12 December 2016
A single book created the "bodice ripper" as a concept and cultural phenomenon: 1972's The Flame and the Flower. Written by Midwestern homemaker Kathleen Woodiwiss and published by Avon, the novel is widely considered to be the first sexually explicit romance novel, released just as the second wave of the feminist movement was cresting. As Roe v. Wade came before the Supreme Court, and Congress sent the ERA to state legislatures for ratification, the old sexual mores were unraveling faster and faster. Deep Throat made its world theatrical debut the same year.
Women enthusiastically snapped up Woodiwiss's sprawling epic and the flood of books that followed, driving them up the newly created New York Times paperback bestsellers list.
