The steamy page-turner that became the first-ever lesbian pulp.

Originally published in 1950, this account of life among female Free French soldiers in a London barracks during World War II sold 4 million copies in the United States alone, and many more millions worldwide. The novel is based on the real-life experiences of the author, Tereska Torres, who escaped from occupied France, arrived as a refugee in London, and joined other exiled Frenchwomen enlisting in Charles DeGaulle’s army, then stationed in Britain awaiting an invasion of their homeland by Allied forces.

But Women’s Barracks is no ordinary war story. The grim setting of an urban military barracks – with its freezing dorms, rationed food, and unbecoming regulation underwear – became the setting for one of the steamiest novels of its time. Leaving “normal” civilian life behind, the women enter an all-female realm, where passionate attachments soon form – between older experienced women and young innocents, between butch officer types and their femmes subordinates. And for those with more traditional leanings, there was a city full of soldiers to be had – sometimes two or three at a time.