Paperback 838: Hell-Town in Texas / Leslie Ernenwein (Avon 873)

Paperback 838: Avon 873 (2nd ptg?, 1960)

Title: Hell-Town in Texas
Author: Leslie Ernenwein
Cover artist: Uncredited

Estimated value: $15-20


Best things about this cover:

• Are there other kinds of towns in Texas?
• Despite appearing relatively generic, there's actually something spare, pared-down, and gorgeous about this cover. The pure blue background gives a sense of delicacy to the men and horses, and that dust is some kind of abstract magic. Just great.
• Books don't come in better condition than this. Off-the-shelf new. Sparkly, even.

Best things about this back cover:

• But what's his name!?
• Clyde Lambert grabbed a fish, but Marshal Terhune stopped him: "No, Clyde. Not Missouri Style. *Texas* Style." So they dueled with grapefruits.
• That's a pretty nice marshal sketch, truth be told. Only marshals and stone-cold fops can get away with an ascot like that.

Page 123~

Contacting the same friends who'd turned down the Oro Kid scheme, he found them eager to invest their savings in his sawmill proposition.

There's two great crime novel titles right there: "The Oro Kid Scheme" and "The Sawmill Proposition."  You're welcome, writers.

Happy Thanksgiving,

~RP

Paperback 692: Give a Man a Gun / Leslie Ernenwein (Gold Medal 220)

Paperback 692: Gold Medal 220 (PBO, 1952)

Title: Give a Man a Gun
Author: Leslie Ernenwein
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $12



Best things about this cover:

• You know what they say: "Give a man a gun, he'll ... shoot some fish ... something something."
• Fear hand—man style!
• "Trigger tramp" = "closeted cowboy," I think. "Don't judge me just 'cause I got this ascot and your girlfriend and these dance moves and you didn't!"
• "His gun made him a man—the story of a Very Western Prosthesis."

Best things about this back cover:

• OK, stop right there: CLEE? Give a man a name, why don't you?
• Everybody from Texas—we get it, you're from Texas. You can take off the hat now.
• I wonder what's next from the very Westernly named Leslie Ernenwein—maybe "Give a Gun a Gun" or "Gun Night in Guntown" or "The Joy Luck Gun Club."

Page 123~

He went out to his horse then and stowed the two bottles in his saddlebags. Seeing Doc Stonecypher come down the Empire Hotel steps, Dude called, "How's Johnny Frayne?"

Doc Stonecypher replied, "Hmmm, I'd say fair-to-middlin'. Gotta go now. Gotta fight Spider-Man."

~RP

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