As America slowly relaxed its moral codes in the post war era, the pulp novels of the paperback racks offered an initiation ot the previously hidden demi-mondes of sex and hedonistic excess. While the cover blurbs fained shock and disgust, the cover art revelled in the illicit danger and excitement and their exploitation fantasies offered a lurid window on America's supressed desire. A frequent fantasy was that of the tough, predatory woman who know what she wants and how to get it. From the hard-boiled femme fatale to the all-out leather-clad dominatrix and "strange hungers" of lesbian desire, Pulp Postcards gathers together the most daring of these original jackets.