Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Paperback 485: Rage in Heaven / James Hilton (Avon [39])

Paperback 485: Avon [39] (unnumbered) (1st ptg, 1943)

Title: Rage in Heaven
Author: James Hilton
Cover artist: Uncredited (I have "Gonzales" written on the tag ... don't know why)

Yours for: $14


RageHeaven.EarlyAvon

Best things about this cover:
  • "Hey, nice uraeus" (try saying that to the next pretty lady you see — see where it gets you)
  • For a very early paperback, this one is unusually realistic (and sexy) in its depiction of the female form. You don't start seeing real GGA (Good/Great Girl Art) until the late '40s. In the early years of mass market paperbacks, the cover art tends to be more abstract, or more in the vein of magazine illustration. Paperbacks were still concerned with aligning themselves with good (i.e. edifying, or at least inoffensive) books. The selling power of the Lurid had not yet impressed itself on the paperback sellers of America. It didn't take long.
  • Looks like that soft shoe guy is getting zapped by the laser goggles of some space monster.


RageHeavBC

Best things about this back cover:
  • Shakespeare Head Say: Reading is GOOD for you.
  • Wartime book. Wartime message. 

Page 123~

She felt then that he, Ward, was her husband, and that Philip, weak and puny on the bed in the next room, was their child, whom they had watched over and tended together. 

That's some awkward role-playing game they've got going there.

~RP

8 comments:

Tulse said...

This seems to be Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips James Hilton. The title usually shows up in his published woks as Dawn of Reckoning.

I don't like back covers like this one, because now I'm damned curious as to what the book is actually about.

Anonymous said...

What book is "difficult" to open?

John Flanagan said...

"Compact to carry or store in clothing or bags."

Steal this book!

Cole said...

If our soldiers needed books that were "easy to open" I'm surprised we won the damned war.

If they have great authors, shouldn't they also have great books? Or is their business model "Hey, want to read the rejects of such authors as Balzac, Shakespeare and the like which haven't seen the light of day in over 100 years? Then we're your publishing house!"

DrSchnell said...

I like that they're marketing books by letting you know that they can be stored in bags. Wow! Who'd've thunk it?

Michael5000 said...

Our books have four selling points! They don't weigh much! They're small! They don't resist opening like SOME books we could name! And... damn, what's the other selling point again?

Titus Groan said...

"Our books have four selling points! They don't weigh much! They're small! They don't resist opening like SOME books we could name! And... damn, what's the other selling point again?"

They are ...
fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.

Cole said...

See my previous comment as an example of why we all should use the Oxford Comma.