Paperback 1046: Ace 76835 (PBO, 1970)

Title: The Sit-In
Author: George B. Anderson
Cover artist: George Gross

Condition: 7/10
Estimated value: $20-25 (counterculture, baby!)

[from giant box of books I got in the mail from "Special Sauce" ... I'll be rolling these out as fast as I reasonably can]

Best things about this cover:

• Answering the question: What if Dirty Harry had been a T.A. for Marxist Cultural Theory?
• Two words. One, mustard. Two, cardigan. KILLER outfit!
• A narc wrote this
• This was published just after Kent State. So you'd know who the real bad guys were. Cut your hair, Comrade Cardigan!

Best things about this back cover:

• LOL grad student. Called it!
• "Don't trust anyone over 30 ... or, you know Happiness in general, man"
• Wow, this is a right-wing fever dream. "He's coming for you and your suburban children, aged 2 and 4, named John and Jennifer, probably!"

Page 123~

He remembered going duck-hunting, as a kid, in the late fall, but he wouldn't even handle a shotgun since his return from Viet.

Was that a common way to refer to Vietnam? Just shortened like that? First I've seen that. Also, predictably, the family-man is the *real* man, the real hero, because he'd actually *been* to war, as opposed to Murdery McBeardo, who is a nerd.

~RP

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Paperback 1039: Bantam HP4391 (35th ptg, 1970)

Title: The Bridge Over the River Kwai
Author: Pierre Boulle
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Condition: 8/10
Estimated value: $5

Best things about this cover:

• My wife actually spotted this one on the $1 cart outside the bookstore. My initial immediate response was "meh" but then I held it and noticed a. the condition (excellent) and b. the quality of the art, which really is exquisite. 
• I love how Bantam has let the cover breathe. You can see how they might've used the painting differently, maybe cropping it differently and putting text (title / author) in or on top of the red sky. But this way, the painting really feels like a painting, and that sky is allowed to take up space and create its mood. The composition is also arresting.
• Me: "I know this artist ... Kalin? ... Hooks? ... [looks very closely at painting] oh, man, it's Barye Phillips!" Phillips signs simply "Barye," which you can see just to the left (your left) of the Japanese soldier's hand. I'm used to seeing girl art / crime fiction scenes from him, so this was cool and unexpected. 

Best things about this back cover:

• Again: rooooom for my eyes to breeeeeathe. I like.
• No need to waste time (i.e. words) when dealing with a book this well known (from the 1957 movie). Both front and back covers really do go in for more of a museum treatment than a typical book promo treatment.

Page 123~

Never before had he been conscious of that feeling of power and conquest which absolute isolation affords, whether on a mountaintop or in the bowels of the earth.

~RP

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Paperback 908: Dell 8001 (1st ptg, 1970)

Title: Six Seconds to Kill
Author: Brett Halliday
Cover artist: photo

Estimated value: sentimental, at best ($10?)

Best things about this cover:

• This is either the story of the world's most efficient lady assassin or the story of a lady executive determined to squeeze all the joy she can out of the world's shortest helicopter layover. Pilot: "You need to be back here in six sec—" Lady: "I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"
• I feel sorry for the model. That can't have been an easy pose to hold. Not in those nutso clog-heels.
• I bought this book in a vintage clothing store in Minneapolis, MN.

Best things about this back cover:

• Ladies and gentlemen—my new business card.
• Also, ladies and gentlemen—my new bride. (My wife will understand. She had a good run.)
• I love this classy lady: "I will drink [yes] and fuck [you go, girl] and kill Ed Meese [of cour— ... wait, what?]"

Page 123~

Shayne set the handbrake and got out. Understanding suddenly that she was about to be taken prisoner, she scrambled for a shotgun lying on the grass. Shayne kicked it away, pulled her to her feet and thrust her into the car.
"The fight's over. You're all by yourself, as far as I know."

I like the part where he set the handbrake.

~RP

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Paperback 891: Lancer 74641 (PBO, 1970)

Title: A Boy Named Cash: The Johnny Cash Story
Author: Albert Govoni
Cover artist: photo cover

Estimated value: $15-20

Best things about this cover:

• It's a boring photo, but I'm in love with the font and color and star-spangledness of "CASH"!
• Hard to believe it's his "first full-length biography," but if a Lancer paperback says it …
• Discography in this thing is legit. Enormous. Runs to well over four pages.
• Book is close to pristine, with the "triple-size pin-up photo" complete intact, and probably never unfurled. Let's unfurl it, shall we?

OK then ...

Best things about this back cover:

• Uh … hi.
• TV Tie-In!
• "Here is Johnny Cash in words and pictures" is kind of a lie. Should really read "Here is Johnny Cash in words and picture, singular" (the "triple-size pin-up photo" is the only picture in the whole thing).

Page 123~

Johnny has never forgotten the words he overheard one day when he was in Sam Phillips' office. Through the partially opened door leading into a studio, he heard a man in the studio saying to someone …

a. "… marijuana, man. I can dig it."
b. "… Muddy Waters is good, man, but I'm tellin' you … Pat fuckin' Boone, man."
c. "… man, you know they faked that moon landing, right?"
d. "… it's called 'gwa kah MOLE ay'—try it, man."
e. all of the above
f. invent your own answer

~RP

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Paperback 832: Pyramid T2326 (2nd ptg, 1970) (reprints Pyramid R-851)

Title: The Unknown
Editor: D. R. Bensen
Cover artist: Brad Johannsen
Illustrator: Edd Cartier
Introduction: Isaac Asmiov

Estimated value: $7-8


Best things about this cover:

• Seriously, *everyone* in 1970 was high on LSD 24/7. It was the law.
• Self-help + horror = this.
• "Hey, doc, I dreamt my mother got jaundice and then she smiled and started bleeding tiddlywinks out her eyeballs … whaddya think it means?"
• Those milk bottle-sized hypos are terrifying. Before I saw the little hash marks on the ones in the foreground, I just thought they were the topless towers of her (her?) imaginary dreamscape, man.

Best things about this back cover:

• Ugh. Text.
• All wonderful authors. This collection is probably worth reading.
• Second Coming of Satan, eh? OK, I'm in.
• I like the "****" bit toward the end because I can imagine it means "[expletive deleted]."

Page 123~ (from "Doubled and Redoubled" by Malcolm Jameson)

Jimmy Childers went with alacrity.

Keep your bathroom habits to yourself, Jimmy.

~RP

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Paperback 659: Belmont B75-2040 (1st thus, 1970)

Title: The French Key
Author: Frank Gruber
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• The Detective Had A Coin Torso! You'll Flip (!) For This Mystery!
• I believe this font is called "hyper-serif."
• See, here's the thing. There's really only one thing to say about this cover—more girl, less Captain Coin-Body.
• Frank Gruber was a prolific writer for pulp and paperback market. This book was originally published in 1939.

Best things about this back cover:

• Bah, the '60s continue to suck at all things book design.
• To its credit, this cover does have NUMISMATISTS!!!
• What will Johnny do with the blonde who says "I never tell the truth"? Careful, Johnny! It's a paradox!

Page 123~

Johnny dropped a coin on the counter and picked up a section of newspaper. He rolled the section of lead in the paper, gripped it at one end and smacked the other end into his palm.

The plumber grinned. "Oh, it's like that, huh?"

Dang. You do not want to disappoint Johnny with shoddy workmanship.

~RP

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Paperback 643: Ace 27910 (1st ptg, 1970)

Title: The General Zapped an Angel
Author: Howard Fast
Cover artist: Karel Thole

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• "They call this 'Blood Lake'. I forget why."
• That looks way worse than "zapped."
•  I have no idea why I bought this, except perhaps the kooky title, the fact that I recognized Fast's name from earlier work, and some vague idea that later in life I would turn my attention to cover art of the '70s...

Best things about this back cover:

• Text. Text text text. Text. Louis Untermeyer. Text.
• Mother Earth!? So *that's* what She looks like. Again, I'm gonna say the situation on the cover looks *way* worse than mere "wounding."
• I buy that he was "bestselling," but "world-famous?" Maybe this back cover blurb is its own science-fictional alternate universe-type story...

Page 123~

"Vacation?"
"No, no indeed. You know, I thought I would do one of those Jewish comic-tragic things about a Miami Beach hotel. You know the kind of thing, mostly schmaltz and bad jokes and maybe two percent validity so your audience will shed a tear or two if they're in the right mood."

"Oh, one of *those* things," he nodded politely while smiling and backing away.

~RP

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Paperback 639: Unibook nn (1st ptg, 1970)

Title: Kothar and the Wizard Slayer
Author: Gardner F. Fox
Cover artist: Jeff Jones

Yours for: $5


Best things about this cover:

• Behold the mystical wonder of the medieval PowerPoint presentation.
• Redhead: "Now if you'll direct your attention right ... here." Gremlin: "Eh! Oh! Eh! What the hell?!"
• Protip: Do not interrupt a gremlin during his morning shower, for that is when he lip syncs and dances to Katy Perry.
• Maybe having your two main characters turn their backs on the camera isn't the greatest idea, visual interest-wise.

Best things about this back cover:

• Choose from our vast selection of Kothars!
• And, in the most shocking Rose Ceremony ever ... it's Frostfire! Sorry, Lori.
• In my best Norman Bates voice: "A boy's best friend is his sword." 

Page 123~

Red Lori was there, coming from the building door, with Phordog Fale and Nemidomes at her elbow. In the background shadows he could make out Cybala, hiding. 

I see this author comes from the Get High And Utter Random Syllables school of character-naming. In other news, the official progression of fail is now Fail, Epic Fail, Phordog Fale.

~RP

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Paperback 561: Grove B-258 (1st ptg, 1970)

Title: GI Rights and Army Justice: The Draftee's Guide to Military Life and Law
Author: Robert S. Rivkin
Cover artist: Jules Feiffer

Yours for: $11
Best things about this cover:

• I hope the resolution on this image is good enough for you to see the G.I. being crushed by the title. Huddled up and anxious. What a great Vietnam-era, counterculture book this is.
• Love the Red White and Blue *on black* color scheme—it essentially says "your country is great because it has laws that will protect you even though your country is doing Terrible things in southeast Asia."
• Jules Feiffer! I probably got this book just because the art was by him.
• Grove Press fought really important legal battles against censorship in the '50s and '60s after publishing banned books like "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and "Tropic of Cancer," among others. For more info, see the entertaining 2008 documentary "Obscene."

Best things about this back cover:

• A.C.L.U.—the renegade publisher's best friend.
• "Minus Its Couth" is a strange, fantastic phrase.
• The black cat logo is so super-awesome that I want it on a t-shirt, like, right now.

Page 123~

However, treason may be committed only in time of a declared war and must involve something more than merely expression.

~RP

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Paperback 506: Paperback Library 63-213 (1st ptg, 1970)

Title: The Man Inside (Milo March Mystery 4)
Author: M. E. Chaber
Cover artist: Robert McGinnis

Yours for: $5

• Yes, Lee Marvin likes your see-through sarong very much.
• Seriously, this guy is my hero. I want his rough-hewn throne, his shirt, his, let's say, bourbon, and his, let's say, companion.
• The art deco-ish font is ... odd. Not throne-odd, but odd.
• Where Is Her Other Shoe!?

• Hell Yeah Wenching! 
• I want a sweater made of Chaber yarn.
• "You need not be told ..." HA ha. That wins "Most Unnecessary Blurb."

"Homicide is sending a man. Maybe they've already sent him. I threw around as much weight as I could and I think he'll look you up before he does anything, but don't expect any more than that. I don't think he'll give you any cooperation."

"I never expect any from a cop," I said.

Ooh, a quipster who plays by his own rules. He's the Die Hard of his generation.

~RP

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Paperback 492: Ace 01770 (1st ptg, 1970)

Title: Alpha Centauri or Die!
Author: Leigh Brackett
Cover artist: Uncredited [Carlos Ochagavia]

Yours for: $5

• "Uh ... I don't think they're home." "Did you ring the doorbell?" "Of course I rang the doorbell. What did you think, I'm just gonna stand here and ... wait, I hear something. Someone's in there. 'Hello! Hello?!'" "This is ridiculous. Who needs this much security?" "Don't be rude. 'Hello!' Maybe there's a dress code or something. I told you not to wear that stupid egg costume..."
• Space Station Security—powered by Simon and some reel-to-reel tape.
• I went through a Leigh Brackett phase in the late '90s, after I found out that she a. co-wrote "The Big Sleep" screenplay (with William Faulkner), and b. wrote the screenplay for "The Empire Strikes Back." She's a very competent writer who should probably be better known.

• Wow, that is some stain. I think that stain is now home to some microbial life forms. Appropriate for scifi.
• I thought the dude's name was "To [rhymes with 'Bo'?] Kirby"
• In space, no one can hear you complain about the tryranny [sic!]

They sweated it out crouched under their tarps, and after it was over they wallowed on through the mud to make a camp where they had stopped before, clear of the forest.  Damp and tired, they huddled around a hopeless little fire and chewed a cold supper.

Lollapalooza is the same no matter what planet you're on.

~RP

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Title: A Good Year for Dwarfs?
Author: Carter Brown
Cover artist: Robert McGinnis

Reader P. Morrison sent me a stack of books. They are beat up and cheesy, just like I like 'em. First up ... this.

• Evocative painting. Who knew that extras in a "Conan" movie experienced such depths of ennui?
• Is that lady a. calming her pet Pekingese, who lives in her hair; b. physically supporting her 50 lbs of hair because he neck has simply given out; or c. shaking her head in disbelief at the idea that Carter Brown has sold over 25 million books?
• I thought "A Good Year for Dwarfs" was the tagline at first, and had no idea what that could possibly mean. Then I realized that was the title. Puzzlement remained.
• If my students ever used a hyphen that way, there's no way they'd be getting better than a C.

• Rimmel and Holman? As porn names go ... subtle.
• I want business cards that read simply "Davis Davis, Movie Dwarf"
• "Twilight world" normally (in paperbackese) means "homosexual."  I'm doubtful that that is the case here.

Any moment now, I thought frantically, I'm about to make whimpering noises out loud! "Do you play Scrabble?" I gurgled.

Man, it gets Freaky on an early '70s porn set.


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Paperback 413: SF Greats No. 20 (Winter 1970)

Authors: Donald Westlake et al.
Cover artist: Ed Valigursky (titled: "The Space Breed")

Yours for: $5


Best things about this cover:

• Picked this up at a public library sale for "Only 50 cents!," just like the cover says
• Apparently on whatever planet this is, kids are allowed to drink and/or do drugs, because *that* kid is wasted, or else hungover—look at those crazy dark eyes. Not right.
• I love how the dog is like "Fuck off, kid! I'm watching 'Ren & Stimpy.'"
• I'm a little worried for the dog. The boy's expression says "I love you," but the ominous, pail-holding man approaching from the background says "Dog—it's what's for dinner."

Back cover is just a B&W replica of the front, so ...

Page 123~ (from "Step IV" by Rosel George Brown)

The mother frowned at Juba, a little wearily. "You have decided to forsake the world and become a Watcher of the Holy Flame. Am I not right?"

Here she is watching the Holy Flame (the illustrations throughout this issue are wonderful):


~RP

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Paperback 387: Scholastic Book Services T 76 (12th ptg, 1970)

Title: The Great Houdini
Authors: Beryl Williams and Samuel Epstein
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: not for sale


Best things about this cover:

• Houdini simply would not let Run-DMC show him up, chain-wise.
• Access to Houdini's junk was so highly prized that he had to lock that shit down. For real.
• Houdini used a wormhole to travel through time. He ended up in the year 2024. Unfortunately, his clothes ended up in 1863.

Best things about this back cover:

• Worst back cover ever. I got nothin'.

Page 123~

Whenever he entered a new city he went straight to the police headquarters, to challenge the authorities to lock him in their strongest fetters and their safest prison cell.

I'm surprised this did not get him severely beaten on a regular basis, especially if he showed up dressed like he is on the front cover. Cops have real work to do, jackwad.

~RP

Thanks to Jami for sending this book my way. And I repromise to be more prolific.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

I'm on vacation, where I just received THIS book as a gift.


Discuss.

New posts when I return to NY.

~RP

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Title: You're A Riot, Andy Capp
Author: Smythe
Cover artist: Smythe

Yours for: SOLD 9/18/10




Page 123 (or thereabouts) ~


~RP

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Paperback 233: Softcover Library S95189 (unknown ptg, 1970?)

Title: The Sisterhood
Author: Sheldon Lord (pseud. of Lawrence Block)
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: $14


Best things about this cover:

• "Oh, your Scottie-hair wig is so soft ... it makes me want to unbutton my shirt..."
• If there's one thing lesbians love more than anything else, it's grooming each other like monkeys.
• The tall one looks like a transsexual Joan Collins ... is that redundant?
• "swamp of bisexual love!" - worst thing about it: all the damned mosquitoes

Best things about this back cover:

• "For Women Only" - somehow, I doubt that
• "Happy Lesbos Hunting Ground" should totally, Totally be the name of a Vermont resort
• "Countess!" O, man, this stuff is rich
• "Infiltrate men's professions" - holy crap, it's an allegory about feminism. E.R.A. = exotic lesbian plot
• "strange" = paperback cover word of choice for referring to the gays. See also "twilight world," "in-between," etc.

Page 123~

Persistent, isn't he? she thought to herself. Then into the phone, "Look, Brad. Let's take this from the top, huh? I mean - besides the fact that I happen to be, shall we say, occupied - there's something that maybe you haven't thought of."

"Huh? What?" he said desperately.

~RP

P.S. Everyone within earshot of this blog is going to want to go out and pick up / order a copy of "Dames, Dolls & Gun Molls: The Art of Robert A. Maguire" (Dark Horse, 2009). It's a loving, glossy, gorgeous tribute to the greatest paperback cover artist that ever lived (IMHO). Literally, every page I turn, I find myself whispering "wow..." It's a reasonably affordable oversized paperback - the large scale reproductions of the art are what really make this book worthwhile. Plus it has lots of insights into Maguire's process, some of the photos he used as references, pencil sketches, etc. See an online flipbook version of the book here. Then buy it. Now.


P.P.S. Article by writer Brian Ritt about sleaze fiction master Orrie Hitt - find it here (this is why I "Follow" Christa Faust on Twitter)

Paperback 208: Avon PN286 (6th ptg, 1970)

Title: Beat Not the Bones
Author: Charlotte Jay
Cover artist: Uncredited (come on, someone must know this...)

Yours for: $10


Best things about this cover:

• Let's start with the title ...
• Because honestly, I'm not sure where to begin ...
• Beat Not the Bones! - for if you do, the Psychedelic South American Tree God will alight on your head with mind-altering fury!
• Revealed!: the secret of soprano Alma Gluck's outstanding voice!

Best things about this back cover:

• "Hair-raising" is not an effective qualifier of or follow-up to "persuasive." I mean, really - how do you en-dash your way from "hair-raising" to "persuasive?" That is nuts, New York Herald Tribune.
• "Proceeding?" It's not a trial. Horrible blurbs! Hey, I have a new blog tag.
• Civilization = innocence = sanity. Nice.
• "Rumors whispered suicide" - yes, when you play it backwards, the American version of Fleetwood Mac's most popular album does just that. And to think, Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne got all the bad press.

Page 123~

"I'm not at all well," he stated. "Fever always put my nerves on edge and those damn Kerema dogs come over and root up all my vegetables."

~RP

Paperback 201: Dell 1513 (1st thus, 1970)

Title: Cotton Comes to Harlem
Author: Chester Himes
Cover artist: Robert McGinnis

Yours for: $30


Best things about this cover:

• This is the kind of cover I want to hang on my wall as a poster - vivid, unusual, stunning
• Love love love the 3D perspective on the preacher's hand, the Rolls grille, and the 45 magnum. Lots of great tiny details too, like the little silhouetted man about to run down the subway stairwell, or the cop caught naked with a paper bag over his head.
• In general, this style of cover art - many images crammed into a kind of composite bloc - is not my favorite. Always looks to me like it needs unpacking. You see the style a lot in late 60s / early 70s books. Here, I find the composition pleasing. Could be a little less busy, but the gun / 'fro / hand / Rolls give the picture distinct focal points and keep it from seeming like a morass of undifferentiated gunk.

Best things about this back cover:

• I really should rent this movie. Redd Foxx!? I did not know that Ossie Davis co-wrote and directed it.
• This movie is from the height of the Blaxploitation era.
• The novel has comical elements, but is also dead serious. Cotton, as in a bale of cotton (not some guy named Cotton) literally comes to Harlem. It's a long story. Needless to say, all kinds of themes of racial difference and oppression get played out in the book. It's really fantastic.

Page 123~

He didn't see anything unusual about the Chevrolet pulling out from the curb near Eighth Avenue; it looked just like any other hundreds of Chevrolets in Harlem - a poor man's Cadillac.

~RP

Paperback 108: Signet CW 985 (43rd ptg, I think, ca. 1970)

Title: Tobacco Road
Author: Erskine Caldwell
Cover artist: somebody Baxter

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• It would be very sexy ... you know, if someone hadn't blown the right side of her face clean off. Really ruins the mood.
• There is something Klimt-y about the shapes and floral patterns in and around her ... dress. I guess that's a dress.
• This book is in near perfect condition. Feels unread, though if I hold it up to the light I can see the very faintest reading crease. Still, it's about as square and tight and shiny as a read book gets.
• Tobacco Road is paperback legend. This is the 43rd printing. It sold tons. A certain rural sexual frankness made this book good fodder for at least two generations of cover artists. I'm just really glad this "Baxter" guy signed, and dated, his cover painting, because Signet is crap for giving artists credit (or for dating their reprint editions clearly).
  

Page 123~

Dude said he was hungry, and that he wanted to go somewhere and eat. Sister Bessie had half a dollar; Jeeter had nothing. Dude, of course, had nothing.

~RP