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

[Follow Pop Sensation on instagram @popsensationpaperbacks]

Paperback 853: Anna Becker / Max White (Bantam 830)

Paperback 853: Bantam 830 (1st ptg, 1950)

Title: Anna Becker
Author: Max White
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $8-12

Donation to the collection from The Second Reader Bookshop (Buffalo, NY)


Best things about this cover:

• Who can forget Anna Becker's great novel, "Max White"? Or vice versa, I forget.
• This cover raises one (and only one) very important question: Where Can I Get That Lamp!?
• Anna had vowed to protect the Jesus Chair at all costs! ALL COSTS!
• Ew, what is he doing with his right thumb?
• Ew, "torn between fright and desire" is rapist talk, man. "She was shaking and resisting, but … ya know." Gross.

Best things about this back cover:

• So basically it's an exposé of the sexy librarian.
• A "FRANK" exposé! Hell yeah, "frank"!
• Sometimes I think paperbacks came to exist because hardback dust jacket cover art was just So Bad.

Page 123~

So when Harrison said he liked Anna better now, she was not prepared to see what he meant.

I understand, Anna. We all understand. P.S. run.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 412: The Physiology of Sex / Kenneth Walker (Penguin 507)

Paperback 412: Penguin 507 (3rd ptg, 1943)

Title: The Physiology of Sex
Author: Kenneth Walker
Cover artist: none

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• This was printed during that short period when Puritans ran Penguin and demanded that all images besides the logo be expunged from the covers.
• This gives me sex just the way I like it: sound and unflinching. And with penguins nearby.
• Pre-Kinsey guide to being normal... oh dear lord, I opened to a random page (106, to be exact) and found this gem: "So far the emphasis has been placed on the man's responsibility in coitus, since it falls to him to waken his wife's latent sexuality." Honestly, how did anyone survive the '40s? (I'm guessing by fucking instead of reading about fucking)

Best things about this back cover:

• Just Bernard? Not George Bernard? Why not just go all the way and call him "Bernie?"
• Penguins say num num num to the number "520"

Page 123~

If the stock be good and the family free from all such inheritable troubles as mental defectiveness, predisposition to tuberculosis, and insanity, there is no reason why the children of cousins should not be as healthy as the children of other people.

Well I did not see that coming.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]