Saturday, March 30, 2013

Paperback 627: When Strangers Meet / Robert Bloomfield (Pocket Books 1171)

Paperback 627: Pocket Books 1171 (1st ptg, 1957)

Title: When Strangers Meet
Author: Robert Bloomfield
Cover artist: Robert Abbott (is this the same guy as "Robert Abbett"—experts, please advise)

Yours for: $12

PB1171

Best things about this cover:
  • The palette on this thing is insane. It's like the painting is badly rusted. I love it.
  • I love how the cover is dynamic and violent but his eyes are still and icy and looking right at you.
  • Not usually a fan of cursive fonts, but this one has a combination of sass and formality that I really like. 
  • Everyone dressed better in 1957.

PB1171bc

Best things about this back cover:
  • I love how they tell you the amount down to the penny.
  • One lasting impact that "Rocky IV" had on the world is that I can't take the name "Dolph" seriously.
  • It's a crossword solver's delight through the middle of this cast: ANSEL! NELDA! ODON! Those are all names built for heavy grid action.
  • How can you not love the word "hoofer"?
  • Apparently there was a time when one could be a "mysterious young uranium prospector" and no one would bat an eye.
  • If Odon Kovach "crossed the border illegally, the first question that presents itself is: which border, exactly?

Page 123~

But his gross, florid features revealed nothing of his thoughts. He was still taciturn, still dour and surly.

Robert Bloomfield scored in the 87th percentile on his SAT Verbal. Or so I'd infer from this passage.

~RP

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10 comments:

Jean said...

Mysterious young uranium prospector is my new job title.

Karl said...

My favorite thing about that cover: The way the folds of the woman's blouse (stretched over her ultra-pointy 1950s breast) all converge EXACTLY on the muzzle of the gun for a subliminal "blammo!" explosion effect.

I wonder if this artist was the first to think of this ingenious sex + violence device, and I wonder why it hasn't been copied in a million other pulp/paperback covers.

Random White Guy said...

Add my name to the list. I'd plug any one of ya for $100,000 dollars and no cents.

Anonymous said...

Definitely looks like Robert Abbett to me. "Abbott" is clearly a misspelling.

Michael5000 said...

Features revealing nothing of his thoughts? Taciturn, dour and surly? That's got to be Ansel the prospector. That guy watches everything... but says nothing.

NomadUK said...

I distinctly recall an I Love Lucy episode (a two-parter?) where they all went out to the desert southwest to prospect for uranium -- so apparently it was at one time quite the thing to do! sort of a latter-day gold rush, with Geiger counters.

NomadUK said...

And, yeah, those Maidenform bras -- lifting and separating! You could hang your coat on those things.

McClaverty said...

I agree with 'anonymous'; Warren attributes the cover to Abbott, but that is definitely Robert Abbett's signature.

Keir said...

Great cover; just had to give my thumbs-up.
Could also add that here in Germany, it'll take more than a slew of Rockies to remove the stigma of "Dolph."

A said...

I've done quite a bit of reading items from the 1950's as well as listening to radio programs from the era, and it was a hobby of sorts to go uranium prospecting in the southwest. NomadUK is absolutely right. It was considered a new "Gold Rush" of sorts. I have to say, I'm glad that hobby has gone to the wayside. Novices or shady characters with uranium does not seem like the best idea.