I don’t know how I missed this book first published in 2017, but I’m glad I discovered it now. If you’re a fan of paperback cover art from 1950 to 1980, Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats offers dozens of great examples. Many of these covers I’ve never seen before!
I sent a copy of Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats to Art Scott for a Christmas present. Art, whose eyes are sharper than mine, told me the book was dedicated to former DAPA-EM member Graeme Flanagan. And, in the CREDITS, Bill Crider is listed. I don’t remember Bill mentioning working on Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats but he was involved in plenty of projects at that time.
The range of paperback cover artwork displays plenty of great girl gang covers. Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats is a must-buy if you’re into classic paperbacks. What a wonderful book! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Foreword by Peter Doyle — 7
Introduction by Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre: Savage Streets and Secret Swingers: The Longed-for World of Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture — 11
Teenage Jungle: Pulp Fiction; Juvenile Delinquents — 18
The Pulp Delinquents: The Teenage Crime Wave and 1950s Pulp Fiction — 20
Evan Hunter; Jungle Kids — 38
The Amboy Dukes, by Irving Shulman — 48
Some Sketches of the Damned: The Early Pulp Fiction of Harlan Ellison — 50
Playing Chicken: 1950s Hot Rod Pulps — 56
Rumble at the Housing Project, by Edward DeRoo — 60
Teddy Boy, by Ernest Ryman — 62
The Feather Pluckers, by John Peter Jones — 64
In Too Deep, by Bruce Nicholson — 66
Bodgies, Widgies and Bent Cops: Gunther Bahnemann’s Hoodlum — 68
The Delinquents, by Criena Rohan — 76
The Rebels, by Carl Ruhen — 78
The Typewriter Was His Camera: Devil Girls and the Shadowy Literary Career of Edward D. Wood, Jr — 80
The Warriors, by Sol Yurick — 86
Beat Girls and Real Cool Cats: 1960s Beats and Bohemians — 90
Tomorrow Is a Drag: Beats and Bohemians in 1960s — 92
Pulp Fiction Ann Bannon and the Beebo Brinker Chronicles — 104
“Beat” in Fiction and Fact: The Books of John Trinian –114
Shake Him Till He Rattles, by Malcolm Braly — 118
Marijuana Girl, by N.R. De Mexico — 120
Laura Del-Rivo; The Furnished Room — 122
Baron; Court, All Change, by Terry Taylor — 126
Party Girls and Passion Pits: The Pulp Fiction of Sydney; Kings Cross — 128
The Spungers, by Julian Spencer — 134
Love Tribes: Hippies and the Pulp Fiction of the Late-60s and Early-70s Counterculture — 136
Turn On, Freak Out: Late-60s Hippie Pulp — 138
Two Travel Through. Or, The Skinny Shall Inherit the Earth, by Glen Gainsburgh & Peter Whitehead — 144
The Disappearance of Adam Diment — 146
The Carnaby Street Spy — 149
“Whoever Was in Control Was the One to Watch”; An Interview with Floyd Salas — 152
What Now My Love, by Floyd Salas — 156
Dress Her in Indigo, by John D. MacDonald — 158
From Acid Temple Ball to Wimmem’s Comix: Sharon Ruda; Adventures in the Underground — 160
144 Piccadilly, by Samuel Fuller — 166
Satanic Slaves and Hippie Death Cults: Charles Manson; Inspired Paperbacks — 168
Nothing to Lose: An Introduction to the Work of Jane Gallion — 174
The Power of the Word; A Letter from Jane Gallion — 180
Sappho in Absence, by John Crosby — 184
Harris in Wonderland, by Philip Reid — 186
The Hardboiled Hippie: The Detective Fiction of Brad Lang — 188
Groupies and Immortals: Pulp Fiction Music Novels — 194
Hot Lips, by Jack Hanley — 196
Wild Beats: Australian Rock Pulps — 198
A Sad Song Singing, by Thomas B. Dewey — 204
Sir or Madam, Will You Read My Book? British Beat Group and Rock Fiction of the 1960s — 206
Cold Iron, by Robert Stone Pryor — 214
Drummer, by Richard Carlile — 216
The Destroyer #13: Acid Rock by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir — 218
The Drop Out — Hugh Miller — 220
WHEELS OF DEATH: Pulp Biker and Motorcycle Gangs — 222
The Leather Boys by Eliot George — 224
A Rock and Roll Lord of the Flies: Davis Wallis’s Only Lovers Left Alive — 226
Bonnie by Oscar Bessie –230
Black Leather Barbarians: The Biker Pulp of New English Library — 232
Bike Boys, Skinheads, and Drunken Hacks: Laurence James Interviewed — 236
The High Side by Max Ehrlich — 246
Bikie Birds by Stuart Hall — 248
CULTS OF VIOLENCE: 1960s British Youthsploitation Novels — 252
The Best British “Bovver”: Richard Allen and New English Library –254
Gender, Sexuality, and Control in New English Library Youthspoltation Novels of the 1970s — 263
Soccer Thug by Frank Clegg — 270
Agro — Michael Parry — 272
The Punk — Gideon Sams — 274
Gang Girls — Maisie Mosco — 276
OUTSIDERS: Late-60s and Early-70s American Pulp and the Rise of the Teen Novel — 278
Something in the Shadows: An Interview with Marijane Meaker — 280
James Bond Never Surfed: the Surfer Spy Pulp of Patrick Morgan — 286
Operation Hang Ten: An interview with George Snyder — 290
The Grass Pipe by Robert Coles — 296
The Outsiders — S. E. Hinton — 298
A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich — Alice Childress — 300
Frank Bonham’s Dogtown — 302
Go Ask Alice by Anonymous — 308
High School Pusher –Jack W. Thomas — 310
Kin Platt’s Young Adult Novels –312
Contributors — 317
Acknowledgements — 320
As if I needed to be tempted into buying another book. Let’s see, of the titles mentioned, I’ve read THE AMBOY DUKES, THE WARRIORS (light-years better better than the dumb Walter Hill movie version), ROCKABILLY (Ellison wrote a ton of JD pulp, including “Memos from Purgatory.” made into a HITCHCOCK episode with James Caan, Tony Musante, and Walter Koenig!), SHAKE HIM TILL HE RATTLES . . . DRESS HER IN INDIGO, like many of the Travis McGee novels, probably hasn’t aged well, if I remember its drug and lesbian elements correctly.
Fred, George the Tempter is already at work in the New Year! You’re right about the aging of some of these books from 1950 to 1980. But I still like to look at those quirky covers!
Rotarian hippie, indeed…the coolest cat at the lodge beer-bust. I still will read the McGees, but I hope JDMc knew a Bit Better than his problem-solver…even if that meant he was condescending to the audience. Very Paperback.
Sorry I didn’t get here until now, but we’ve been packing most of the day. Looks like another must-have.
Jeff, you’ll be browsing for hours with GIRL GANGS, BIKER BOYS, AND REAL COOL CATS!
I used to look for operation hang ten series books for a fellow bookseller who collected surfing books of any kind. Most used book stores no longer take books with a cover price of less than $5
Yikes, Mary!
Maggie, so many used bookstores have closed here. We only have a handful left. Most older paperbacks show up at Library Book Sales now.
You did it again, George. Dang it!
Jerry, you’re going to thank me after you dive into GIRL GANGS, BIKER BOYS, AND REAL COOL CATS!
It seems to have been written for a cool cat like you!
Bob, Happy New Year to another cool cat!
I’ve had the argument with Nette particularly about how these aren’t “pulp” novels so much (as they were dismissed at the time) as paperback novels, but hipster imprecision will out. See the Beatles song alone.
That said, they knew who to talk to. I’m very surprised you hadn’t picked up on it when new–Bill’s involvement alone–or I might’ve pointed it out.
Todd, Bill Crider worked on a lot of projects like GIRL GANGS, BIKER BOYS, AND REAL COOL CATS and this one just slipped by me. Glad I rediscovered it! GIRL GANGS, BIKER BOYS, AND REAL COOL CATS is still in print.