Paperback 761: Guys and Dolls / Damon Runyon (Pocket Books 1098)

Paperback 761: Pocket Books 1098 (1st ptg, 1955)

Title: Guys and Dolls
Author: Damon Runyon
Cover artist: photo cover / unknown

Yours for: $15


Best things about this cover:

• Brando unsure about quality of doll's breath!
• I sort of kind of love this art/photo hybrid. Also, the Vincent Price-esque title font. Random.
• LOVE the full-body "fuck off, boys" pose of the be-stoled smoking doll. Classic.

Best things about this back cover:

• Well, it's … uh … not particularly soiled or torn. That's something.
• "Master of the Main Stem" — not a phrase I'd ever really want to be called.
• Lusty Slice was my favorite Slice Girl.

Page 123~

Dave the Dude is more corned than anybody else, because he has two or three days' running start on everybody. And when Dave the Dude is corned I wish to say that he is a very unreliable guy as to temper, and he is apt to explode right in your face any minute. But he seems to be getting a great bang out of the doings.

When your corned, a great bang is just the thing.

~RP

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Paperback 31: Bantam 1679

Paperback 31: Bantam 1679 (1st ptg, 1957)
Title: Pal Joey
Author: John O'Hara
Cover artist: Barye Phillips


Best things about this cover:

• Ring-a-ding-ding, this cover rules in every way.
• Not the greatest likeness of Frank, but cool nonetheless.
• Love the cover design - the font, the colors - and love the cocky pose Frank is striking.
• Even the inside of his trench coat looks cool.
• I wanna be a "two-bit nightclub heel"! That's a great phrase. Considering that one of my students today sent out a message to the entire class (240 students) saying that I am ugly and look like a monkey ... I would love to be called a "two-bit heel" right about now.

Best things about this back cover:

• More great design. Love the colors, and the circles diminishing into the background. The chick in fishnets with her hips thrust forward isn't bad either.
• World's tiniest movie stills.

RP