Descent into Madness
Review of the Kindle eBook edition (2022) of the Gold Medal Book paperback original (1952)

Spring Fire was Marijane Meaker's (writing under the pseudonym Vin Packer) pulp paperback about a lesbian romance between sorority sisters in 1952. The repressive atmosphere of that era had Meaker's publishers require that the romance should fail and be a cause of regret afterwards.

That is in contrast to the ending of Patricia Highsmith's lesbian romance (writing as Claire Morgan) The Price of Salt, also published in 1952, which was more optimistic. Meaker's book is more explicit about the physical romance however, with Highsmith being more restrained.

See cover at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/35/Spring_Fire_Cover_First_Edition.j...
The cover of the Gold Medal Books paperback original (1952). Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Although my 2022 Kindle edition shares the cover design of the 2004 Cleis paperback & ebook Spring Fire, it does not include Marijane Meaker's then newly written introduction in which she apparently wrote that she was embarrassed about having the book republished, although it still stands as a breakthrough work for lesbian literature.

I read Spring Fire as an addendum to my recent Patricia Highsmith binge. Meaker and Highsmith were also involved in a earlier relationship about which Meaker later wrote a memoir Highsmith: A Romance of the 1950's (2003).

Trivia and Links
You can read Marijane Meaker's (1927-2022) obituary in The New York Times here.

You can read further about the background to the original publication of Spring Fire at Literary Ladies Guide by Francis Booth, March 21, 2021.

Marijane Meaker was interviewed for the Patricia Highsmith documentary film Loving Highsmith (2022) directed by Eva Vitija. You can see several excerpts of Meaker's interview in the trailer for the film here (she first says: "Pat was more dedicated than any writer I had ever met. Certainly she was very famous when I met her."). ( )

At first I enjoyed the ridiculousness of the prose ( little Leda grew fast and fully and richly. She had long black hair that shone like new coal, round green eyes, a stubborn tilt to her chin, proud pear-shaped breasts that pointed through her size 36 sweater, and long graceful legs.) but soon I just felt abused by the many scenes of women getting date raped with the approval of their sorority sisters. Nothing happens to the rapists, but a woman who confesses to the crime of lesbian feelings gets institutionalized.

Ok. I was looking for campy fun, along with a sociologically interesting study of early lesbian fiction, but I discovered that I wasn't up for the grotesque misogyny I found here along with the campy fun and sociologically interesting bits. It's a good measure of the progress our culture has made, though, since the novel was written. ( )

It's too bad that, in order to get a book published about lesbians in the '50s, they had to end this way. ( )

This book was, as many pulps are, difficult to rate. On the one hand, this is considered to be the first lesbian pulp novel, so its historical and cultural importance is obvious. On the other hand, this book is a difficult read; I really had to slog through the first half. I don't want to give any spoilers (although this book is decades old), but the ending is a serious drag. Read it for the history, not for the story itself. ( )

Spring Fire is one of those lesbian pulp reads that reminds you that the pulp genre's shortcomings can also be what makes it noteworthy. Like Ann Bannon's Odd Girl Out, Spring Fire involves sorority oriented lesbian loving. The times in which these novels were written may have dictated that the passions between the female leads burn both quickly and unhappily, but unhappily ever after comes in different varieties. Spring Fire distinguishes itself as a story that is able to swing from melodrama throughout most of its body (like you would expect) and ends on a downright sinister note (which you might not have expected). Sure, it might be nice if the girl got the girl in the end, but if she can't then you may find a good dose of creepiness to be just as entertaining. ( )