| Vintage Pulp | Jul 31 2021 |
Hi, what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? Me, I'm trying to score some meth.
Mark Reed's 1952 thriller The Nude Stranger was going for eighty dollars on one website, but we got ours for five as part of a lot. Score. The book has a simple but effective cover painted by an uncredited artist. The story deals with the bizarre, complicated frame-up of a Florida private dick named Chet Egan, which commences when he finds a nude woman in his bed. He lives in a hotel, as people did back then, and she flees into his room from hers after trouble with a man, there to be discovered by Egan when he returns home. He gets the story from her, goes over to her room, takes care of the fella there with the old one-two, and has a corpse on his hands. And from there things go—as they always do—from confusing to confusingest, all written well enough, but unmemorable except for the labyrinthine nature of the central frame-up.
So what we have with The Nude Stranger is another so-so mystery, not a total waste of time, but nothing to go searching for either. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that it goes over the top with vicious homophobia. There are three gay males in the narrative, and they aren't referred to with anything other than an assortment of slurs except for one specific instance when Egan actually deigns to use one of their names. If you don't read a lot of old books it might surprise you to know that this level of disrespect is rare—not necessarily because the authors were enlightened on the subject, but because gay characters didn't feature much in vintage popular novels. The Nude Stranger, probably a completely forgotten book in the scheme of things, is notable in that respect. If you happen to be working on a thesis on homophobia in mid-century fiction, well, add this to your sources. You won't even believe it.
So what we have with The Nude Stranger is another so-so mystery, not a total waste of time, but nothing to go searching for either. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that it goes over the top with vicious homophobia. There are three gay males in the narrative, and they aren't referred to with anything other than an assortment of slurs except for one specific instance when Egan actually deigns to use one of their names. If you don't read a lot of old books it might surprise you to know that this level of disrespect is rare—not necessarily because the authors were enlightened on the subject, but because gay characters didn't feature much in vintage popular novels. The Nude Stranger, probably a completely forgotten book in the scheme of things, is notable in that respect. If you happen to be working on a thesis on homophobia in mid-century fiction, well, add this to your sources. You won't even believe it.
| Vintage Pulp | Jun 28 2019 |
Then I picked up something at the market and now I'm about to heat it up and enjoy it. How's your day going?
Above, a cover for The Scarlet Bride by Mark Reed, about a cheating wife with a dangerous husband and the horndogs who risk life and limb to get on her. Reed was actually Norman A. Daniels, a prolific author who wrote for pulp magazines, where he created the character Black Bat (the second, more popular one). He also wrote for radio, television, and once published eighteen books in a two year span. This particular effort is copyright 1952.
| Vintage Pulp | Jul 17 2018 |
Howell Dodd's fox force five.
Above, five beautiful original paintings from Howell Dodd, early 1950s. These are from assorted true crime magazine covers, except for the top image, which fronted Mark Reed's 1952 paperback Lay Down and Die! Top notch stuff.
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 24 2017 |
There's nothing quite like a roll in the hay.
You'd think we'd eventually run out of themes in mid-century paperbacks, but the possibilities are seemingly endless. We can add illicit love in the hayloft to the many other time honored subjects exploited by paperback publishers. We've already shared several covers along these lines, such as this one, this one, and this one, but today we have an entire set for your enjoyment. Personally, we've never had sex in a hayloft—in fact, we've never even had the opportunity—but we imagine that once you get past the smelly manure and the scratchy hay and the jittery animals it's pretty fun. Or maybe not. There are also numerous books, incidentally, that feature characters trysting by outdoor haystacks, but for today we want to stay inside the barn. Thanks to all the original uploaders of these covers.
Cameo BooksGail JordanPeggy GaddisGeorge GrossJon BalmerHillary WaughDon BellmoreWilli PetersMark ReedLupo SebrengWilliam HopsonLon WilliamsAngela GilbertJ.X. WilliamsJean BromydeCraig BarstowLuther GordonJohn SteinbeckGeorge Victor MartinGregory SwansonWilliam Brown Meloneycover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 11 2016 |
These are people who definitely pay attention to the poles.
When you look at lots of paperbacks sometimes a common thread suddenly jumps out at you that went unnoticed before. Such was the case a few weeks ago when we noticed the large number of characters on mid-century covers leaning against poles—light poles, telephone poles, sign poles, etc. We suggested someone should put together a collection, but of course we really meant us, so today you see above and below various characters deftly using these features of the urban streetscape as accessories. Art is from Benedetto Caroselli, Harry Schaare, George Gross, Rudolph Belarski, James Avati, et al. You can see a couple more examples here and here.
Robert O. SaberMichael CroftSloan BrittonEdward AndersonWilliam ArdFranz SilbermanLynton Wright BrentBart MichaelsLeslie CharterisOrrie HittMark ReedArthur MillerRobert BlochJay de BekkerJoan EllisJames T. FarrellJohn D. MacDonaldHarmon BellamyGeoffrey PardoeJohn LodwickFrancis CarcoBenedetto CaroselliHarry SchaareGeorge GrossRudolph BelarskiTom HoweStella WyngardeBernard MalamudHerbert SimmomsRoy Hugginscover collectioncover artliterature
| Vintage Pulp | Dec 26 2014 |
Aw, don’t fret. Sure, you're corrupt, but you still protect a few people, and you’re about to serve me right now.
This excellent cover art for Vice Cop is uncredited but it’s very likely by Howell Dodd, he of the bombshell redheads. The art was reused in a slightly cleaned up version for a Phantom Books edition, and the two are worth comparing. Have a look here. Author Mark Reed was aka Norman A. Daniels. We’ll get back to him.
