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

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

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

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

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

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

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

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

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]

Paperback 1085: Frenchman's Creek / Daphne du Maurier (Pocket Books 50078)

 Paperback 1085: Pocket Books 50078 (6th ptg, 1964)

Title: Frenchman's Creek

Author: Daphne du Maurier

Cover artist: [Mort Engle?] [Uncredited]

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5

[Riverow Books, Owego, NY, May 2024]

Best things about this cover: 

• When they're underpaying you for your artwork and you're like, "Fuck it, I'm making this one 65% white bedsheet. You want naked ladies and piratical finery, Pay Me!"
• Even the cover copy writer seems to be quiet-quitting: "Let's see. How 'bout: 'This is a novel about this kind of person and that kind of person'? ... yeah, that's good, lunchtime."
• What the hell is on her head. He's got the classic pirate kerchief, but she ... I don't know what she has. Some kind of feathered headdress. It's like she's on a Vegas showgirl on a quick break. "Ma chérie, can't you take off this silly h—" "Can it, Pierre, I've only got 15 minutes, let's do this!"
• I want this cover to be by Mort Engle, only because I can see a signature on the far left side, on the edge of the bed, that kinda looks like "Engle." It's not exactly his style, but it is his general era. Most of his stuff doesn't have a visible signature, though, so ... maybe not. [UPDATE: it’s probably the work of artist James Neil Boyle. (signatures match)]

Best things about this back cover: 

• LOL "fat and stupid husband," yes, do not mince words, drag him!
• Mmm, lonely and mysterious Cornwall estate. Peak Gothic locale.
• Whoa, she actually becomes a pirate! Livin' outside the "bounds of convention and propriety!" Atta girl!

Page 123~

The foolish wager of the wig came to her mind, and she realized then that the Frenchman must have known that Godolphin would be staying with Philip Rashleigh in Fowey that night, and that side by side with the capture of the ship he had planned the seizing of Godolphin's wig.

OK, first of all, that "Godolphin" / "Philip Rashleigh" / "Fowey" trifecta had me howling with fanciful historical-romance name overload, and second of all, how is this novel not called The Seizing of Godolphin's Wig. Something should be called The Seizing of Godolphin's Wig. It's a Restoration-era sex farce at the very least.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]