PACKER, VIN.Spring Fire. (1952) Consul Books, 1966. First thus. 155 pp. Name of former owner written in pen on first page. In very reasonable condition.

Spring Fire by Marijane Meaker (writing as Vin Packer) is the romance that launched the Lesbian Pulp Fiction genre.

Its story is about a forbidden love between Mitch and Leda, two sorority girls. First released in 1952 by the US mass paperback publisher Gold Medal Books, the editor demanded that the lesbian main characters in the story ended up a) not lesbian after all or b) "sick or crazy." Lesbian love was still considered abnormal, also outside of the book. It therefore has an extremely sad and (nowadays) unacceptable ending, which still embarrassed the author in 2004, when the book was given another reprint.

In its first run it sold more than 1.5 million copies through at least three printings. This is a UK edition from 1966, almost 15 years after the book’s first release.

In 1989, Meaker spoke about realizing the impact the book had while she was working at Gold Medal Books:

“Spring Fire was not aimed at any lesbian market, because there wasn’t any that we knew about. I was just out of college. We were amazed, floored, by the mail that poured in. That was the first time anyone was aware of the gay audience out there.”