Patricia Highsmith's "The Price of Salt" 1958 Foundational Lesbian Pulp Novel

1958. [LGBTQ][Pulp] Highsmith, Patricia. Pen name "Claire Morgan." The Price of Salt. New York: Bantam Books, Bantam New Edition 1958. 7th Printing. Groundbreaking lesbian pulp novel The Price of Salt, originally published in hardcover by Coward-McCann in 1952. This edition is among the earliest mass-market disseminations of an overtly lesbian love story with a hopeful ending, an anomaly in midcentury queer fiction. The novel follows the emotionally charged relationship between two women, Therese Belivet, a young aspiring set designer, and Carol Aird, a sophisticated suburban housewife, set against the backdrop of 1950s America. Their romance challenges both social convention and internalized repression, with Carol ultimately choosing love over custody of her child. Highsmith's refusal to conclude the novel with tragedy or moral punishment marked a radical departure from contemporary lesbian fiction, which typically ended in death, madness, or heterosexual conformity.

The present copy retains the original mass-market cover featuring a sepia-toned photographic design of two silhouetted women in a domestic interior, reinforcing the novel's central theme of quiet yet transformative intimacy. Binding fragile and cocked, front and rear wraps worn, creases, abrasions, and separation starting along joints; spine flaked with some text loss. Front cover holding with tape. Some pages coming loose from textblock. Moderately toned and brittle throughout. Scarce.