 Wife trading this week. Wife trading last week. Why can't we just stay home and screw each other? 
Above: a cover for Alex Carter's Traded Wives, copyright 1970, from Softcover Library. Alex Carter was a pseudonym of Charles Boeckman, Jr., and the art here is by Clement Micarelli.
 There are some places even sleaze novels shouldn't go. 
Above you see a cover for Din Andrew's 1965 novel Big Orvie. All the other websites we've visited have this art as by an unidentified person, but all the other websites have a slightly different cover (which we posted below) on which the woman is wearing a longer dress, the sky has an impressionist texture, and—crucially—the signature is simply missing. Our version is signed at bottom right by Clement Micarelli. Look there in the tree bark. See it? So we can officially rescue this from the unidentified bin. We always planned to share more art from him. Having found something not previously known to have come from his brush is a nice bonus. Our work is done for today.
On second thought, maybe not. There's the actual book to consider, isn't there? Was it banned at any point? Probably not, but we have to wonder. We expected Big Orvie to be lightweight sleaze. How foolish of us. This countrified taboo smasher dealing with a mentally disabled and oversexed bumpkin named Orville Stroup goes beyond mere sleaze. Some might even call it irresponsible, with its unflinching (but mercifully brief) forays into pedophilia. In fact, it's a book that, assuming its contents were widely known to the general public, you'd have a hard time explaining to your friends why you have it. Consider yourself advised. Now our work is done. 
 Any sport in a storm. 
A beautiful cover by Clement Micarelli elevates Dean McCoy's sleaze offering Sexbound, published by Beacon Books in 1961. The book deals with a group of people who get stuck in an isolated motel during a blizzard. These situations always turn into massacres or orgies, and we're in the latter territory here as the hot local waitress, the couple who think they have a solid marriage but don't, the dedicated swingers, and others start switching and swapping as the storm rages. Loins are inflamed, hearts are broken, and revenge enacted. The book was a hit for Beacon, and the company seems to have re-issued it in 1965, which is why if you look online you'll see contradictions about the copyright date. Below you see Micarelli's original art, and you can see the quality of it without the obscuring text. We'll hopefully locate more from him and share it later.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1943—First LSD Trip Takes Place
Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann, while working at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, accidentally absorbs lysergic acid diethylamide, better known as LSD, and thus discovers its psychedelic properties. He had first synthesized the substance five years earlier but hadn't been aware of its effects. He goes on to write scores of articles and books about his creation. 1912—The Titanic Sinks
Two and a half hours after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean on its maiden voyage, the British passenger liner RMS Titanic sinks, dragging 1,517 people to their deaths. The number of dead amount to more than fifty percent of the passengers, due mainly to the fact the liner was not equipped with enough lifeboats. 1947—Robinson Breaks Color Line
African-American baseball player Jackie Robinson officially breaks Major League Baseball's color line when he debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Several dark skinned men had played professional baseball around the beginning of the twentieth century, but Robinson was the first to overcome the official segregation policy called—ironically, in retrospect—the "gentleman's agreement". 1935—Dust Storm Strikes U.S.
Exacerbated by a long drought combined with poor soil conservation techniques that caused excessive soil erosion on farmlands, a huge dust storm known as Black Sunday rages across Texas, Oklahoma, and several other states, literally turning day to night and redistributing an estimated 300,000 tons of topsoil. |
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