In his excellent Introduction, Richard A. Lupoff discusses the history of pocket-sized paperbound books designed for mass-market consumption. The Art of Pulp Fiction specifically concentrates on the paperback publishing industry from 1940 to 1970. The Art of Pulp Fiction chronicles the rise of the paperback format–at times at the expense of hardcover books–which appealed to a new audience of readers.
The Art of Pulp Fiction explores all the genres–Science Fiction, Fantasy, Westerns, Spy Novels, Mysteries, etc.–and includes wonderful cover artwork from the paperbacks of that era. The Art of Pulp Fiction is a feast for the eyes! Don’t miss this one! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: A bright new morning / by Richard A. Lupoff — 8
In the beginning: dime novels, proto-paperbacks, and pocket books — 10
The floodgates open: publishers surge into an exciting new marketplace — 26
Gats, gals, and gumshoes: crime and mystery novels, hard-boiled and otherwise — 44
Saddles, six-guns, and sagebrush: Westerns, and the cactus cavaliers that made them popular — 64
Adventurers, past and present: spies, pirates, warriors, explorers, and soldiers of fortune — 84
Distant planets, future threats: science fiction migrates from the pulps to paperbacks — 104
Terror tales, fantasy worlds: tales of horror, the supernatural, and the imagination — 124
Changing times, new directions: post-World War II social issues influence paperback fiction — 144
The pulp-hero revival: Tarzan, the Shadow, Doc Savage, the Spider, and others — 164
Sex on the sleazy side: softcore sex novels promise more than they deliver —
Toiling at typewriters: paperback authors who enjoyed remarkable success — 184
Brilliant brushwork: paperback artists whose striking covers guaranteed sales — 218
Afterword: Paperbacks since 1970 — 232
Index — 236
Picture Credits/Acknowledgements — 239
Contributors — 240
Looks like fun. Just put in a request for it at my library. My branch doesn’t have it, but 4 others do., so I should get it early next week.
Steve, you’re going to love the paperback covers in THE ART OF PULP FICTION!
I still remember my surprise seeing the covers of Carter Brown novels in 1962 in a bookstore on the way to university …
It was almost “Sex on the sleazy side: softcore sex novels” but of course not real and the pictures were also censored in a way.
Even the SF novels had to have half-naked girls on the covers.
Funny:
In those days German paperbacks usually had no pictures at all on the covers!
Just the title and the name of the author.
The Heyne publisher was the first to have pictures as I remember.
A bit OT:
For those who can read German, Wiki has a list of the first SF titles published by Heyne – starting with Wyndham’s Triffids.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heyne_Science-fiction_%26_Fantasy
And you can find a collection of covers if you goggle “Heyne SF” and pictures – rather “harmless” I might say.
Those were the days!
Wolf, the Robert McGinnis covers on the U.S. editions of Carter Brown helped sell millions of copies!
And, of course, the publisher insisted on misusing “pulp” in the title. Paperbacks aren’t pulps. Pulps aren’t paperbacks (even if many of the publishers are the same). No romances? Also it looks as if historical fiction (aside from westerns) isn’t quite getting its due, by the TOC…particularly given the degree which historical fiction (his-fic if not hi-fi) was a recognizable “genre” in early paperback decades.
This is a follow up to an earlier volume on pulp magazines; “pulp” in the title here is to match the two books.
Jeff, good to know.
Yeah, I have to agree with Todd here. I get what the publishers are doing but mass market paperbacks are NOT pulp, period.
Jeff, I’ll have to check out the previous “pulp” book.
Todd, “pulp” is a hot word in publishing. Yes, it’s misused but it sells books.
I suppose I should’ve noted that my source for the publisher insisting on “pulp” in this paperback-oriented volume was Hulse himself.
It’s stupid and lazy and misleading…which, alas, isn’t “bad” marketing, but I have to doubt it’s really good marketing, either. “I’d NEVER buy a volume devoted to paperback covers…but once it’s tagged PULP, it’s IRRESISTABLE!”
This looks like a lot of fun, thanks for the tip. The term “pulp” may be a misnomer here but much like the similarly misused “B-movie,” the word has been so thoroughly repurposed in popular culture as to have usurped the original meaning (or at best now exists with a dual definition, with only those with a more academic interest now using it correctly).
It’s amazing how much mass market paperback books dominated the publishing world in the fifties, sixties and seventies. The two independent bookstores I frequented as a kid and teen only stocked mass markets while even the Walden Books and B. Daltons at the mall only featured new and best selling hardcover books at the entrance with a few miscellaneous trade titles (like “The Joy of Sex”) on the top shelves in the main browsing stacks. For about a decade almost everything seemed to be available as a mass market from cookbooks to art books. The only places I ever saw hardcovers in any quantity were the book sections of higher end department stores and the indie bookstores in college towns.
When I started working in bookstores in the 80s, yuppie conspicuous consumption took off and trade paperbacks (like CDs) were all the rage and supplanted mass markets within just a few years. It really wasn’t until the big chain bookstore boom of the 90s that hardcover books also made a comeback. Now, about the only mass markets you’ll find in a new bookstore are in the fiction genres: sci-fi, mystery and romance.
Byron, the growth of paperbacks from the 1940s to the 1970s was compelling. Today, paperbacks sell a fraction of what they did in their heyday. Barnes & Noble has been closing stores. The Pandemic and supply chain problems have to be hurting all bookstores.
Sadly, academics revel in misusing the term “pulp”.
Trade paperbacks were and still are often easier to read and better-bound (and at their prices, they should be). Mass-market pbs, often in the tall mm pb format, also tend to run to bestsellers and self-help “nonfiction”…the kinds of books that are flogged in non-literary circumstances, still…supermarkets, drug stores, airport and similar transportation convenience stores…
We recently purchased a copy of this after I saw it at Rick’s blog a while back. It is a lovely book.
Tracy, same here. Rick got THE ART OF PULP FICTION for his Birthday I think.
The author states in the Introduction that he had no choice in the title, the publisher insisted on it. Hulse certainly knows the difference between pulps and paperbacks, he’s an expert. It’s a terrific book, though I wish there had been more SFF covers.
Rick, I’m hoping Ed Hulse’s volume is devoted to Science Fiction paperbacks…and their cover artwork!
A book definitely to treasure but I am sure it is hugely expensive too.
Neeru, THE ART OF PULP FICTION is going for $39.12 on AMAZON.