Paperback 890: Olympia Press OPS-35 (PBO, 1971)

Title: Witch Power
Author: Salambo Forest
Cover artist: photo cover

Estimated value: who knows? Somewhere from $7 to $25 to infinity…

[Newest addition to the Doug Peterson Collection]

Best things about this cover:

• The best thing about this whole book, and the only reason to own it at all, is the author's name: SALAMBO FOREST. Please use it as your pseudonym, your troll name, your porn name … spread it far and wide across the internet. Long live Salambo Forest!
• Literally nothing about this photo says "Witch Power."
• I couldn't think of anything more to say about this cover so I opened the book to a random page and encountered the following contender for Least Erotic Phrase in a Sex Scene: "… her knee imbedded in his pubic hair." Wait, next page has another contender: "… closing him in a vaginal grasp."

Best things about this back cover:

• So they had, like, no budget for book design?
• I assume "White" and "black" here are metaphorical, but with this book, who the hell knows?
• This copy takes a jarring second-person turn midway through the first paragraph. "'You…'  You mean 'me?' But … but I don't want to be touched by a beautiful albino … I mean, I'm sure she's nice, but …"
• I'm confused. I will accede ("accede"!?) to Seventh Heaven if I don't keep a tight grip on my everyday reality? But … isn't Seventh Heaven a good place? It sounds good. And what about my other, non-everyday realities? So many unanswered questions. Salambo Forest, release me from your enigmatic grip!

Page 123~*

"Mrs. Jegerdorf," she stated, as if the name itself were explanation enough.

If every any name explained itself, that name is Mrs. Jegerdorf. And now I have my new swear word! "MRS JEGERDORF, that hurt!" "Get off your phone, ya JEGERDORF!" Try it out.

~RP

*actually Page 122 … but it's in the paragraph that leads in to 123, so I gave it a pass.

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Paperback 880: Bantam N7253 (PBO, 1971)

Title: Bump and Run
Author: Marty Domres (w/ Robert Smith)
Cover artist: Uncredited (!@!^%&) [Bill Wenzel]

Estimated value: $15-20

Best things about this cover:

• It is criminal that the cartoonist didn't get credit here. CRIMINAL. (And yes, that *is* the first and most important comment I have about this cover) [this site credits Bill Wenzel, so … I'm going with that]
• One man's desperate quest for the Perfect Grope. He's so close! Leave him alone, you other ladies!
• I love how obliging the stewardess is. Heels *and* tiptoes *and* chest thrust. She looks more like a mermaid figurehead on an 18c. pirate ship than a human being in any kind of normal position.
• That is some classic '70s Playboy near-naked lady cartooning there.
• This book is much better written, and much more political (specifically anti-racist) than you'd expect from the cover.

Best things about this back cover:

• There is nothing I can add to improve on this.
• You cannot throw a football from that position.
• When you can cast spells like Marty, you don't need no stinkin' helmet.

Page 123~

We expect to find conditions everywhere as they are in California, where there is no craning of the neck and muttering, no indignant or unbelieving stares, no glowering visages at the sight of a black man and a white girl enjoying each other's company. Any place that sets out to bar blacks, in the manner of the unreconstructed South, might just as well put up a sign that closes the place to pro football players altogether.

~RP

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Paperback 700: Ace Books 82210 (PBO, 1971)

Title: The Traveler in Black 
Author: John Brunner
Cover artist: Leo & Diane Dillon

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• Original title: Death Gives Two Hand Jobs
• Johnny Cash IS ... Death IN ... The Traveler in Black!
• Those hands are spectacular, and scary as hell.

Best things about this back cover:

• Only the highest of people could a. make sense of this and b. think "oh man, we gotta buy this."

Page 123~

The borderland between rationality and chaos seemed to be shrinking apace as the harsh constraint of logic settled on this corner of the All.

George Washington was in a cult, and the cult was into aliens, man.

~RP

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Paperback 496: Sphere 28894 (1st ptg, 1971)

Title: The Jewels of Aptor
Author: Samuel R. Delany
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $6

• Image lifted from a "Welcome to the Wonderful World of Scientology!" poster
• "Let's get high and listen to the new Phallus Eruption album!"
• I always thought the Washington Monument could stand to be a little ... gayer.

• This font is killing me. That "w" is totally making out with that "e."
• If there's one way I like my vivid images, it's crammed.
• "Denouement," Ha ha. I haven't seen that word since high school. So Shakespearean.

The knot's invention was ingenious. At the vibration, two opposed loops shook away from a third, and a four millimetre length of rubber band that had been sewn in tightened and released a fourth loop from a small length of number four gauge wire with a holding tonsure of three quarters of a gram, and the opposing vibration returning up the cord loosed a similar apparatus on the other side of the plug.

Dang. Sex toys of the future are complicated.


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Title: Beware the Curves
Author: Erle Stanley Gardner ("writing under his famous pen name A.A. Fair")
Cover artist: Well, hello there ... aren't *you* a tall drink of water ...

• Sometime in the mid-60s, the quality of pb covers started to go downhill—art gave up its real estate to text, usually the author's NAME or a detective's NAME. Cover paintings get smaller and then eventually disappear, leaving only stock photos behind.
• This cover is designed to do one thing: make you wonder "is that her nipple showing through the lacy dress, or just a shadow...?"
• Gardner was exceedingly prolific and, in part because of that prolificness, artistically underrated. He writes a good story, and I prefer these Lam and Cool detective stories (for which he used the pseudonym "A.A. Fair") to anything else he did.

Best things about this back cover:

• What design! ... is what I'd say if I were looking at a different book. As I say, the '60s bring about the slow uglification of paperbacks until we're left with ... this.

She pursed her lips. "I can usually size up character," she said. "And if I can't, well, if anyone gives me a double cross, Donald, I'm ruthless, absolutely, utterly ruthless."

"Most women are," I told her, "but few of them admit it."

"Dames," he added with a shrug. "Whaddyagonnado? ... Seriously, what do I do? They keep walking away from me every time I try to talk to them. Ruthless bitches, why won't you talk to me!?"


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The P. Morrison Donations #3 — Dell 8055 (1st ptg, 1971)

Title: So Lush, So Deadly
Author: Brett Halliday
Cover artist: photo

• Talk about your $20 photo shoots, dear lord.
• Possibly the least manly cover I own. A slap fight? Girl's got a gun aimed at your head and you're gonna swat at her like she's a fly? I'm guessing that one second after this picture was taking, the girl with the gun just shook her head, said "pathetic," and walked away.
• Interesting how the fabric around their midsections appears blurred with motion. I'm just so so so glad the yellow towel didn't move any further.

• Dotty De Rham! Why am I not collecting these names!?
• I'm not sure I understand where the "Carnival" metaphor is coming from.
• Arson is a cardinal sin?
• The coolest private eye swings into hot action! Oh, Mike Shayne, you're the paradoxiest!

She was bouncing in his arms. He took her by the shoulders and made her hold still. She was still wearing the same short nightgown.

Mall Santa: After Hours.

Merry Christmas!


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Paperback 334: Curtis Books 06148 (PBO, 1971)

Title: Terror By Night
Author: Vic Crume
Cover artist: Photo

Yours for: $6


Best things about this cover:

• Literally nothing about this cover — the pic, the design, nothing — says TERROR BY NIGHT. Is there a ghost in the amp? Is Keith gonna get blown away by some wicked feedback?
• There's a weed-whacker on the wall.

Best things about this back cover:

• "Downbeat for Danger!" should have been the title.
• Why is "and when Keith" italicized???
• "Provincetown was *nothing* like Keith expected..."

Page 123~

Keith Partridge and Bill Angelo, dripping wet, followed with another heavy box, and in back of them were eight men—three of them in handcuffs.

"Mom," said Keith, "it's not what you think."

~RP

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***BIRTHDAY EDITION***

Truth be told, this book was not scheduled to be written up today. There was an interesting but visually bland book on tap for today, but I decided I needed something spicy to help me celebrate my birthday, so I skipped forward two books in line and found this. Enjoy!

Paperback 168: Collier 01626 (1st ptg, 1971)

Title: Tales of the Flying Mountains
Author: Poul Anderson
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• "Tales of the Flying Mountains," Or, "Psychedelic Ape Men Visit the Boob Museum"
• I've heard them called a lot of things. "Flying Mountains" is not one of those things.
• More proof that everyone in the early 70s was high. How I survived my infancy is a miracle.

Best things about this back cover:

• How many papers does Washington have?
• This book is apparently a collection of short stories, each of which originally appeared in Analog magazine between the years 1963 and 1965. Anderson published them under the pseudonym "Winston P. Sanders." They are all set in a common futuristic universe in which mankind has colonized the solar system. One of the reviews at amazon starts with the phrase, "Taking his cue from Chaucer..." (!?)

Page 123~

... and yet that spark, together with the dwarfed sun, reached across to grip this orb on which she dwelt and lock it fast for eternity.

This book should be called "Grip This Orb" (see cover painting)

~RP

Paperback 105: Panther 026193 (14th or so ptg, circa 1971)

Title: The Ipcress File
Author: Len Deighton
Cover artist: Photo cover

Yours for: $9


Best things about this cover:

• Simplicity - B&W still photo that is the epitome of mid-century hard-boiled cool. Espresso vs. Smith & Wesson - Paper Clips vs. Bullets. Such great, simple balancing of iconic images. Gives you a sense of the Where and What and even the Who of the story before you've even opened the book. Details are incredibly precise. You can even read the "Gauloise" on the cigarette and the "Wesson" on the barrel of the gun. This book is from outside my collecting window (i.e. post-1969), but when I saw it at my local University book sale, I had to have it. If I ever publish a book, I want it to look like this, no matter what it's about.
• LEN Deighton is a frequent crossword puzzle answer
• The paper clips are somehow charming the hell out of me

Best things about this back cover:

• Stamp!
• A near complete lack of punctuation, including standard blurb quotation marks. No exclamation points, commas ... figure it out for yourself, reader!
• Quaint passive voice construction in the last sentence. So British (Panther is a British imprint, in case you didn't know)

PAGE 123~

Wriggling away from the legs of the tower, black smooth cables and corrugated pipelines rested along each other like a Chinese apothecary's box of snakes.

~RP

Paperback 46: Fawcett / Gold Medal M2268 (3rd ptg, 1971)

Title: The Crossroads
Author: John D. MacDonald
Cover artist: Uncredited


Best things about this cover:

• "Look at my shoulder holster! Look at it! Yeah, that's right. You better be afraid!"
• Floating Head says: "You dance funny, little man."
• This book has much better cover copy than it does art. See back cover...

Best things about this back cover:

• Centeredness makes back cover copy look like a poem - an awesome poem. Not sure which is my favorite phrase here: "sadistic chiseler" or "musclebound lover-boy." Probably the latter. Also, I love Anything having to do with a motel. Motels are my second-biggest thematic obsession, after Revenge.
  
• Ridiculous, arbitrary formatting - the gun-toting fist breaks up the text in absurd ways. It's like someone opened up a little door in a wall and is now about to shoot through it blindly.
• John D. MacDonald looks like the biggest Poindexter ever. His glasses are positively Asimovian. Awesome.

RP