Paperback 1139: Impervious to Pain / David Malcolm (Venus Library V-1070-T)

Paperback 1139: Venus Library V-1070-T (PBO, 1972)

Title: Impervious to Pain

Author: David Malcolm

Cover artist: photo cover

Condition: 9/10

Value: $25-30

[Newest addition to the Doug Peterson Collection]

Best things about this cover: 

• What's the opposite of "sans serif"?
• I can feel that bed cover, as well as those curtains, and it's not pleasant. I'm starting to itch.
• I cannot tell a lie, that is fantastic underwear. Not the boring nightgown—the orange paisleyesque panties. This cover is dead without them. Even the cat o' nine tails wouldn't be able to save it from the overwhelming motel beige.
• The subtitle of this book is "Case Studies in Sado-masochism." Improbably, it looks virtually unread.

Best things about this back cover: 

• So much text, much of it deeply troubling. For instance, "slave" and "salve" on the same back cover? My brain hates it. And "moist"!? Worse, "Moist, most," one right after the other. It's like this back cover copy is running its fingernails down the blackboard of my mind.
• This book runs somewhat outside my normal collecting time frame parameters (i.e. it's post-1970), and it is (therefore?) way more explicit, both inside and out, than most of the "sleaze" books I own. 
• "Quiver" twice!? I'm telling you: nails + chalkboard.
• "Her moist, most sensitive parts" and "his naked masculinity" are somehow both much sillier and much dirtier-sounding than their more straightforward, less euphemistic counterparts. 

Page 123~

Then she flipped her long almost air-tight skirt over her head, saying, "And if you have trouble breathing down there, I'll like that, too."

Never mind the seemingly impossible logistics of "flipping" an "air-tight skirt" over your head, this is a great line. A colorful detail. A fantastic bit of dialogue. I legitimately laughed out loud.

~RP

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Paperback 1064: The Big Four / Agatha Christie (Dell 0562)

Paperback 1064: Dell 0562 (1st New Dell Edition, 1972)

Title: The Big Four

Author: Agatha Christie

Cover artist: Uncredited

Condition: 9/10

Value: ~$10

Best things about this cover:

• These objects-only covers are fairly common for Christie paperbacks of the '60s and '70s. I think (William) Teason is the name of the artist I know who has done several like this. Maybe this cover is Teason's work too, dunno. Anyway, it's very evocative ... of a certain ... criminal ... milieu ... but it's not terribly exciting.
• The pearl-handled gun is gorgeous, as is the ornamental key. The noose is awfully, uh, circular. It's all so artfully arranged, like evidence that you just know is planted.
• I'm curious about this font. And about the weird colors ... beige / yellow / beige ... that's one way to make sure the yellow doesn't pop. Then again, publishers have clearly learned to value marketing over art at this point, as Christie's name is big feature, and everything else merely decorative.
• I want all the people in the photographs to be Doing Something! Making out, killing each other, something! To this cover's credit, I am curious to know how all this detritus fits into narrative form.

Best things about this back cover:

• Back Cover Copy in C[heap pun] Minor
• Wait, four men? I thought the photos on the cover were the Big Four, but one of those was a woman, so ... now I'm *really* intrigued (I've only ever read a few Christie titles in my life, if I'm being honest)
• Bizarre to make such a superhero out of Poirot and yet depict him Nowhere on your cover. 

Page 123~

"Ernest Luttrell. Son of a North Country parson. Always had a kink of some kind in his moral make-up"

I am quite sure that what Christie means by "kink" and what I mean by "kink" are somewhat if not quite different from one another, and yet ... one can hope.

~RP

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Paperback 976: Century of the Manikin / E.C. Tubb (Daw No. 18)

Paperback 976: Daw Books No. 18 (PBO, 1972)

Title: Century of the Manikin
Author: E.C. Tubbs
Cover artist: Jack Gaughan

Estimated value: $8-12
Condition: 8/10

Best things about this cover:

• The latest anti-Hillary ad is pretty intense.
• Not sure whom I'm supposed to support here, but I'm going with Tron-Medea over the nameless faceless horde of enrobed white dudes. History says: roll the dice on the tough broad.
• Those spaceships are super-cool. Simple design, spooky design.

Best things about this back cover:

• "Drugs that controlled warlike emotions"—Ask your doctor about Negroni
• Of course the feminist doesn't *really* want peace, she just wants to bitch you to death, [sigh] [shakes head] women, amirite? [trips over shoelaces]
• You can't make an omelet without shattering a few civilizations.

Page 123~

A remarkable woman, he mused, leaning back, the skin sagging on his heavy features. Hard and strong and, in a way, ruthless, but they were qualities he could admire. A person who had fought all her life and was still fighting. And was still doomed, he thought bleakly. The disease from which she had run could not be cured.

I really didn't need this just 7 hours before the debate. I really didn't.

~RP

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Paperback 955: The Way It Is / Curt Flood (Pocket Books 78188)

Paperback 955: Pocket Books 78188 (1st ptg, 1972)

Title: The Way It Is
Author: Curt Flood
Cover artist: photo cover

Estimated value: $20-30
Condition: 7/10

Best things about this cover:

• We now interrupt this cover to bring you the telekinetic powers of Curt Flood!
• It's like Curt willed the ball to stop with his mind. "If you want the game to start again, I have some ... demands."
• Curt Flood with the rarely seen Self-Photobomb!
• This cover seems both ill-conceived (you're blocking the shot!) and genius (Curt Flood will not be denied!)
• Vida Blue's intro is good. Also, Vida Blue is one of the greatest baseball names of all time.

Best things about this back cover:

• Man, people are throwing a lot of shade at Jim Bouton.
• Back when a "sensitive, artistic black man" was apparently some kind of wonder to the NYT...
• Miguel Cabrera's breakfast costs $100,000. All ballplayers should tithe to the Church of St. Flood.

Page 123~

Having established the plan unilaterally, without bargaining of any kind, they felt free to modify it at will. Above all, they felt free to keep the TV and radio money for themselves. This disturbed the players.

~RP

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Paperback 668: Fiona / Catherine Gaskin (Fontana 2958)

Paperback 668: Fontana 2958 (1st ptg, 1972)

Title: Fiona
Author: Catherine Gaskin
Cover artist: Uncredited [Renato Fratini]

Yours for: Not For Sale (gift to the collection from Laurie Gagne)


Best things about this cover:

• The drugs they gave her for her root canal were really, really good.
• Are you there God, it's me, sexy drugged-out plantation lady.
• If you can figure out what the hell is happening in the background with the people and the running and what not, you have better eyes and interpretive skills than I do.

Best things about this back cover:

• This novel should've been called "Dangerous Currents." That, or "Plantation Fantasies To Masturbate By."
• It's pretty impressive how this description manages to make "emancipation" seem like a species of orgasm.
• Woman's Journal—the journal read by just one woman.

Page 123~

"Before he was ill—before Maria and that rotten weed she gave him to smoke—that, and the rum—he was a clever manager."

Plantation romances are not really my cup of tea, but I am suddenly interested in Maria and her rotten weed.

~RP

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Paperback 633: The Big Knockover / Dashiell Hammett (Vintage V-829)

Paperback 633: Vintage V-829 (1st ptg, 1972)

Title: The Big Knockover
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Cover artist: photo cover

Yours for: $10


Best things about this cover:

• There's a '70s font if there ever was one. All puffy and whimsical and weird. Especially like the dots on the "I"s — little balls rolling back and forth in a half-pipe. 
• I believe that is what they call a tidy sum. 
• The Hellman intro is remarkable. Almost entirely biographical. Vivid and thoughtful and touching.

Best things about this back cover:

• I guess this is where I write my notes.
• Tulip. Hmm, I did not know that. I do not like unfinished novels. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.
• Mostly Op stories. Starts with "The Gutting of Couffignal," "Fly Paper," and "The Scorched Face." Not a bad opening gambit.

Page 123~

(from "This King Business")

We went to a much-gilded restaurant two blocks from the hotel, where a gypsy orchestra played on a little balcony stuck insecurely high on one wall. All the waiters and half the diners seemed to know the boy. He bowed and smiled to this side and that as he walked down to a table near the far end, where two men were waiting for him. 

~RP

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Paperback 446: Take a Lesbian to Lunch / Ann Aldrich (McFadden Books 125-118)

Paperback 446: McFadden Books 125-118 (PBO, 1972)

Title: Take a Lesbian to Lunch
Author: Ann Aldrich
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: $300


Best things about this cover:

• I've written briefly about this book before. Searching for that post led me to this thread, which quotes my original discussion of the book, and features a reply from The Author Herself. I learned about this just this second. I Heart The Internets. Discussion was about the term "lipstick lesbian," which suggested might have been "coined" by this book; that's probably not true, but the author suggests she might have been the first to use the phrase in print.
• It's not a very vivid cover, sadly, but I love the weird title and the Lipstick on the (Lesbians'?) cigarettes.
• Oh, this book is super-rare, in case the suggested dollar value didn't tip you off. There's one on amazon for $200 something. I priced mine off the ABE Books listings. The book is no longer available from ABE Books. Insider's look at gay New York in the aftermath of Stonewall by an excellent writer = cultural gold.

Best things about this back cover:

• Did people used to think lesbians were mythical? Like sylphs or unicorns or yeti?

Page 123~

"Surely it is the nature and quality of a relationship that matters; one must not judge it by its outward appearance, but by its inner worth. Homosexual affection can be as selfless as heterosexual affection, and therefore we cannot see that it is some way morally worse..." [—from "Toward a Quaker View of Sex," an essay signed by 11 British Quakers, first published in London in 1963]

Not all of this book is so earnest, I assure you. The more anecdotal parts of the book are often entertaining, touching, vivid, and sometimes very funny.

~RP

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Paperback 386: Again, Dangerous Visions Vol. 1 / ed. Harlan Ellison (Signet E7580)

Paperback 386: Signet E7580 (5th ptg, 1972)

Title: Again, Dangerous Visions, Vol. 1
Editor: Harlan Ellison
Cover artist: Ed Emshwiller (illustrations throughout)

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• Honestly, the cover does nothing for me, but this is a really important collection of so-called "speculative fiction," and Ellison's introduction alone is worth the price of admission. He writes with an elegance, ease, humor, and speed that I covet something awful.
• OK I kind of like the dude with legs of very different lengths. Psychedelia was clearly still the dominant visual style of the day. I just wish the art were more central (throughout), less decorative.

Best things about this back cover:

• I think this book was designed by and/or for someone on mind-altering substances. The promise of an expanded consciousness is a nice touch. Consciousness-raising = political. Consciousness-expanding = acid.

Page 123~

from "The Word for World is Forest" by Ursula K. Le Guin

But when the great ship returned, and he went to Eshsen, Lyubov met him there. He was silent and tenuous, very sad, so that the old carking grief awoke in Selver.

I don't understand any of that, but I want to incorporate "carking" into my vocabulary right away. Is it a real word? Ha, it is—CARK, tr. and intr. v., "To burden or be burdened with trouble; worry."

~RP

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Paperback 119: The Erection Set / Mickey Spillane (Signet Y5120)

Paperback 119: Signet Y5120 (1st ptg, 1972)

Title: The Erection Set
Author: Mickey Spillane
Cover artist: Picasso

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• Is that extended leg supposed to simulate an erection or stimulate one? In either case: [shudder]
• If you ever doubted the phallic qualities of a gun, behold this cover. Of course, before this cover, I doubted the phallic qualities of a left leg. This cover's full of learning opportunities.
• Be honest: was there ever a time when that hairdo (bottle blond, unkempt yet sculpted, etc.) was attractive? I was three when this book came out, so I'm not a good judge.
  
• She is aggressively tan
• Remember when women with medium-to-smallish breasts could get shirt-removal work?

Best things about this back cover:

• "Hey, has anyone seen my artificial leg?"
• "Dogeron!!" - setting up the inevitable catchprase: "That doggone Dogeron done gone and done it again!"

Page 123~

My teeth were showing when I said, "You can always change your mind, pal. Like starting right now. I'll take all three of you out and be gone before the noise dies down."

~RP