Paperback 206: So Low, So Lonely / Curtis Lucas (Lion Books 91)

Paperback 206: Lion Books 91 (PBO, 1952)

Title: So Low, So Lonely
Author: Curtis Lucas
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $20


Best things about this cover:

• "I'll leave you to your imaginary cup of coffee, then..."
• "A Negro Searches for Love in an Alien World" - "These earth women cannot satisfy me. Damn it [pounds fist on table], I'm going to Mars!"
• That guy is very tan or sooty from working in the mines or relaxing backstage at his one-man minstrel show, maybe, but "Negro?" More like an Italian guy who just finished bobbing for apples in chocolate milk.
• I've apparently hit the part of my collection that's vaguely organized. Two versions of "Cotton Comes to Harlem," two Ace Doubles by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, and now the second of two early 50s titles by Curtis Lucas.
• This book is beat up and slightly water damaged but completely solid and intact, i.e. beautifully readable. It's got the well-worn, broken-in feel I like. It's also pretty rare - a Lion PBO with miscegenation themes. Hot.

Best things about this back cover:

• This book should be called "Carla's Way"
• Wait, which part was "wrong?" Wanting the white girl or stealing the money? The wording here confuses the issue very, very badly.
• Hey baby, I'm Curtis Lucas, and I will probe your torment with deep and uncompromising sincerity. Aw yeah.

Page 123~

He picked up his glass. She picked up her own glass, looked at it.

"You don't have to do that," he said.

For a moment she held her glass in mid-air, and her hand trembled. Then she smiled at him and they touched glasses. Both tilted their glasses.

If you love glasses, you'll love ... Curtis Lucas!

~RP

Paperback 199: Don't You Weep, Don't You Moan / Richard Coleman (Lion Library LL28)

Paperback 199: Lion Library LL28 (1st ptg, 1955)

Title: Don't You Weep, Don't You Moan
Author: Richard Coleman
Cover artist: Samson Pollen

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

• "We'll make our first incision ... here."
• "I'm just putting the final touches on my remarkably realistic head sculpture. . . there. Done."
• "Do those shoes look shined to you, you incompetent !@#@#!"
• Can you tell I'm just trying to think of captions that don't involve her demanding oral sex.
• This woman could be the slightly classier sister of Tombolo lady. Derisive sneer. Half akimbo stance. Tramptacular outfit. Etc.
• I love the abrasion and fraying on this cover - really drives home the "raw desire"
• The song is "Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn" - it's a Negro spiritual about delivery from oppression - which makes this title ... man, I don't know. I want to say "sacrilicious."
• Wait, is this lady black? Oh, dear lord, one of the interior blurbs discusses "the power of Negro emotions ... the raw, primitive passions, the splendid crudity ..." So the Charlotte Observer observes. The New York Times approaches the topic in characteristically elliptical and ironic fashion, mentioning the novel's "great color and variety."
• This novel's approach to coding / masking race is freaking me out, frankly. Check out the back cover:

Best things about this back cover:

• "swamp girl!"
• "seething b(l)ack streets!"
• OK, Washington Times, let me get this straight: Barbarity is at the top of the arc and brutality is at the bottom? "Sorry, blacks, you may go only as high as barbarity. At least it's beautiful barbarity. Be grateful."

Page 123~

"Dis sho is good fish," he said

~RP