Vintage Pulp

September 24 2017

LOFT EXPECTATIONS

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.

Vintage Pulp

October 25 2013

MAIN SQUEEZE

And with two balls he goes way inside with his split finger.

In honor of the World Series and all the unintentionally sexual terminology you hear on sports broadcasts—and he manages to squirt that one up the middle!—we thought we’d share this cover for Kozy Books’ sleaze novel Squeeze Play. It was written by Walter Feldspar, whose name is a pseudonym of course, but we don’t know who occupied it. Orrie Hitt is a prime suspect though. Whoever it was, we have to give credit for cleverness—feldspar is a mineral that has no value but makes up the majority of earthly rock. He’s doubtless saying the same about his fiction—no value, but can be found everywhere.

Given enough time anything can accumulate value, though, and such is the case with ’60s sleaze fiction. Kozy output seems more popular all the time, so in acknowledgment of that fact we have a selection of their covers below. You would not necessarily call these pieces completely successful, with their often unreadable yellow-on-white or orange-on-orange text, but in terms of promoting the product the covers told you exactly what you were going to get. The company had a habit of not crediting art, so we’ve nothing for you there. But enjoy the selection anyway, and if you want to see a real Kozy winner, check here.

Kozy Books, Orrie Hitt, Lew Lessing, Guy Andreya, Adam Snavely, Shelly Lowenkopf, John B. Thompson, Eric Thomas, Gail Evans, Robert Bledsoe, Craig Barstow, Walter Feldspar, cover art, literature, cover collection

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

September 7

1978—Giorgi Markov Assassinated

Bulgarian dissident Giorgi Markov is assassinated in a scene right out of a spy novel. As he’s waiting at a bus stop near Waterloo Bridge in London, he’s jabbed in the calf with an umbrella. The man holding the umbrella apologizes and walks away, but he is in reality a Bulgarian hired killer who has just injected a ricin pellet into Markov, who develops a high fever and dies three days later.

September 6

1901—McKinley Fatally Shot

Polish-born anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies September 12, and Czolgosz is later executed.

September 5

1939—U.S. Declares Neutrality in WW II

The Neutrality Acts, which had been passed in the 1930s when the United States considered foreign conflicts undesirable, prompts the nation to declare neutrality in World War II. The policy ended with the Lend-Lease Act of March 1941, which allowed the U.S. to sell, lend or give war materials to allied nations.

September 5

1972—Munich Massacre

During the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, a paramilitary group calling itself Black September takes members of the Israeli olympic team hostage. Eventually the group, which represents the first glimpse of terrorists for most people in the Western world, kill eleven of the hostages along with one West German police officer during a rescue attempt by West German police that devolves into a firefight. Five of the eight members of Black September are also killed.

September 4

1957—U.S. National Guard Used Against Students

The governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus, mobilizes the National Guard to prevent nine African-American students known as the Little Rock Nine from enrolling in high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.