Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Paperback 1169: Wild Is the Fawn / Roberta Everhart (Paragon P156)

Paperback 1169: Paragon P156 (PBO, 1962)

Title: Wild Is the Fawn
Author: Roberta Everhart
Cover artist: Uncredited (familiar, but ... ?)

Condition: 7/10
Value: $20

Best things about this cover: 
  • Oh, yeah, that's the stuff—the fully-clothed aftermath of illicit sex! That's why I'm a collector!
  • Milly is so worked up she's breaking branches.
  • Despite being very ... verdant, this cover seems pretty innocuous, except for the dark-haired lady's right hand. I'm not even sure that is her right hand. It's monstrously out of proportion to her body. Looks like a prop hand that dropped from the sky and landed on his shoulder. .
  • "Uh ... Shawn?" "Uh, yeah?" "Have I told you about ... my hand?" "Uh ..."
  • This is the only Paragon Book that I own. It's shockingly similar to all the Sanford Aday-published sleaze imprints (Saber / Vega / Fabian) coming out of Fresno, CA in the late '50s/early '60s. Same cheap, flimsy, almost magazine-stock cover, same frequently-used cover artist, same extremely and hilariously dumb sex scenario. I barely believe this is a real imprint, but there are five other Paragon Books listed at the back of this book (including Male for Sale and Her Third Man), and I can find some of them on the internet, so ... guess it's real. But as imprints go, I have to believe this is one of the more obscure ones.
Best things about this back cover: 
  • OK, first question: why did Milly go to the swamp that day? Just an avid swamp-goer? Hiding a body? Milly is instantly fascinating. 
  • "I mean, what was Milly gonna do, not spy on them? Come on."
  • "I'll have what she's having" Milly muttered into the leaves of the bush that was the only thing separating her from the freaky swamp sex she'd stumbled upon during one of her frequent and totally normal swamp escapades...
Page 123~
Merely reflecting on the heights of delight I had reached with George made my thighs quiver and jerk, and I felt pains of passion arise in the pit of my stomach. My mind became a turmoil. Damn it! Damn it! I want to be a wife and a mother, but the woman has gotten out of hand. I must be a woman, too. And if not with my husband, then with someone else. I didn't make this body like it is with its insatiable desires. I only live in it, and it seems I have no control over what it does. Please, God, you must forgive me.
God: "Wait, go back to your thighs. Jerk? Really? They're not designed for that, you know."

~RP

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2 comments:

  1. It might help to have some background to the plot. I'm assuming it's a derivative version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Demetrius analogue will soon arrive, everything will get sorted out, and they'll all head happily back to Athens.

    Thanks!

    kj (Bardfilm)

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  2. At first glance, this looks pretty innocuous. Sort of neighbor lady spying on the newlyweds next door. If you even notice Milly, who blends so well into the foreground.

    But there's something odd about the look on Evaline's face (going by the back copy). She looks... concerned? Maybe she's afraid he'll throw out his back. But then you see the hand. I think that's Thing from the Addams Family.

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