Paperback 433: Sintown, U.S.A. / ed. Noah Sarlat (Lion Books 106)

Paperback 433: Lion Books 106 (PBO, 1952)

Title: Sintown, U.S.A.
Editor: Noah Sarlat
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $18


Best things about this cover:

• Fresno! (my hometown—I bought this book for that reason alone)
• I still don't know where "Bergen" is. Sweden?
• She's a tough, sexy dame ... from the neck down. From the neck up, she is a wasted, miscoiffed mess.
• I'm guessing what we're seeing here is one of them there "Sucker Traps..."

Best things about this back cover:

• "You will not see wealthy dowagers with lorgnettes sipping wine and nibbling on cheese in their opera boxes"
• My guess is that if the reader has bothered to flip the book over to read the back cover, he already suspects that it's not about the genteel habits of the urban elite. The book is called "Sintown, U.S.A." for god's sake.
• I like how this book goes beyond the mere assertion of the existence of a thriving underground vice economy to the more provocative claim that said "muck and misery and seaminess" are the "bedrock" of Anytown, U.S.A. "Can't have museums without hookers aplenty. That's nature's law."
• 20,000 seems an awfully arbitrary number.
• I've never been to Yourtown. Mytown, sure. But not Yourtown.

Page 123~

Many a respected Bergen citizen with a kingsize "monkey riding on his back" is in hock up to his ears.

As any Swede can tell you, it costs a lot of money to care for back-riding monkeys, especially the big ones.

~RP

P.S. Bergen, it turns out, is in Norway. Also, New Jersey.

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Paperback 75: America's Cities of Sin / ed. Noah Sarlat (Lion Books 71)

Paperback 75: Lion Books 71 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: America's Cities of Sin
Author: Noah Sarlat (ed.)
Cover artist: Uncredited (signature looks like somebody "Meinicke")

YOURS FOR: $14 (SOLD - 4/18/08)


Best things about this cover:

• This is a quintessential post-war paperback. A sort of Cold War / Red Scare II-era "exposé" of the hell-holes that were America's urban centers. This is the era that had upstanding Americans worrying about everything sex- and youth-oriented. There was an explosion in juvenile delinquincy-oriented books (it's a very popular and collectible subgenre now). This book says: your daughter is a smoking street-walker who refuses to wear a bra. Be afraid. Or else it says: open me up, big boy. Sin is in.
• The condition of the cover is not great because of damage from sun exposure. I really wish you could read the scrolling text at the top: "PROSTITUTION ... DOPE ... TORSO MURDERS" - my initial reaction: I was with you on "prostitution" and "dope," but ... what the hell is a "torso murder?" Was this a fad in the 50s? Kill someone and just leave the "torso?" Or were killers bludgeoning their victims to death with sculptures?

Best things about this back cover:

• Apologies for the sticker - this book came in a plastic sleeve that I cannot take off without bending the book in ways that make me uncomfortable. So you get to see the kind of sticker that is on the plastic bag of every one of my paperbacks. Cover artist (where known), publication status (1st ptg? 2nd? PBO? - in this case, the uncommon "Original Collection" of magazine material), year published, and resale value.
• I love that Lion tries to pass this book off as a public service announcement. "In the hopes of defeating evil in the world, we here at Lion Books have decided to titillate you with this sleazy paperback. God bless America."
• ELOY? How have I never seen that town in a crossword puzzle?

RP