EMBRACE THE MOMENT

Hey! *gasp* Ease off. If you hold me any tighter I'll be behind you.

The passionate embrace is a staple of mid-century paperback art, attempted by virtually every illustrator working at the time, with varying degrees of success. The example above was painted by Robert Maguire for D.H. Lawrence’s The Captain’s Doll, originally a novella published in 1921, with this Berkley edition arriving as a full-sized paperback in 1957.

Lawrence was an interesting writer. Could you call him an early sleaze author? Well, he was better than any sleaze author, but while alive he was persecuted, labeled tasteless, excoriated for being pornographic, and censored multiple times. That sounds like sleaze to us. This cover would have been an attempt to capitalize on his scandalous reputation—successfully, as far as we’re concerned.

It inspired us to compile a small collection of other passionate embraces, which you’ll find below. There are hundreds of such covers out there, and in fact we’ve already shared various kissing collections that have similar moods. But we made sure not to repeat any entries from those (we think). If you want to see them, they’re here, here, and here. Hold on to whoever you care about, but make sure they can breathe okay.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1960—Woodward Gets First Star on Walk of Fame

Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,300 stars.

1971—Paige Enters Baseball Hall of Fame

Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.

1969—Allende Meteorite Falls in Mexico

The Allende Meteorite, the largest object of its type ever found, falls in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The original stone, traveling at more than ten miles per second and leaving a brilliant streak across the sky, is believed to have been approximately the size of an automobile. But by the time it hit the Earth it had broken into hundreds of fragments.

1985—Matt Munro Dies

English singer Matt Munro, who was one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s and sang numerous hits, including the James Bond theme “From Russia with Love,” dies from liver cancer at Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London.

1958—Plane Crash Kills 8 Man U Players

British European Airways Flight 609 crashes attempting to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. On board the plane is the Manchester United football team, along with a number of supporters and journalists. 20 of the 44 people on board die in the crash.

Five covers for football pulp magazines illustrated by George Gross.
Rare Argentinian cover art for The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

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