Vintage Pulp

May 17 2020

LIP SYNCING

Kiss me and I'll kiss you back.

Below, another collection of covers featuring characters expressing a little affection, a continuation of the lip locks we put together way back in 2013, and an adjunct to our collection of Harry Barton neck kisses from 2017.

Bonus action: see more kisses here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Tiffany Thayer, Michael Avallone, Franklin M. Davis Jr., Von Hoffman, Ruth Livingston, Florenz Branch, Rex Weldon, Ruth Park, Kathleen Norris, R. G. Mayzk, Robert Carse, Robert Paul Smith, John Dexter, Peter Cheyney, J.B. O'Sullivan, Perry Lindsay, Harry Best, Erskine Caldwell, Watkins E. Wright, Don Elliott, Van Nize, William E. Gordon, Edith Roberts, Frank Yerby, Kyle Onstott, Lance Horner, Dick Dale, Vicki Baum, Nancy Hale, John Bramlett, James Ramsey Ullman, Viña Delmar, Ian Stuart Black, Dana Wilson, James M. Cain, John B. Thompson, Judith Heiman, Gordon Merrick, Kim Savage, Daoma Winston, Vladimir Nabokov, William Faulkner, Alberto Moravia, Dylan Thomas, Émile Zola, Robert Wilder, Martha Gellhorn, Ellen Caren, Robert Briffault, Anthony Thorne, Theodore Pratt, Vincent James, Faith Baldwin, cover art, cover collection, literature

Vintage Pulp

February 17 2010

WILLIAM TALES

Even southern girls get the blues.

You know we like to share these pulp style covers certain publishing houses cooked up for reprints of serious pieces of literature. Today, it’s William Faulkner’s turn, and the subject is his 1931 novel Sanctuary, which Signet released in 1950 with this cover. Sanctuary was Faulkner’s fifth book and first success, but he wasn’t particularly fond of it, dismissing it as commercial claptrap written purely for financial reasons. If that was truly his intention, it seems like leaving out all the depravity and violence would have been a better way to go about it.

In any case, critics did not consider the book lightweight in the least, and a central rape scene involving a corncob understandably generated quite a bit of controversy. When the book was adapted into a 1933 movie entitled The Story of Temple Drake starring Miriam Hopkins, the corncob was removed, but the film still caused a stir and helped bring about the introduction of the Hays Code—the censorship doctrine that predated the establishment of the MPAA.

In 1961 Sanctuary was adapted again, and this time not only was the corncob removed, but a sizeable chunk of Faulkner’s original plot. Despite his professed distaste for commercialism, Faulkner had by then worked on dozens of movie projects. He had written screenplays for To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, and also had become a sought after script doctor, massaging projects like Mildred Pierce, The Southerner and Gunga Din. We have a small collection of posters from some of his projects below. If you’ve neglected to see any of these films, we highly recommend them and, of course, his novels are well worth a read.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

November 16

1938—Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Created

In Basel, Switzerland, at the Sandoz Laboratories, chemist Albert Hofmann creates the psychedelic compound Lysergic acid diethylamide, aka LSD, from a grain fungus.

November 16

1945—German Scientists Secretly Brought to U.S.

In a secret program codenamed Operation Paperclip, the United States Army admits 88 German scientists and engineers into the U.S. to help with the development of rocket technology. President Harry Truman ordered that Paperclip exclude members of the Nazi party, but in practice many Nazis who had been officially classified as dangerous were also brought to the U.S. after their backgrounds were whitewashed by Army officials.

November 15

1920—League of Nations Holds First Session

The first assembly of the League of Nations, the multi-governmental organization formed as a result of the Treaty of Versailles, is held in Geneva, Switzerland. The League begins to fall apart less than fifteen years later when Germany withdraws. By the onset of World War II it is clear that the League has failed completely.

November 15

1959—Clutter Murders Take Place

Four members of the Herbert Clutter Family are murdered at their farm outside Holcomb, Kansas by Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. The events would be used by author Truman Capote for his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, which is considered a pioneering work of true crime writing. The book is later adapted into a film starring Robert Blake.

November 13

1940—Fantasia Premieres

Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia, which features eight animated segments set to classical music, is first seen by the public in New York City at the Broadway Theatre. Though appreciated by critics, the movie fails to make a profit due to World War II cutting off European revenues. However it remains popular and is re-released several times, including in 1963 when, with the approval of Walt Disney himself, certain racially insulting scenes were removed. Today Fantasia is considered one of Disney’s greatest achievements and an essential experience for movie lovers.