Saturday, January 5, 2008

Paperback 64: Hill Girl / Charles Williams (Gold Medal s1138)

Paperback 64: Gold Medal s1138 (9th, 1961)
Title: Hill Girl
Author: Charles Williams
Cover artist: Uncredited


Best things about this cover:

  • Ponderosa pine!
  • I didn't know creepy, hunched-over, wraith-like men could have such slick rockabilly haircuts.
  • Is this woman:
a. doing hillbilly calisthenics?
b. looking for her hillbilly contact lens?
c. disappointed at her inability to make a sandcastle out of hillbilly dirt? OR
d. holding perfectly still in the hopes that the elderly zombie behind her will mistake her for a pig trough and walk on by?
This book is in near perfect condition. Tiniest crease on the back cover, but otherwise, unread and extremely well preserved (why else would I buy a 9th printing, for god's sake?). This novel is by a more- than- respectable writer, though it appears to be trying to bank on the strange vogue in hillbilly sex stories that Erskine Caldwell somehow set in motion. Caldwell's novels were about much more than sex, but you'd never know it by looking at most of his paperback covers (you'll see his work in future write-ups).


Best things about this back cover:

  • I love how, out of nowhere, this guy's shirt attacks him.
  • You gotta love a book that's so willing turn underwear-free poverty into something steamy.

RP

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