Paperback 651: Mystery Walks the Campus / Annette Turngren (Berkley Books G-158)

Paperback 651: Berkley Books G-158 (1st ptg, 1958)

Title: Mystery Walks the Campus
Author: Annette Turngren
Cover artist: Harry Schaare

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• "Mystery" would be a pretty cool girl's name, come to think about it.
• This is a great cover painting. No, really. It's clearly geared toward a female audience (i.e. the woman is  in serious student mode and decidedly non-tarted-up), so it doesn't have what we'd normally call "Great Girl Art (GGA)," but she's *really* well rendered. I love art that conveys tension through small movements, especially as those movements are captured in clothing. I'm mesmerized by her right foot, as well as the flow of her jacket and the wrinkles across the front of her skirt. Her environment is pure noir. All rain-slicked pavement and moonlight/streetlight. Good stuff.
• This reminds me of a specific part of the U Michigan campus—specifically, where campus proper meets South U. Ave. But I'm guessing this also looks like about a million campuses.

Best things about this back cover:

• Endicott! I live near there. 
• You gotta love a mystery that turns on "the mutterings of a parakeet." I imagine the parakeet pacing in his cage, smoking and then occasionally saying something about what you can do with your desire to hear him "sing."
• I like how excited the Christian Science Monitor is about addiction and compulsion.

Page 123~

They took a cab home, and Wendy tried hard to be pleasant—and sympathetic about the headache. But she had a feeling it was as non-existent as Sky's hay fever had been the night of the barbecue supper. Sometimes I'd like to shake her, she thought.

As if Sky's name alone isn't reason enough to want to shake her.

~RP

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Paperback 582: Campus Call Girl / Scott O'Neill (Gold Star Books IL7-35)

Paperback 582: Gold Star Books IL7-35 (PBO, 1964)

Title: Campus Call Girl
Author: Scott O'Neill
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $25

Best things about this cover:

• Get her some non-molded-plastic hair and I'd be In Love.
• That is one of the best come-hither/fuck-you glances I've seen on a paperback cover.
• Striped towel and striped bikini = Campus. Fierce heels and cigarette = Call Girl
• I'm weirdly distracted by "into" sitting there all alone in its own line. Maybe it can call up "The" and they can get together.

Best things about this back cover:

• "... but all the boys call me 'Double D' [WINK]"
• "In case you were wondering what I'd look like in mirror symmetry—voila!"
• Because nothing says "call girl" like faux-wood paneling.

Page 123~

Aniel shrugged. "Depends on how long 'long' is."

Truer words ...

~RP

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Paperback 510: Strange Thirsts / Michael Norday (Beacon Books B662X)

Paperback 510: Beacon Books B662X (2nd ptg, 1963)

Title: Strange Thirsts
Author: Michael Norday
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: Not for sale (donation to the collection from Doug Peterson)


Best things about this cover:

• This book, and the next few I'll feature on this blog, are all gifts from my friend Doug Peterson. He brings me new books almost every time I see him, and my recent trip to Brooklyn was no exception. My wife had to accept this particular round of gifts, as I was out of commission with vicious food poisoning, but I'm sure he (and everyone) knows how grateful I am.
• I guess I've seen one too many of these semi-suggestive lesbian covers, because the only thing I can see are the blonde's crazy leprechaun shoes. I hope those are for "the annual college play," because if she's wearing those on the street, people are going to chase her and demand to know where she keeps her gold.
• I hope "Strange Thirsts" refers to the blonde's irresistible compulsion to drink the brunette's bath water.
• I like my lesbian paperbacks to be somewhat more provocative than this. Hardly any flesh, even. A couple of tiny slivers of cleavage. Come on. A lesbian paperback cover's lasting impression should not be bathroom tile, house plants, and seriously flamboyant footwear.

Best things about this back cover:

• Yeah, yeah, "warped." You said that on the front cover.
• "Imported," HA ha. "Hey, did the new shipment of Zane Hunter come in yet?"
• "Dale, for relief, turned to pretty Julie Hilton." For relief? Relief from What? The sexual attention of a glamorous actress?
• I like that Julie enjoyed "questionable ecstasies." "You call those ecstasies? Hmm. I'm dubious."
• "Baby-skinned"is a horrifying adjective.
• "Dale, get in here. You *gotta* see this degradation..."
• "Probes deeply, boldly, into forbidden areas." That's what I call obvuendo!

Page 123~

There were times when her flesh seemed unable to wait for the completion that he would give it with his own.

So he's going to give her flesh completion? With his own flesh? His own completion? But the whole paragraph is about how they're *not* having sex because they're waiting for marriage ... only the very next chapter is entitled "Menage à Trois"! Crazy college kids.

~RP

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Paperback 378: Murder Is Served / Frances and Richard Lockridge (Avon 363)

Paperback 378: Avon 363 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: Murder Is Served
Author: Frances & Richard Lockridge
Cover artist: Eddie Chan

Yours for: $7 (cover is gorgeous, but separated from book, which is complete, but all kinds of falling apart)


Best things about this cover:

• OK, remember that's "thirty million dollars" in late '40s dollars, so I believe the answer to the question is "hell yes."
• Love his expression—I believe he is telling that lady, "You got served!"
• In turn, I believe the lady is either mimicking masturbation or trying (unsuccessfully, by the look of it) to make cutlery disappear.
• "You call those boobs!?"—sorry, just thinking of more things that guy might be saying.
• Her: "I made you a canoe out of a napkin and this is how you thank me!?" I could go on all day. This one painting is like an endless one-act play.

Best things about this back cover:

• I don't think "People say" that. I've never heard that. I will say that this is a very accurate opening of a student paper.
• There must be a tale of gender or sexual confusion in here somewhere, which I deduced by noting that the stabbed man-body is pink, while the stabbed woman-body is blue.

Inside cover claims the cover artist, Eddie Chan, is a "well known Avon artist," but I've never seen his name. I think it's the only Asian surname I've ever seen on a vintage paperback cover artist. Cool.

Page 123~

"Well," Carey repeated, but less truculently. With a cat on his shoulders, he seemed to have lost the conviction that events would be clarified by the direct approach. Martini, turning to investigate the source of this new sound, breathed into Carey's left ear.

"Are you coming on to me?" asked Carey vituperatively.

Since it's 2011, I resolve (again) not to fall off the paperback wagon anymore. 3 write-ups a week, coming your way. Tell a friend (seriously). Now if you'll excuse me, this book has created a strong urge to walk around with a cat on my shoulders, so I'm off to practice.

xoxo

~RP

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