A Brief History Of Queer Young Adult Literature
Queer representation in YA lit used to be dismal. But in recent years, the tides have turned.
Following its publication in 1952, the novel Spring Fire — now considered to have launched the genre of lesbian pulp fiction — became an instant sensation, selling over 1.5 million copies. Its author, Marijane Meaker, later described her shock when she received countless letters about the book from queer women: “Spring Fire was not aimed at any lesbian market, because there wasn’t any that we knew about . . . That was the first time anyone was aware of the gay audience out there.” The book focuses on a college freshman who falls for her sorority sister, and ends the way most early portrayals of queer people did — in tragedy. When their love affair is discovered, one girl is sent to a mental institution and the other rejects her homosexual feelings.
Meaker always disliked the ending, but her publisher felt it necessary in order for the book to be sent through the mail: Had homosexuality been portrayed in a positive light, Spring Fire would have been deemed obscene, and post offices across the country would have confiscated it.
