DRY SPELL

Stop playing coy, mister. This is a desert. I'm your only option for hundreds of miles.

Years back when we ran across a cover painted by someone identified only as Blofeld, we were sure we’d never see him again. Well, we were wrong. Blofeld also painted the above cover for French author Henry de Montherlant’s Desert Love, copyright 1959 from Bestseller Library, but with a publication history that goes back to 1938. Basically, Desert Rose is a piece of a larger narrative titled La Rose de Sable that Bestseller Library extracted and published as a standalone novel. This may have happened because the complete work examines and criticizes French rule in North Africa, particularly the takeover of the Sultanate of Morocco that resulted in more than 20,000 deaths. We’ll see if we run across Blofeld down the line. This is a really unusual piece. See the previous one here.

I want the pot of pig's blood dumped, Brother Fabrizio's bones back in the crypt, and my letter opener back on my desk. Now, young lady.

Occasionally we document the pulpification of classic literature, and today we have another example. Above you see The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis, which was originally published in 1796 but was updated pulp style by Bestseller Library for this 1960 version. The difference with this re-issue—as opposed to sexed up novels like George Orwell’s 1984 and Matteo Bandello’s Dammi la tua ecco la miais that The Monk really is like a pulp novel. You get lust, violence, cross-dressing, incest, magic, and an appearance by Satan himself, and not just any average Satan, but one with serpents for hair, razor sharp talons, and a burning pen in one hand—useful for writing up contracts for gullible mortals’ souls. And that’s pretty much what the plot deals with—a pious monk who is targeted and tempted by Satan. You think the Dark One takes no for an answer? Forget it. He’s got slippery ways and plenty of alluring minions. The cover art here is by someone who signed as Blofeld. Never heard of him before, and we doubt we will again.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1925—Mein Kampf Published

While serving time in prison for his role in a failed coup, Adolf Hitler dictaes and publishes volume 1 of his manifesto Mein Kampf (in English My Struggle or My Battle), the book that outlines his theories of racial purity, his belief in a Jewish conspiracy to control the world, and his plans to lead Germany to militarily acquire more land at the expense of Russia via eastward expansion.

1955—Disneyland Begins Operations

The amusement park Disneyland opens in Orange County, California for 6,000 invitation-only guests, before opening to the general public the following day.

1959—Holiday Dies Broke

Legendary singer Billie Holiday, who possessed one of the most unique voices in the history of jazz, dies in the hospital of cirrhosis of the liver. She had lost her earnings to swindlers over the years, and upon her death her bank account contains seventy cents.

1941—DiMaggio Hit Streak Reaches 56

New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio gets a hit in his fifty-sixth consecutive game. The streak would end the next game, against the Cleveland Indians, but the mark DiMaggio set still stands, and in fact has never been seriously threatened. It is generally thought to be one of the few truly unbreakable baseball records.

1939—Adams Completes Around-the-World Air Journey

American Clara Adams becomes the first woman passenger to complete an around the world air journey. Her voyage began and ended in New York City, with stops in Lisbon, Marseilles, Leipzig, Athens, Basra, Jodhpur, Rangoon, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Wake Island, Honolulu, and San Francisco.

1955—Nobel Prize Winners Unite Against Nukes

Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, which reads in part: “We think it is a delusion if governments believe that they can avoid war for a long time through the fear of [nuclear] weapons. Fear and tension have often engendered wars. Similarly it seems to us a delusion to believe that small conflicts could in the future always be decided by traditional weapons. In extreme danger no nation will deny itself the use of any weapon that scientific technology can produce.”

Uncredited art for Poker de blondes by Oscar Montgomery, aka José del Valle, from the French publisher Éditions le Trotteur in 1953.
Rafael DeSoto painted this excellent cover for David Hulburd's 1954 drug scare novel H Is for Heroin. We also have the original art without text.
Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.
Uncredited cover art for Orrie Hitt's 1954 novel Tawny. Hitt was a master of sleazy literature and published more than one hundred fifty novels.

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