, focuses on the tawdry side  of paperback publishing, which in some cases was an extension of  the pornography trade tailored for the reading middle class.  Though some of these pulp books were penned by serious scribes  trying to elevate writings with a homosexual focus into a  legitimate art form, most failed to get beyond the sleazy cheap  thrills for which they were intended. Many of the trashier  ones e.g., Hot Pants Homo, Lesbo Lodge were so bad that they  have become kitschy collector's items. Both volumes are  profusely illustrated with loads of covers from the sublime to  the ridiculous, making them quite browsable. Libraries needing a  straight (no pun intended) history of paperback publishing  should consider Lupoff's title, strangely available as a pricey  hardcover, while those serving gay communities will do well with  Stryker. Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.