Paperback 1105: Suburban High School / George Savage (Beacon B494F)

 Paperback 1105: Beacon B494F (PBO, 1962)

Title: Suburban High School

Author: George Savage

Cover artist: Uncredited

Condition: 6/10

Value: $12-15

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA (2024)]

Best things about this cover: 

• Suburban kink is a sizable sleaze paperback niche. Kinsey got everyone interested in the actual sex practices of ordinary people, and nothing shouts "ordinary" quite so strongly as the suburbs. Writers had fun imagining that "upstanding citizens," cultural conformists, and scolding moralists were actually horny hypocrites. And their kids, too!
• Her hair is doing very weird and unnatural things. Either that or she fell on a squirrel.
• "Oh Steve, this dead squirrel makes a terrible pillow. I feel sick. Rub my tummy."
• Seems like a Scandal, Sin and Sex curriculum would involve a lot of redundancy. I'd prefer some outdoor activities and maybe even some philosophy: Sin, Sun and Sartre! (if that's not the tagline of some philosophy conference somewhere, then why even be a philosopher?)
• Aside from her bralessness and semi-brazen side-boob, this cover is pretty tame. At first I thought there was some kind of bacchanalia going on in the background, but they're just dancing and roasting marshmallows, I think.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Does this even qualify as "advice?" And is that someone's idea of a "faculty" pun? 
• Hey, Frank Miller is in this? Exciting to get insight into his life pre-Dark Knight Returns.
• "A new teaching position"—is that also a pun!? 
• "Using women as weapons"—so, like battering rams?
• OK, I'm just gonna assume the whole last paragraph is meant to be SHOUTED.
• There is a catastrophic em dash failure in the last line here. This is the kind of "Scandal" that would bother me as a parent. "Yeah, yeah, the teens are having sex, whatever. Let's talk punctuation."

Page 123~

"Wait," I said. "Let me take off your panties."

I made it a ritual. I made taking her panties off a pagan rite that we would always practice. I drew them down slowly, inch by inch, over her hot buttocks."

Sorry, I wanted to go on, but I can't stop laughing at "hot buttocks." It's like if Hot Pockets were shaped like a butt. "Hot Buttocks!"

~RP

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Paperback 1104: The Storm and the Silence / David Walker (Lion Library LL33)

 Paperback 1104: Lion Library LL33 (1st ptg, 1955)

Title: The Storm and the Silence

Author: David Walker

Cover artist: George Erickson

Condition: 7/10

Value: $8

[acquired at a Minneapolis thrift store, Dec. 2024]

Best things about this cover: 

• I'm guessing she's the storm and he's the silence. Just a hunch.
• TFW your girlfriend catches you playing with your ...  hey, what the hell is that anyway? A doll? A flash? A candlestick? A cakepop?
• This guy has too much neck. Just ... too much square footage on this cover is given over to his beeftacular neck. Not at all proportional to his torso. Deeply disturbing. But not as disturbing as ...
• Her hand! What horrid accident befell her!? Is she giving him some weird sign with her right hand, or did she lose her index and middle fingers in a cheese slicer accident? The pinky is bent at a preposterous, unnatural angle. The thumb is so thin it barely counts as a digit. Just a complete nightmare, that hand.
• Hey, maybe he's holding (fondling) the case she keeps her fingers in?

Best things about this back cover: 

• Love it when women cackle while two hapless saps beat the shit out of each other. It's weirdly a thing in paperback cover art, women who get turned on by or are otherwise entertained by violence. Actually, she less amused than bored. "Ugh, this again. I'm just gonna sit here with my beaker of whiskey until you boys are through,"
• Captain Beefneck is pursued by zombie sheriff. That's a plot line I could get into.
• If I were Tam Diamond, the only secret I'd want to keep is that my momma named me after a Scottish hat

Page 123~

"Mine's a port," Maggie said at once. She was a hard-necked one. She'd need to be, always being the goose-gog, always being a drag on other folks.

The existence of goose-gog implies the existence of goose-magog. 

("goosegog" is the acid and prickly fruit of a shrub, fyi)

~RP

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Paperback 1103: I Take This Woman / Georges Simenon (Signet 1034)

 Paperback 1103: Signet 1034 (1st ptg, 1953)

Title: I Take This Woman

Author: Georges Simenon

Cover artist: Uncredited [Avati?]

Condition: 7/10

Value: $8

[acquired at a Minneapolis thrift store, Dec. 2024]

Best things about this cover: 

• "... and I take this man [whispers] to hell ..."
• Not everyone's cut out to join the new Coffee Generation. Sadly, there is the occasional casualty.
• This vacant-eyed lady is exquisite. From the light on her hair to that amazing dress with its snazzy shoulder bows, to the bangle on her wrist to her prayer-like hands to the blue arsenic paper she's squeezing in barely suppressed mariticidal glee. Particularly amazing when juxtaposed with the dramatic cascade of falling humanity on the left. Her stillness against their movement, her nearness against their farness, bigness against smallness. Lots happening in such a little space.
  
• I aspire to read more Simenon, particularly non-Maigret Simenon. But most of what I own is vintage and I don't want to hurt it :(

Best things about this back cover: 

• Simenon would ultimately write over 400 novels. This is one of his romans durs ("hard novels"). If you look up "roman dur," it seems that the term applies only to Simenon. He seems to have coined it to refer to his non-Maigret novels that explored "aberrant behavior and psychological torment" without the generic constraints of the roman policier.
• "To understand people is to love them"—such a weird motto, so weirdly presented. "It expresses my heart, so it must be ... in handwritten script. No, it must! I insist! Put a typewritten translation underneath if you must, but the people must see my handwriting to understand my sincerity. Now leave me alone while I smoke my pipe and stare out the window."
• The original title of this book was La verité sur Bébé Donge (The Trial of Bébé Donge). I guess Bébé Donge was just too much ... name for an American audience. As with much French cheese, American palates were simply not ready for Bébé Donge (which kind of sounds like a cheese, come to think of it: "The brie is OK, but have you tried the Bébé Donge!? Magnifique!")

Page 123~

    "Question: Did he refuse to let you have what you needed? Was he strict with you? Did he scold you? Did he beat you? Was he jealous, suspicious?

    "Answer: He never bothered his head about me."

~RP

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Paperback 1102: Her Cheating Heart / Lloyd Kevin (Monarch Books 286)

Paperback 1102: Monarch 286 (PBO, 1962)

Title: Her Cheating Heart

Author: Lloyd Kevin

Cover artist: Tom Miller

Condition: 7/10

Value: $15

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA]

Best things about this cover: 

• "C'mon, Joy, we've been over this—quit flashing the neighbors and make me some eggs or something, jeez..."
• Ah yes, her heart. Her cheating heart. This is an incredible painting of her heart. I could look at her heart all day.
• This is actually a great cover—very hard to draw this specific action (woman pulling nightgown over her head) in a way that looks natural, where everything stays proportionate and relative sexiness is maintained.
• Love the perpendicular contrast here: her action to his inaction, her ardor to his ennui. Sadly, those curtains are really killing the vibe. I can practically feel their rough, thick fabric and smell their cigarette mustiness. Between the curtains, the walls, the bedding, and his trousers/pajamas, I feel like I'm drowning in shades of drab. She looks great, the trailer park looks great, everything else looks like despair.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Oh cool, it's a Choose Your Own Adventure book!
• Trigg Melnor ... I'm dying. I can't breathe. Trigg... Melnor... Trigg Melnor, ladies and gentlemen. Trigg fucking Melnor. A man's man's man's man's name if there ever was one. What would I do? No, what would Trigg Melnor do? That is the question. That is the only question I will entertain in my life from now on. WWTMD, baby!
• I sorta like this red silhouette, although it takes her from sexy dame to blobby abstraction. Pretty recognizable human silhouette from the waistline down, but above that ... I dunno. Kinda looks like some form of animal life is getting involved. Like there's a koala maybe climbing up the right side, and a small dog (in profile) keeping lookout on the left. 

Page 123~

    Trigg tried a new approach. "Lu's old Chevvy—was it here last night?"

    The woman looked puzzled. "Ol shevi?"

    "Lu's car." He made steering-wheel motions.

Make steering-wheel motions—that's what Trigg Melnor did. And he was darned good at it, too.

~RP

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Paperback 1101: Slipping Beauty / Jerome Weidman (Avon 322)

 Paperback 1101: Avon 322 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: Slipping Beauty

Author: Jerome Weidman

Cover artist: [Ray Johnson]

Condition: 8/10 (cover kind of warps away from the pages at the corners a bit, but otherwise square and bright)

Value: $15

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA]

Best things about this cover: 

• When you're in the theater with your children and suddenly realize you've misread the marquee... "Mommy, that lady's not sleeping ... mommy ... can I get a cigarette holder?"
• This is really first-rate girl art. I love this dame: sexy, bored, comfortable in her sexy boredness. He does a good job with her body & profile but he does an even better job with her whole Attitude. High-end hardboiled.
• I like the palette on this cover, too. Real cool. The icy blue is unusual, and complements the pinkish lingerie and flesh tones really well.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Loooooove a good author photo, and this one is good. Gotta be smoking, of course, but I love how this is less author photo and more cover adornment. He's *this* close to looking like a logo.
• LOL those *eternal* ellipses in the New York Times quotation. Like the reviewer is thinking of something diplomatic to say and is like "... uh ... meaty? ..."
• "Cataloguer of heels"—if I were Weidman, I'd put that on my business card *immediately*

Page 123~ (from "Everybody Wants to Be a Lady")

Well, my husband Mac, he's the nicest fellah you ever wanna meet and all that, but when it comes to things like this, God bless him, if you don't put the words in his mouth, he don't know what to say.

Ah, to live in a time when people said "fellah" and spelled it with an "h." Glory days. 

~RP

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Paperback 1100: The Devil Wears Wings / Harry Whittington (Black Lizard [unnumbered])

Paperback 1100: Black Lizard [unnumbered] (1988)

Title: The Devil Wears Wings

Author: Harry Whittington

Cover artist: Kirwan

Condition: 7/10

Value: $15

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA]

Best things about this cover: 

• I'm always impressed by artists who can draw hands but this is maybe too much hand. Creepy levels of hand. Like the digits are five different personalities operating independently of one another, just flying their own freak flags...
• I guess the hand has smashed through ... a bank ... window? And that's where the bank keeps the cash? Not sure that's where I'd keep the cash, but what do I know?
• That ring is insane. If you've got a ring like that, it better give you superpowers or some shit, because otherwise, tacky.
• Harry Whittington rules. Totally reliable read. Never bad, sometimes great, paperback-pulp legend. Never read this one. Got this copy so cheap, and it's already so broken in, that I might just move this one to the top of the "To Be Read" pile...

Best things about this back cover: 

• Of all the blurby adjectives, "effective" has to be the least ... effective. Effective at what? Exciting me? Putting me to sleep? Give me something more.
• Love the name "Buz"—just gonna presume it's pronounced "booze"
• BANK CAPER! Yes, please, thank you. This is definitely going to the top of the pile

Page 123~

    She stared at me as if trying to see inside me. I felt my face going white and bloodless. All my blood seemed to be congealing in the pit of my stomach. 

    "Buz—you—didn't do it?"

Pretty sure Buz did it. Just a hunch.

~RP

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Paperback 1099: Savage Night / Jim Thompson (Black Lizard [unnumbered])

 Paperback 1099: Black Lizard [unnumbered] (1st ptg, 1985)

Title: Savage Night

Author: Jim Thompson

Cover artist: Kirwan

Condition: 8/10

Value: $15

[Autumn Leaves, Ithaca, NY (July 2024)]

Best things about this cover: 

• It's not a great cover, and I paid too much (by my cheap standards), but I can't help it, I gotta have these early (pre-Vintage takeover) Black Lizards. They feel like an origin story—my hardboiled origin story, the origin of the Hardboiled Revival. And Jim Thompson was definitely my gateway hardboiled author. I don't think I've read this one, though.
• This looks like the poster for a bad late-'80s straight-to-VHS erotic thriller
• That bullet looks like lipstick. Is it lipstick? Roll-on deodorant? It's giving bullet, but out of context and with no other object for scale, it just looks weird.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Bah, buncha quotes. Treating this book like it's legitimate literature, there's your first mistake. I don't need high-minded blurbs, I need lurid, turgid cover copy, and possibly more bad art.
• No idea what Cassill means here. Maybe he's talking about subject matter. I know he's not talking about quality. Or better not be.
• Too many ellipses in that Village Voice review. Suspicious, especially since it's merely descriptive and not particularly evaluative. Makes you wonder what they left out.

Page 123~

    I winked and jerked my head over my shoulder. "Just borrowed a drink of your whiskey, Mrs. Winroy. Had a sudden attack of stomach sickness."

    "It's perfectly all right, Carl." She gave me back the wink. "Sick at your stomach, huh? Well, that's what you get for eating with cops."

~RP

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Paperback 1098: Madball / Fredric Brown (Dell First Edition 2E)

 Paperback 1098: Dell First Edition 2E (PBO, 1953)

Title: Madball

Author: Fredric Brown

Cover artist: Griffith Foxley

Condition: 6-7/10

Value: $25

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA]

Best things about this cover: 

• If I were a lady I would buy these pajamas (both colors) and sleep in them every night. Not sure how I feel about the capes, but the pajamas are hot.
• Most of the stuff I was eyeballing at The Book Den was a little on the pricy side (for me—I tend to be cheap and will only pay collector prices if the book is Really desirable and/or the condition is very good). But this book ... I feel lucky to have found a copy in the wild at all. I mean, you can order it on abebooks or whatever, but where's the fun in that? And I still got it for less than it's probably worth. But beyond the whole question of "Value" there's the book, a beautiful early Dell First Edition by a masterful, versatile, often hilarious writer. The book's a bit worn, but it's tight and complete. Got that slightly soft, highly read feel. I love a well read paperback. A really broken-in paperback. This book just screams Everything Good About the Midcentury Paperback. The dings and and creases give it character. In short, I'm very happy with this purchase. Very.
• Griffith Foxley's covers are always so ... creamy. Just a great painter of people. The girls look great, but I'm especially fond of the dopey-looking guy in the hat just slack-jawed gawking at the girls, as well as the square-jawed huckster in the boater and bow tie, carnival-barking into the mic with his whole damn body.
• "They're all alive inside!" is so enigmatic! I mean, are these girls robots? Or had there been rumors going around that everyone who went into the tent earlier had been murdered? "Those guys are still alive, fellas! That screaming you heard ... a chicken, I think. Anyway, step right up!"

Best things about this back cover: 

• Copy writer is on point today! Working that alliteration like his job depended on it. "The pitchmen and the pickled punks, the cotton candy and the kewpie dolls ... all-night alibis!"
• Well that is *one* way to pluralize "carny."
• "Can I take you home? Where do you live?" "You know Frenzy?" "Sure." "Well it's close to the edge of there." "How close?" "Too close." "Hmm. You know, I think the buses are still running. Or ... can I call you a cab?"

Page 123~

He'd pushed the brakeman off the moving train in sudden anger, the same blind anger that had made him strike Sammy last night. And he hadn't really meant to kill the lush he rolled, just to make him unconscious would've been enough. But they were murders just the same. They'd have fried him for either one.

That's the problem with lushes. So fragile. The law should really take that into consideration, you know? But carceral state's gonna carceral state, amirite? Yeah I'm right. Hey, pass me the Madball, I'm gonna see if it'll tell me where to eat tonight ...

~RP

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Paperback 1097: A Holiday for Murder / Agatha Christie (Bantam 20968-X)

 Paperback 1097: Bantam 20968-X (28th ptg, 1980)

Title: A Holiday for Murder

Author: Agatha Christie

Cover artist: Tom Adams

Condition: 8/10

Value: $8

[Little Free Library outside the cafe I go to on Sundays]

Best things about this cover: 

• Look at this freak show. God I love weird covers. "What if the screaming head of Ebenezer Scrooge were flying through the air just bleeding holly berries, his voice shattering a wine glass that happens to be nearby for some reason?" "... That's it?" "Uh, no, no ... there's ... there's also a chair!" "Hmmm..." "And a statue!" "OK, sold!" 
• The great thing about Christie (well, one of them) is that she was such a guaranteed seller, such a book-moving juggernaut, that you could collect *only* Christie paperbacks and have no hope of ever "completing" your collection. And her career traverses all of paperback cover styles. She's a design universe unto herself.
• Murder for Christmas is better, not sure what they think they're doing on the retitle here.
• I pulled four Christies from the LFL (Little Free Library) outside Batch Coffee in Binghamton—that's the other great thing about Christie: like Gardner, her books are Everywhere. I read an early one, The Secret of Chimneys (1925), which featured not Poirot or Marple but someone named Superintendent Battle. He was a recurring character, appearing in five (!) of her novels between '25 and '44. The book was genuinely hilarious, closer to slapstick than most conventional  detective fiction. I honestly don't remember Christie being that funny. In fact, I recently read the much later At Bertram's Hotel, and it wasn't that funny. Funnyish, but nothing like the whizbang near-goofiness of The Secret of Chimneys.

Best things about this back cover: 

• "Violent Night, Holey Night" ('cause you're full of holes ... from all the bullets or stab wounds ... OK, OK, I'll work on it)
• Cannot believe they're just wasting all this valuable space. Why not make the font big and stupid, or add some of the old man's dumb kids? Something, anything. You can't get visually upstaged by barcodes, man! Come on.

Page 123~

"Perhaps it is better to speak frankly.”

It is the formal position of this blog that it is always better to do Everything "frankly." 

~RP

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Paperback 1096: Red Harvest / Dashiell Hammett (Perma Books M-3043)

Paperback 1096: Perma Books M-3043 (1st ptg, 1956)

Title: Red Harvest

Author: Dashiell Hammett

Cover artist: Lou Marchetti

Condition: 8/10

Value: $25

Best things about this cover: 

• More like Red Housecoat! Just an amazing garment.
• "Say 'candy cane' again. I dare you. I double dare you, motherfucker. Say 'candy cane' one more goddamn time!"
• The geometry of this interaction is mesmerizing. The hand triangle! Her left hand and her right cross and his "fear hand"—so much intense hand drama. Plus that look of complete contempt on her face ... god bless you, Lou Marchetti, king among cover artists!

Best things about this back cover: 

• Not sure whose idea it was to put the "-DER" over the "WHO-" but it was not a good one.
• This is a fairly succinct and vivid account of a thing that actually happens in the book. It does make me want to read the book. Nothing fancy going on back here, but in terms of drumming up interest in the story, mission accomplished.
• I miss laudanum. And ice picks. Do people still do laudanum and kill with ice picks? Inebriation and murder were just *better* in the old days, man.

Page 123~

    "Reno and his mob were in the can. Reno was Yard's pup, but he didn't mind crossing up his head-man. He already had the idea that he was about ready to take the berg away from Lew." I turned to Reno and asked: "Isn't that it?"

    He looked at me woodenly and said: "You're telling it."

    I continued telling it. 

I love how much Hammett loves hardboiled slang. Always got the tough-guy patter down pat. This is what makes Hammett so enthralling—a great ear for dialogue, which makes the whole criminal scene feel dramatic and authentic. 

~RP

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Paperback 1095: Man-Killer / Talmage Powell // Running Scared / Bob McKnight (Ace D-469)

 Paperback 1095: Ace D-469 (PBO / PBO, 1960)

Title: Man-Killer / Running Scared

Author: Talmage Powell / Bob McKnight

Cover artist: Rudy Nappi / Rudy Nappi (signature visible)

Condition: 8 or 9/10

Value: $30

Best things about this cover: 

• "You've had your breakfast of canned baked beans and coffee, now get out of my yellow house! Don't make me have to hold this gun properly!"
• She and that rifle sure seem, uh, friendly.
• This is one of the greatest fuck-off power poses I've ever seen on a paperback cover. I do believe she would, in fact, kill a man, possibly several.
• "The Lady's For Hanging" yeah good luck with that

Best things about this back cover: 

• Crawling Scared!
• "Murder On My Heels ... hey, where the hell are my heels, anyway? Must've lost 'em when I crawled through the swamp in my underwear oh well"
• The Ghost of Lee Marvin is very disappointed in your push-up technique

Page 123~ (from Man-Killer)

    The man paused at the mouth of the alley, a big, brawny shadow. I saw him stiffen. He was staring at the white blob of my face in the infiltrating light. 

    "Calhoun!"

    It was Giles Hustin.

OK, whatever suspense, whatever sense of impending terror you were trying to work up there was immediately and entirely dissipated by "It was Giles Hustin." Giles Hustin is not the name of a man who makes other men quake in fear. Giles Hustin is the name of a man who plays folk music every Thursday from 9 to 10 at The Rusty Skillet. 

Also, I'm worried about Calhoun's face.

~RP

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Paperback 1094: Mardios Beach / Oakley Hall (Perma Books M-4042)

 Paperback 1094: Perma Books M-4042 (1st ptg, 1956)

Title: Mardios Beach

Author: Oakley Hall

Cover artist: Tom Dunn

Condition: 8-9/10 (mild dings to the corners, else perfect)

Value: $15-20

Best things about this cover: 

• "Wilma!"
• "Stella!"
• He was a heel and worshiped only one god—SUSPENDERS!
• William Holden just woke up and wants to know where his goddamn shirt is!
• The lady looks sad and frightened, but actually she's just petting and gently whispering to a small mouse on her arm named Marvin. "I don't know why the mean man is yelling, Marvin. Maybe he's rehearsing a play. You want some cheese?"
• His left hand is so dramatic, perhaps because his right fingers are caught in the hinges of the door?

Best things about this back cover: 

• "Frank" alert! "Frank" alert. We have "Frank," I repeat, we have "Frank"! (And "Brutally frank" at that—that's the best kind of frank!)
• Now I'm wondering how louses (lice?) are typically made.
• From what I gather from this back-cover description, this is a novel about a guy who just punches people in the groin over and over. It's a hard life, but if you wanna be a louse, you gotta put in the work.

Page 123~

"All right. Quick! What's a woman's function?"

"Give up? The answer is: to Find My Damn Shirt! These suspenders are startin' to itch! Now open this door right now. Hey, is Marvin in there? You and Marvin better not be talkin' about me again ..."

~RP

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Paperback 1093: Black Friday / David Goodis (Black Lizard [unnumbered])

Paperback 1093: Black Lizard (unnumbered) (1st ptg, 1987)

Title: Black Friday

Author: David Goodis

Cover artist: Kirwan

Condition: 9 or 10/10 (they don't come any better—looks brand new)

Value: $25

Best things about this cover: 

• Well, sure, if you live in the sewer, every Friday is Black Friday
• A jug of wine, a single boot, a weird ... I'm gonna say 'coin purse' ... and thou ...
• It looks like a hand gun fossilized inside a coin purse, or handbag. Maybe if we could get a little more light in here...
• I love that Kirwan works his name into the objects in his paintings. No way you're gonna cheat him out of an artist credit! (check the neck on the bottle)
• I adore these late-80s, pre-Vintage takeover Black Lizards. They go through a white-spine and then a later black-&-gray spine incarnation. This one is of the white-spine variety:

• I'm so mad at the lack of complete vintage paperback checklists online. My kingdom for a one-stop shop featuring numbered lists of every paperback by ever imprint, including reprint houses like Black Lizard. Sigh. Everything out there is incomplete and/or hard to navigate—though I do like BookScans pretty well

Best things about this back cover: 

• Woof. Pretty bland back here.
• According to backyardchickens.com, pickled eggs are "100% absolutely horrible frozen." In case that Mike Wallington blurb was giving you any ideas.
• Ah, good, they gave Kirwan his artist credit after all. Nice.

Page 123~

"There's the other dog. Over there, Charley. You looking?"

"No," Charley said. "You look."

"Aw, don't, Charley. Don't be that way."

"What way?" Charley asked mildly. "I'm just telling you to look, that's all. I want you to have a good look."

"Jesus," Rizzio said. And then he sobbed it. "Oh Jesus—"

The dog is a Doberman and the Doberman ... seems to have had a mild disagreement with Charley and Rizzio's partner, Mattone. The phrase "there was little of his throat remaining" makes an appearance. I'm usually a "root-for-the-dog" kind of person, and since these guys shot a dog a few pages back, I don't feel so bad for Mattone, frankly.

~RP

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Paperback 1092: The League of Frightened Men / Rex Stout (Avon 20)

 Paperback 1092: Avon 20 (PBO, 1942)

Title: The League of Frightened Men

Author: Rex Stout

Cover artist: I.N. Steinberg

Condition: 6.5/10 (well worn but tight and sturdy)

Value: $25

Best things about this cover: 

• That's a honey of a cover, Mrs. Dietrichson (since this lady's hair is almost as bonkers as Barbara Stanwyck's in Double Indemnity, I had to make the reference; had to)
• Lacquered. That is how I believe you'd describe ... well, everything about this woman. Those eyebrows are ready for battle. And that is the side-iest sideeye I ever saw. Lethal.
• Dig that spooky, wavy title font. Man, they do not make 'em like they used to. This is a swell-looking book, stem to stern
• Floating heads! I live for the floating heads motif, especially when the woman surrounded by the heads is completely untroubled by the heads, like "what do you suckers want?" See also ...

And now the back cover ...

Best things about this back cover: 

• Meh. Your standard Shakespeare-head stuff. Boilerplate. 
• "Shakespeare! Get yer hot pink Shakespeare, here! Just two bits!'
• "GOOD BOOKS" but merely "Great Authors"; even capital letters were subject to war rationing
• Wait, did books used to be hard to open??? "How do you work this thing!!?"

Page 123~

    "For God's sake keep still. Don't move your head." I looked at Wolfe and said, "Somebody's tried to cut her head off. I can't tell how far they got."

    She spoke to Wolfe. "My husband. He wanted to kill me."

Well, she's talking, so as attempted beheadings go, you gotta put this one down as a failure. Still, she does bleed every time she moves her head, so it had dramatic results, at least. I found the last Stout I read (Fer-de-Lance) a little (lot) ridiculous, despite the great characterization, but I gotta say this p. 123 bit has got me re-interested in Wolfe World. Might give it another go.

~RP

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Paperback 1091: A Hasty Bunch / Robert McAlmon (Popular 445-04314)

 Paperback 1091: Popular 445-04314 (1st, ~1977)

Title: A Hasty Bunch    

Author: Robert McAlmon

Cover artist: [Uncredited]

Condition: 9

Value: $20

Best things about this cover: 

• Look, full disclosure, I have never done acid, but this is what I imagine the world looks like. Kind of a pleasant psychedelic jumble with rainbow streaks. Love the horizontal lines coming out the back of the main guy's head, and then running through the entire middle of the painting. Completely unnaturalistic and Of The Time (the '70s). My favorite figure is the guy on the far right, who looks kinda like if the Joker were a cruise director.
• The typewriter, equally great, but equally disorienting, in its own way. The keyboard makes sense to a point but somewhere east of the "F" key things start to buckle and by the time you get all the way to the right its a monstrous free-for-all. Oh, I'm not realizing that what I'm seeing is a hand hovering over the keys on the right side. Who Types Like That!?
• I got this book solely because of the cover. I didn't start out collecting anything from the '70s, but, well, time has passed (30 years next year since I started my collection), and the '70s are now fair game, especially when a book is in near-perfect condition and just sitting there on the $1 shelf.
• Sometime in the '70s, Southern Illinois UP reprinted some long out-of-print American books, and then ended up partnering with Popular Library here to release a number of them as mass-market paperbacks: their Lost American Fiction Series. This book is part of that series. There are 15 other books listed, with intriguing titles like THE PROFESSORS LIKE VODKA, CUBICAL CITY, and THEY DON'T DANCE MUCH. I am ... curious. This particular book has an afterword by writer Kay Boyle. Here's the full list of everything Southern Illinois Press brought back.
• I'm also curious about this cover artist, whom I love, and whose name I don't know. I believe he's also the artist on this early-'70s Bantam cover:

[You can see the resemblance, I hope. If you know who it is, kindly holler.]

And now the back cover...

Best things about this back cover: 

• Telling it how it really is and especially "sexual candor" are always big selling points for paperbacks. Not just truth, but (as the front cover says) "naked truth." What fun is the truth if it's wearing clothes. People want stuff that's sexily truthful. Hornily honest. In a word: frank. (I wish that word were somewhere on these book covers—my favorite cover copy euphemism; been a while since I've seen it)
• This book was originally published in 1922, and even then it was barely published at all: "Reprint of a Contact Press edition privately printed by the author in Dijon, 1922."
• This books is a collection of short stories by an ex-pat who apparently hung with Hemingway and Joyce. "Prophetic genius"? That is a big claim. Let's see what p. 123 has to say: 

Page 123~ (from "A Business Family")

"It doesn't do a place any good to have a person die in it. We ought to have insisted on her being taken to a sanatorium."

Mrs. Sturgeon runs the "Rest an Hour Kosher yearround hotel," and one of her guests, Mrs. Davis, has just done her the great disservice of dying in her establishment. Hugely inconvenient, the dead.

~RP

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Paperback 1090: Operation Intrigue / Walter Hermann (Avon 706)

 Paperback 1090: Avon 706 (PBO, 1956)

Title: Operation Intrigue

Author: Walter Hermann (aka Walter Wager)

Cover artist: Uncredited, dammit

Condition: 8/10 

Value: $10

Best things about this cover: 

• "Operate!?" "It takes a very steady hand..."
• I feel like Pensive McGee there is about to exclaim, "Hey, what if we split this into two different games: Battleship ... and Operation!" "You mean, 'Operation Intrigue', of course." "No, there's no intrigue. There's just this goofy looking guy on an operating table and you try to remove his various body parts without getting an electric shock." "O ... K, but can I still use my baton? I must insist that this be a baton-based game. Look how fun it is, pointing and pushing, doo doo doo..." And somehow this all leads to a war in Southeast Asia 10 years later.
• I love the hard edge dividing the foreground from the background of this painting. It's like the guy on the right is mad at the people on the left 'cause their side of the painting is boring as hell. "I'm over here looking like the baddest hardboiled motherfucker this side of Flatbush, and those dorks are playing board games? Nah, this won't stand. This is my cover. They gotta go."
• Seriously, that's a great-looking fist and a perfectly level gun. I like how the guy is literally too big for the frame. "They think these little white lines can hold me? Me and my fedora will show 'em, we'll show 'em all!"

Best things about this back cover: 

• Wow, that is ... quite a "7". They're really leaning into that numerical visual concept. Big, fat Pop Art-lookin' "7." Nothing scarier, nothing more ... intriguing ... than a "7," that's for sure. 
• You got a cool name like OPERATION MINOTAUR and you decide to call your book OPERATION ... INTRIGUE? INTRIGUE? Not exactly evocative of anything or memorable in anyway. And then you put a "7" on the back? Real missed Minotaur opportunities here, is what I'm saying.
• That third paragraph reads like a question on a standardized math test. "If five men and two women are checked by four counter-espionage agencies, how many Minotaurs etc."

Page 123~

He had done this massive thing. He felt so strong and proud and clever. Then he thought of the women's clubs and creamed chicken luncheons he would never have to face again, looked at the handsome muscular sailors, and smiled. They were fine healthy lads. They were his friends.

I'm just gonna assume the "massive thing" is coming out, good for him, Happy Pride, everyone!

~RP

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Paperback 1089: Fashions for Carol / Nell Marr Dean // Barbara Ames, Private Secretary / Jeanne Judson (Ace Double F-112)

 Paperback 1089: Ace F-112 (1st ptg / PBO, 1961)

Title: Fashions for Carol / Barbara Ames, Private Secretary

Author: Nell Marr Dean / Jeanne Judson

Cover artist: [Rudy Nappi] / Uncredited

Condition: 7/10

Value: $10

Best things about this cover: 

• See, the cover *wants* you to believe she's sizing him up as a romantic prospect, but I know she's really plotting how to take his job, or kill him. Or both. Enjoy your three-martini lunch, Steve. It may be your last.
• I love how Rudy Nappi was like "OK, if I you're not gonna let me do full-body art, I'm giving Everything I Got to this girl's hair!" The results are astonishing. Massive, swirling, architecturally impeccable.
• Again, I say, to no one in particular, that there's No Way she can actually see him from this angle. Artists get away with this physics-defying over-the-shoulder glance All The Time and I hate that it works. Even my brain is like "yes, she is giving him a sly sidelong glance" when I know that it is Physically Impossible unless there is a mirror somewhere off-screen. Stupid gullible brain.
• Steve's mad that he has to work somewhere so pink. "It's not manly is all I'm sayin'..." he mumbled

Best things about this back cover: 

• "'Just a small town girl ... living in a big time job' —nah, that doesn't rhyme. How 'bout "Just a small town girl ... brunette hair refused to curl'? No. '... runnin' from some guy named Earl'? Dammit, words are hard!" [Steve Perry writing "Don't Stop Believin'," probably]
• The art is much worse on this side of the book, but I want to live in this blue world of mid-century office furniture.
• I like Barbara. She's like "I refuse to pose sexy for you or the undertaker behind me or anyone. Now if you're quite through ogling me, I have work to do." Respect.
• What is that guy doing with his hand!? Flashing gang signs? Holding a sack of potatoes to his sternum? I wouldn't look at him either, Barbara.

Page 123~ (from Fashions for Carol]

    He pretended toughness. "But when we're married, you've got to come to every game. And you've got to be a good Texas Democrat."

    She quivered with a happiness she had never known before.

Wow, the orgasmic power of the phrase "Texas Democrat," who knew? 

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

Paperback 1088: Pale Horse, Pale Rider / Katherine Anne Porter (Signet CP137)

 Paperback 1088: Signet CP137 (1st Signet Classic, 1962)

Title: Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Author: Katherine Anne Porter

Cover artist: Milton Glaser

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5-10

[Autumn Leaves, Ithaca, NY, June 2024]

Best things about this cover: 

• Sometimes the $1 shelves outside the bookstore cough up things of beauty
• I bought this solely for the amazing Milton Glaser cover. I'd've bought it on his name alone (he's a distinctive and pioneering graphic designer); huge bonus that the cover image happens to be truly stunning
• "We need to take some xrays" "Can I do it on horseback?" "Of course"
• [Extreme Sugarloaf voice] "Green-haired lady, horse-ass lady..."

Best things about this back cover: 

• I'm guessing this has nothing to do with the Clint Eastwood movie Pale Rider (1985). He was probably cool with the Pale Rider part, but the Pale Horse was a bridge too far. "I'll be damned if I'm gonna be upstaged by a damned horse. The horse is a regular horse color or I walk!"
• Ooh, novellas (i.e. "short novels"). You don't these those much these days. Perfect size!
• Noon wine? I'm more a 5 o'clock cocktail person. If you see me drinking noon wine, I am on Va-Ca-Tion or else I need help.

Page 123~

(from "Pale Horse, Pale Rider")

No, she did not find herself a pleasing sight, flushed and shiny, and even her hair felt as if it had decided to grow in the other direction.

Been there, sister.

~RP

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Paperback 1087: Pal Joey / John O'Hara (Bantam F2892)

 Paperback 1087: Bantam F2892 (3rd ptg, 1965)

Title: Pal Joey

Author: John O'Hara

Cover artist: [Uncredited]

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5

[Autumn Leaves bookstore, Ithaca, NY, May 2020]

Best things about this cover: 

• Yes, this cover is very very ... let's say beige? ... but what a great sense of geometry. It's a picture of recognizable things, but it also steers toward abstraction, pure shape and color. That red rectangle colliding with that amazing right triangle formed by the bottom of the page, the stair railing, and the man's back and cane. It's got the heat of desire mixed with the austerity of geometry. And a large houseplant of some kind! All the visual food groups!
• Her dress is hot. Giant polka dots or white flowers or whatever that pattern is—very pretty, very summery
• But back to the houseplant. Is it supposed to look like that? It looks, well, frankly, dead. Amazingly bold choice to put that single stem directly in front of her face. Like, they are hiding the least amount that they could be hiding. The appearance of discretion with none of the actuality. 

Best things about this back cover: 

• Can't say the image improves with repetition.
• There were three kinds of women to Joey. Joey had just two things on his mind. Joey was no good with numbers bigger than, say, five.
• Very impolite to just leave the hat and cane there. Tripping hazard. But Joey does not have a brain capable of considering the wellbeing of others. It's just dames and success up there. He's already forgotten he even owns a hat and cane.

Page 23~ (there is no p. 123! book's only 120pp. long!)

Well the train pulled out and that is the story of how I am now in Chi. I am singing for coffee and cakes at a crib on Cottage Grove Ave. here. It isnt much of a spot but they say it is lucky as four or five singers and musicians who worked here went from here to big things and I am hoping.

[sic] on that "isnt" there. The book is epistolary, a series of letters to a guy back home named Ted, and the letters are full of all Joey's idiosyncratic spellings. "Briefley," "et cetra," that sort of thing. "I am singing for coffee and cakes at a crib on Cottage Grove Ave." is a wonderfully musical line. Now I want coffee and cakes, so if you'll excuse me... 

~RP

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Paperback 1086: Pipe Night / John O'Hara (Bantam H3104)

 Paperback 1086: Bantam H3104 (1st Bantam, 1966)

Title: Pipe Night

Author: John O'Hara

Cover artist: Avati or a good impersonation thereof

Condition: 7    

Value: $7

[Autumn Leaves, Ithaca, NY, May 2024]

Best things about this cover: 

• Absolutely insane depth-of-field. Amazing that you can get so much dramatic weight out of a dude that tiny. Also, I like that I (apparently) *am* the dude. That is a mirror, right? Hey, I look good in a tux! (a claim that cannot be disproven by this cover—the power of tininess!)
• I like the subtle nightmarish quality of this cover. Innocuous situation, but it's floating in pure dreamlike darkness. Also, the mirror looks like it might be a portal to hell. Is that a sexy over-the-shoulder glance, or a mischievous "I'm going through the Infernal Door to live with Satan now" glance.

Best things about this back cover: 

• Tag yourself, I'm FURTIVE ADULTERERS (jk, honey)
• Having fun saying FURTIVE ADULTERERS five times fast
• Public Lies and Private Hells—always a winning formula

Page 123~

[from "Where's the Game?"]

"I'm a salesman."

"Selling what? Papers?" said Wilkey.

"Furniture," said Garfin.

"Furniture. Well, Garfin, I don't want any," said Wilkey.

"That's your privilege," said Garfin.

"That's right. It's my privilege. And you know what else is my privilege? My privilege is I don't like your kisser."

If this were a western, that would be the line that cleared the saloon...

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]