Paperback 1069: Various Temptations / Various (!) (Avon T-385)

Paperback 1069: Avon T-385 (PBO, 1955)

Title: Various Temptations

Author: Various

Cover artist: N/A (photo)

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5-8

Best things about this cover:

• "Hey, what should we call this thing? 'Deadly Dames'!? 'Sinful Sirens'!? 'Voluptuous Vixens'!?" "Nah, those all sound too hackneyed and corny. I'm gonna have to think about it some more. Tell you what, just put some placeholder title in there now and we'll come back to it." "Gotcha."
• What kind of vibe am I supposed to be getting from this crummy photo? 'Cause the only vibe I'm currently getting is "Can I lend you a comb? A brush? Something? I want to help."
• Sometimes your big names stay big names, and sometimes ... William Sansom.

Best things about this back cover:

• This is the part where they try to make Literature sound hot.
•  First one's too generic, second one's too ... yeesh, I wanna say 'racist' ... third one's got me curious, I will admit—sounds like his wife performs a sex act on stage, but it could just as easily be that she makes good coffee. And the fourth one, well, I'm all in, if only to see what it means to be "engulfed" (!) in "erotic impulses"—smothered in some horrible vibrator factory accident, I imagine / hope.
• There's only one way I like my heiresses, and that's wayward. No chaste, well-behaved heiresses for me, no thank you.

Page 123~ [from "The Dare," by Budd Schulberg]

Paul rose, and leaned on the railing of the pier to watch the sport. Only then did the yellow-brown halter above the deep-tan midriff inform him of the sex of the skier.

Talking halter tops! Again, I'm in! Also, "the quick yellow-brown halter jumped over the lazy deep-tan sex midriff" is one hell of a typing exercise, you should try it. No "g" but who needs "g" anyway?

~RP

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Glick!

R.I.P. Budd Schulberg (1914-2009)

Here's a British paperback of Schulberg's best-known (and probably best) novel:

[A hot cover of a hot book, sent to me by a reader with a good eye and good taste]

Click here to see Budd Schulberg's The Disenchanted ("Pop Sensation" Paperback 246)

~RP

Paperback 246: The Disenchanted / Budd Schulberg (Bantam A1051)

Paperback 246: Bantam A1051 (1st ptg, 1952)

Title: The Disenchanted
Author: Budd Schulberg
Cover artist: Harry Schaare

Yours for: $11


Best things about this cover:

• Her pose! One shoe! Awesome. I think I love her.
  
• Book should be called "The Dissolute," or "Yeah, I'm Drunk, Whaddya Gonna Do About It, Ya Impotent Bastard? Get Me Another Martini"
• Harry Schaare Loves his Floating Heads — we'll see more in the future.
• Love the little maniacal dancing / jazz club scene in the background
• The novel may be set in the 20s, but these people are not believably from the 20s. Except for emaciated Clark Gable in a tux back there, hitting on the girl who's reclining on the hair of Floating Head. He's 20s all the way.
• "What Makes Sammy Run" is a classic Hollywood novel. Fantastic.

Best things about this back cover:

• LOVE the guy admiring the rack of his drunken lady friend, up-close! "Yes. These will do nicely."
• Toga party or religious visitation? "This angel came into my candle-lit room last night ... man, she was hot."
• I love Michener's precision — like he remembers exactly where he was, three years ago, when he read a novel better than this one.

Page 123~

When he finds out the commercial tie-up he feels like a jerk for having fallen for her. Then, in the finals of the ski-jump, he's injured.

~RP

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