Paperback 338: Dead Man's Tale / Ellery Queen [Stephen Marlowe] (Pocket Books 6117)

Paperback 337: Pocket Books 6117 (PBO 1961)

Title: Dead Man's Tale
Author: Ellery Queen (ghostwritten by Stephen Marlowe)
Cover artist: Harry Bennett

Yours for: $15


Best things about this cover:

• "He ... he was out picking tulips and his sabots slipped and he hit her head on a windmill blade, which caused him to choke on some edam. I do not know how we ended up underwater. Dike broke, I suppose."
• This title is superlame.
• Never would have known this was ghostwritten by Stephen Marlowe if I hadn't gotten on Abe Books to check prices. There's a signed copy available there in which Marlowe writes "Just this once..."

Best things about this back cover:

• "Hacha" sounds like some kind of drink you'd order at a hipster café in Brooklyn.
• This plot sounds interesting. I really want to know what they're going to tell Hacha once they find him. It better have something to do with a dead man, or a windmill. Otherwise, total ripoff.

Page 123~

Then they heard Lou Goody tramping up the hill.

And I thought "Barney Street" was a good name.

~RP

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Paperback 333: Fighting Generals / Phil Hirsch (Pyramid G496)

Paperback 333: Pyramid G496 (PBO, 1960)

Title: Fighting Generals
Editor: Phil Hirsch
Cover artist: Mel Crair

Yours for: $10


Best things about this cover:

• Well, insofar as you can describe the "best things" about Nazis ... I'd say that is some fine portraiture. I love the expression on Rommel's face. He looks a bit like Colonel Klink. Accident?
• How many insignias does one man need?
• This title is superlame. I can't wait for the sequel, "Peaceful Generals." That, or "Fleeing Generals"

Best things about this back cover:

• Hmmm. Design on this is pretty nice. Staggered photos, staggered descriptions, on a two-tone back ground. Kind of evokes the stripes on a flag. Kind of evokes chaos.
• Of course the Russian sounds the worst. Hello, 1960! Fuck you, Commies!

Page 123~

The stooped old man looked harmless—but Hitler's killers knew he was a deadly threat to the Nazi empire!

This may be the first time my "Page 123" has been an above-the-chapter-title teaser. Dynamic!

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

57 Books from the University Book Sale: Book 29

Title: No Surrender (Pocket Books 247, 1st ptg, 1943)
Author: Martha Albrand
Cover artist: Manso

Yours for: $5

• If it weren't for the dude with the helmet and rifle, I'd think this was a novel about the music scene in Amsterdam. That guy's trying to sneak into a club to see bands from the Dauntless Dutch Underground.
• Since this is the Netherlands, I'm assuming that thing behind our hero is a giant bong.

• "Quisling" is just one of the best words in the English language (or any language, I'd imagine). This plot actually sounds a little awesome.
• His name anagrams to RUN, VAN IS MONIKER

Page 123~

After a long time the professor sighed.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

57 Books from the University Book Sale: Book 28

First, an announcement. The winner of "The Secret of Sylvia" (as determined by random.org) is ... MARLA! Send me your address and I'll get the book out to you ASAP.

Now, onto a new book!

Title: Pastoral (Ballantine X757, 1963)
Author: Nevil Shute
Cover artist: uncredited

Yours for: $5 (free if your hair is shaped like a massive sideways comma)

• "I promise — I will return with the cure for Wedge Head. And then ... I Will Find You!"
• I got nothing else. Her hair is the only reason I noticed this book at all.
• "Urgent, tender and strong" is making me giggle a little

• Happy 110th birthday, Nevil Shute!

Page 123~

The Dane smiled ruefully.

Honestly, one of my favorite "Page 123" quotes in a long time

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

Paperback 229: Demented / Donald Jorden Young (Gold Star Books IL7-19)

Paperback 229: Gold Star Books IL7-19 (PBO, 1964)

Title: Demented
Author: Donald Jorden Young
Cover artist: uncredited (though I credited it to "Robert Maguire" for some reason - looks at least as much like the work of Mitchell Hooks)

Yours for: $20


Best things about this cover:

• Instant Klassic - unread, near-perfect condition ... vibrant colors ... a stripping nurse (!?) ... a fifth-rate publishing house ... a text-book example of the Floating Head motif ... absolutely gorgeous, in all its sleazy marginality
• "My prescription: take two of ... these."
• "Anthony Perkins is ... Frankenstein's monster in ... 'Demented!'"
• I like that the blurb features all three people depicted on the cover: "nurse," "ex-GI" with "war-born neurosis," and "weak professor," who frankly looks quite hale and handsome, if a bit disturbed by the hovering, giant head of Captain Mind Control...

Best things about this back cover:

• This is basically a tepid, watered down version of the plot to "The Stars, My Destination" by Alfred Bester.
• Love the random extra space between "perverted" and "lusts." It's like the copywriter tried many different versions of the final word and forgot to adjust the spacing when he'd finally decided on the winner. "Ah, 'lusts' ... le mot juste!"
• As for the nurse ... Check her out here, in a primmer, more demure moment...

Page 123 ... is too boring, so here's something from the teaser page that opens the book:

Encouraged, he put an arm completely around her, so that one hand rested on her right breast. Encountering no objection he slid his hand into her blouse, which was low-cut with a natural inviting slit [?]. Feeling no bra against his hand, he was exhilarated holding her breast, so smooth and full, if a bit cool [!!?].

~RP

Paperback 219: Combat Nurse / Frieda K. Franklin (Pocket Books 1147)

The Make-Your-Own-Commentary Experiment, Part the Third (sound off in "Comments" section)
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Paperback 219: Pocket Books 1147 (1st ptg, 1957)

Title: Combat Nurse
Author: Frieda K. Franklin
Cover artist: Charles Binger

Yours for: $10



Page 123~

In the subdued light their faces were hard voluptuous masks of powder and rouge and thick gleaming lipstick smeared like coating of fat over their pouting mouths.

~RP

Paperback 198: Tombolo / Nicholas Fersen (Popular Library - Eagle Books EB36X)

Paperback 198: Popular Library - Eagle Books EB36X (2nd ptg, 1955)

Title: Tombolo
Author: Nicholas Fersen
Cover artist: That guy who does all the Popular Library covers whose name I just don't know

Yours for: $10


Best things about this cover:

• "See you later, lady. Thanks for all the sex. We enjoyed it."
• Least comfortable sex location ever. By a longshot. Rocky, dirty, uneven ground, surrounded by bombed out ruins. "Let's put some rebar in the foreground!" "Genius!"
• Her hand ... it's astonishingly suggestive. Is it just resting there? Going somewhere? Pulling dress down? Hiking it up? Write your own narrative.
• I love how the jolly fat guy is waving and she's got this look like "Yeah, @#$ you, you putz." Akimbo arm helps establish the defiance.
• "Not for the weak-stomached," i.e. "This book will make you barf!" Thanks, St. Louis Globe Democrat!

Best things about this back cover:

• The full akimbo!
• She has her own boy harem. Awesome.
• If you like degeneracy, this is the book for you. "Sinkhole!" "Sex and savagery!" "Thundering tide of passion and violence!" And, of course, what would a book about Italian degeneracy be without a "vicious Negro" (!?)

Page 123~

He's gon' listen to me, Emmanuel thought, and rejoiced, knowing nothing about the gin and what had happened a few hours before in the heat, in the filigree of sunshine and the strident sound-layers of insects.

If the writer is trying to make the reader feel the pain of his characters, he seems to be doing a good job. If I had to read 150 pages of writing like that, I'd be begging for mercy from God and repenting all my sins.

~RP

Paperback 163: Hungry Dog Murders / Frank Gruber (Avon Murder Mystery Monthly 12)

Paperback 163: Avon Murder Mystery Monthly 12 (1st ptg, 1943)

Title: Hungry Dog Murders
Author: Frank Gruber
Cover artist: [William Forrest]

Yours for: $14


Best things about this cover:

• Well, I guess they weren't that hungry ... this guy's corpse looks in pretty good shape
• "If only I had used the leash and collar ... right ... there ... so close!"
• This guy's face is gruesome.
• The scariest part of this cover: The risen skeleton of Andy Warhol! Wearing academic regalia?! That is the weirdest logo you are likely to see in the world of paperbacks (or anywhere)
• This book is really well made - it's beat to hell but still completely solid: no loose pages, very square. It's an early, digest-sized paperback, produced during wartime, in the first five years of the existence of the mass-paperback market. Lots of experimenting still going on in terms of design, packaging, promotion, etc. Check out these features:

On the inside flap, an explanation of how important the activity of READING is during wartime:


Reminds me a little of the recent idea that we could fight terrorism by shopping. Precedent!

The first page actually looks remarkably similar to that of many modern, hardbacked, "literary" books of today - tons of blurbs:


A War Bonds ad at the end - "Yeah, we're talkin' to you too, Canada!":


A miniature drawing at the beginning of each chapter!


And then there's the back cover:


Best things about this back cover:

• "Thrillers" used interchangeably with "Mysteries" - interesting in the history of genre nomenclature. Slippage! Conflation!
  
• A. Merritt was a big deal scifi writer, and "Creep Shadow Creep" is one of the greater titles I've ever seen
• Avon was clearly really, really big on getting you to get on board - "Order! Ask your Newsdealer! Do it! Creep Shadow Creep!"

Page 123~

"Ha-ha," Johnny laughed mirthlessly.
"It just struck me as funny, Johnny. That fat slob, Maggie. I never had a fight with a woman before. But you - you treated her just as if she'd been a man."

Ah, the '40s. Following a precedent (precedent!) set by Dick Tracy (it's true), Johnny Fletcher liked to smack broads around and then laugh about it afterward. "Women these days ... sometimes you just gotta hit 'em!"

~RP