Ann Weldy, better known by her pen name Ann Bannon, is an American author who, from 1957 to 1962, wrote six lesbian pulp fiction novels known as The Beebo Brinker Chronicles. The books' enduring popularity and impact on lesbian identity has earned her the title "Queen of Lesbian Pulp Fiction". Bannon was a young housewife trying to address her own issues of sexuality when she was inspired to write her first novel. Her subsequent books featured four characters who reappeared throughout the series, including her eponymous heroine, Beebo Brinker, who came to embody the archetype of a butch lesbian. The majority of her characters mirrored people she knew, but their stories reflected a life she did not feel she was able to live. Despite her traditional upbringing and role in married life, her novels defied conventions for romance stories and depictions of lesbians by addressing complex homosexual relationships.
Photo by Tee Corinne, 1983
Bannon in 1955, just as Odd Girl Out was being completed
Original Gold Medal Books cover of Odd Girl Out, published in 1957
Original Gold Medal Books cover of I Am a Woman from 1959
Marijane Agnes Meaker was an American writer who, along with Tereska Torres, was credited with launching the lesbian pulp fiction genre, the only accessible novels on that theme in the 1950s.
Meaker in 2007
Cover of Spring Fire - Vin Packer (Marijane Meaker) 1952
Cover of We Walk Alone
Cover of "We, Too, Must Love" by Ann Aldrich (Marijane Meaker). Illustration by John J. Floherty Jr.