| Vintage Pulp | May 24 2020 |
Sun, sand, and an unusually high homicide rate.
Of all the covers we've posted on Pulp Intl., these two—the first from U.S. publisher Dell, and the second from British publisher Consul—are among the most interesting. Both illustrate books called Murder in Majorca, both feature a female figure partly obscured by foreground blinds, and both have in the background the lower legs of a man walking into the room. But Michael Bryan and Paul Tabori are different authors, and these are different tales. Is that not weird as hell? We've always wanted to read these books because Majorca, aka Mallorca, is one of the great garden spots on Earth. We've been several times and it always recalibrates us perfectly. Also, there isn't much murder there, despite the titles of these books, which is a nice add-on to the sun, sand, food, bars, architecture and beautiful people.
Michael Bryan was in reality Brian Moore, and also wrote as Bernard Mara. His Murder in Majorca appeared in 1957. Paul Tabori was in reality Hungarian author Pál Tábori, and his Murder in Majorca came in 1961. How did these two uncredited covers get to be virtually identical? No idea. Sometimes when a book was reprinted overseas a second artist was commissioned to do a riff on the original cover, such as here. So maybe the second piece was for a re-issue, but it fell through, and the art was lying around when Tabori wrote his book. That's a wild-ass guess that has very little chance of being correct, but we just know these two fronts can't be similar by coincidence, so that's all we've got by way of explanation. Maybe you have a better deduction, or even the facts. If so, we'd love to know.
HungarySpainMajorcaMallorcaDell PublicationsConsul NooksMichael BryanBrian MooreBernard MaraPaul TaboriPál Táboricover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Feb 7 2015 |
For better or worse, in sickness and health, women in pulp don’t have a heck of a lot of choice about it.
Pulp is a place where the men are decisive and the women are as light as feathers. We’ve gotten together a collection of paperback covers featuring women being spirited away to places unknown, usually unconscious, by men and things that are less than men. You have art from Harry Schaare, Saul Levine, Harry Barton, Alain Gourdon, aka Aslan, and others.
Jack WoodfordJohn B. ThompsonBernard MaraK.H. Helms LiesenhoffBruno FischerVerne ChuteJean de la HireRobert O. SaberBrett HallidayRobert MartinJohn Dickson CarrEdgar Rice BurroughsClyde AllisonCharlotte ArmstrongVictor HugoMarcus MillerJean FordMary Roberts RinehartRichard S. PratherSaul LevineHarry SchaareKeith ViningS.H. CourtierHugh ClevelyStuart SterlingAlan MarshallJohn DexterBarry PerowneEdgar WallaceWalker A. TomkinsJack WilliamsonNorman SaundersGeorge GrossHarry BartonAlain GourdonAslancover artliteraturecover collection
| Vintage Pulp | Jun 11 2014 |
Hey everybody—get an Eiffel of these!
If you’ve been visiting the site for a while, you perhaps remember the cover we shared for H.R. Lenormand’s Renée, which shows a lonely woman staring out of her room at the majestic—and in that context clearly metaphorical—Eiffel Tower. Since then we’ve seen the tower pop up on many covers, including Passion in Paris by Harrison Stone, above, so today we’ve compiled a collection. Most of these examples view the tower as just an innocent civic landmark, but take it from us—once the idea that it stands for something else gets into your head you really can’t get it out. Interestingly, while the tower appears on many U.S. book fronts, we found it on only two of the hundreds of French covers we have. Perhaps they consider it too banal. Twenty-one scans below.
FranceCharadePaul ReninJack IamsPaul DaneMack ReynoldsJoseph HerronWill NewburyHelga MorayMichael WellsAaron BellAuguste le BretonSim AlbertMichel BriceGérard de VilliersJean de BallardGeorge GoodmanPeter StoneMatthew HeadDiane FrazerJean d’AuffargisHarrison StoneBernard Maracover artcover collectionliterature
