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]
- 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
3 comments:
Now, that's a cover. This might be one of the best cover women you've ever posted. She's so perfect, I didn't even notice the fancy jewelry in her hands on the first look. It makes her boredom even more perfect, like she's appraising the necklace and finding it just barely acceptable.
SLIPPING BEAUTY & OTHER STORIES: ORIGINALLY TITLED "THE HORSE THAT COULD WHISTLE 'DIXIE'" Paperback – January 1, 1952
Cover says 28 other stories. Beauty wins, whistling horse finishes out of the money.
Weidman cowrote the book for “Fiorello!”. This blog is truly a tour through forgotten 20th century writers.
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