Average customer rating:
- The cliches were invented right here
- Great Stories, Great Edition, Great Book
- Great stories by a great author
- A Vicious Circle
- Good, good, GOOD editorial choice here!
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Stories and Early Novels: Pulp Stories / The Big Sleep / Farewell, My Lovely / The High Window (Library of America)
Raymond Chandler
Manufacturer: Library of America
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Later Novels and Other Writings: The Lady in the Lake / The Little Sister / The Long Goodbye / Playback /Double Indemnity / Selected Essays and Letters (Library of America)
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Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man (Library of America)
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Crime Stories and Other Writings (Library of America)
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
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Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1950s: The Killer Inside Me / The Talented Mr. Ripley / Pick-up / Down There / The Real Cool Killers (Library of America)
ASIN: 1883011078 |
Amazon.com
If you're looking for the perfect gift for yourself or some other lover of mysteries, this beautifully-made volume from the Library of America series will definitely prove that you care enough to send the very best. And if you haven't picked up The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, or The High Window recently, you'll be amazed at how well they stand up to the test of time. (A second handsome volume, Later Novels & Other Writings -- including The Long Goodbye -- is also available.)
Customer Reviews:
The cliches were invented right here.......2005-08-19
There are Hammett fans and Chandler fans. I am for Hammett, but Chandler's work remains compelling. The plots are nonsense but the metaphors are the purest gold. The opening scenes of THE BIG SLEEP and FAREWELL, MY LOVELY are delicious every time.
Great Stories, Great Edition, Great Book.......2004-01-30
Just my personal opinion, but I think Raymond Chandler is one of the most underrated American authors. Anyone who hasn't read "The Long Goodbye" must be punishing themselves for sins in a past life. "The Big Sleep" and "The High Window" are also excellent novels--good mysteries.
But what really makes Chandler's stories hold up so well is the language: "The Dancers is the kind of club that will dissolution you about what a lot of extra golf money can do for the personality" or "What does it matter, if you're breathing wind and air or oil and water--when you're sleeping the big sleep."
While the plots are wonderful period pieces of a young Los Angeles, the characters are richly drawn. Ever wonder where all those tv detectives came from? Right here.
Chandler's short stories are also supurb. My vote for the single best detective short story of all time is Red Wind--there is so much that happens in such a short story. No one should ever die without reading it....."Trouble is my Business" is also excellent....
Is this a complete collection of his short stories? No--There are a few I would have added, even though several of them were "canibalized" (Chandler's phrase) into later novels. The plot of "Bay City Blues" was built into "Lady in the Lake," but I think that story still holds up on its own. An earlier review also mentioned that "The Pencil" is missing. I can't understand why it was left out. "Killer in the Rain" also became "The Big Sleep," but it still has charm. "No Crime in the Mountains" is not included, but that's not much of a loss.
Not all of the stories in this book work--but that's going to be true with any collection. What is convenient with Library of America is the bindings are wonderful, the print font easy to read, the books lie flat, and will last forever. The list prices are a little steep--but not if you consider the amount of literature you're getting for the cost. I've bought this book three times, and have loaned it out--only for it to never return. But that's why I buy books.
One final note--The previous review mentioned that in this edition Johnny Dahlmas was replaced by Phillip Marlowe in "Red Wind." I was certain it was Johnny, and used Amazon's "Look Inside" to confirm--it is. Chandler had a few detectives, that eventually evolved into Marlowe, and each was a little different. I have a very soft spot in my heart for Dahlmas (I'm probably spelling his name wrong, so the soft spot may be in my head), so if the editor x-ed him out, I'd be furious....
Buy this book.
Great stories by a great author.......2002-07-19
Chandler is perhaps the greatest writer of detective fiction and a great author period. To ignore these books is to ignore much of what is great about American literature.
Two of his three best novels are included here (The Big Sleep & Farewell, My Lovely).
The stories and great fun, if also rather flawed. My biggest complaint is that are presented here in their republished form, rather than with the original names of the protagonists. (For example, the hero of "Red Wind" is Philip Marlowe here, rather than John Dalmas.) That a fairly minor quibble. Especially good are "Goldfish" and "Red Wind."
The binding is very nice, as are all Library of America editions. My edition has held up quite well after heavy use.
A Vicious Circle.......2002-03-01
"Nothing made it my business except curiosity. But strictly speaking, I hadn't had any business in a month."(21) For Phillip Marlowe, the irresistibly aloof private detective who stars in Chandler's impressive detective novel, Farewell, My Lovely, crime is not something he seems able or willing to avoid. Hitting the streets of Los Angeles in the midst of the American gambling craze of the 1930's, Marlowe finds himself an inextricable player in a search for knowledge of past and present crimes and criminals.
Though he appears, on the surface, to be little more than a nosy, bumbling "private dick," his successful unraveling of a closely interwoven crowd of crooks proves, as one suspect cop observes, that Marlowe "played...smart....You must got something we wasn't told about." (228) Keeping his cards in his hand for most of the noel, Chandler shows that both he and Marlowe are "smart," leading the reader on a circuitous trail that shakes out only in the novel's final pages.
The story begins with a happenstance encounter between Marlowe and an ex-con called "Moose" Malloy. Marlowe cannot resist pursuing the suspicious-looking hulk of a man and soon finds himself both running after and from a variety of shady characters. In the course of his private investigations, Marlowe survives several near brushes with death, getting "sapped" by thugs near the novel's start, pumped full of opium in a suspicious hospital-like place, and stealthily boarding a closely guarded gambling boat to confront an infamous mobster in the middle of the night. In the end, Marlowe succeeds at untangling the web of murders and crimes that keep him running throughout the novel, but not before giving the reader the run-around as well. Chandler's smart, articulate prose lends itself well to the captivating story and intriguing characters that combine to make this a must-read for fans of detective fiction.
Good, good, GOOD editorial choice here!.......2001-12-02
Earlier anthologies of Raymond Chandler's works mostly center upon what have come to be known as his 'big four' or earliest novels -- The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady In The Lake -- or upon his later, and admittedly (with the possible exception of The Little Sister) 'inferior' works. Chandler's earlier short stories ( many of which he "cannibalized," to use his word, for the material in his subsequent novels) are normally treated as a separate genre altogether.
This particular collection, rightly, combines Chandler's first three novels with the best of his earlier short stories, recognizing the thematic unity in those works. (Good as it is, "The Lady In The Lake" demands to be treated separately from Chandler's earlier efforts.)
Chances are, if you're reading this, you've read most, if not all, of Chandler's Phillip Marlowe novels. You may as well have read many, if not all, of the short stories presented here. But have you read these novels, and these short stories, TOGETHER in this context? Likely not. But you deserve to.
In the short stories, for example, there are protagonists named John Evans, Ted Carmody and Tony Resick (the last two of which, interestingly, inhabit locations which were most likely Los Angeles' Hotel Mayfair, with which Chandler had more than a nodding familiarity). And when, in Chandler's writings, did they meld themselves into what would be his penultimate creation, Phillip Marlowe?
And at which point did Chandler begin to write, as fellow writer Ross McDonald termed it, "like a slumming angel . . ."? The answers to both questions may well lie here, in this collection.
Pick up this collection! Read it! Discover the material anew!
Book Description
As America slowly relaxed its moral codes in the postwar era, pulp novels offered an initiation to the previously hidden demimondes of sex and hedonistic excess. While the cover blurbs feigned shock and disgust, the cover art reveled in illicit danger, their titillating scenarios offering a lurid window on America’s suppressed desires. Now, collected here, are tigresses and temptresses in all their reckless glory. Each title in the series features 23 color postcards.
Customer Reviews:
She tried and succeded ^_^.......2005-08-14
A great postcard picture collection. i gave them to my girlfriend as a present, since she has wanted a collection of pulp covers for sometime now. She loved them, I loved them, and all of our friends that also saw them got a kick out of them.
All four of the pulp cover art books by Prion are highly recommended,whether you are a fan of pulp art or just like nice pictures in general. if you are a bit of a collector of pulp covers, get em all and add 92 excellent pictures to your collection.
Book Description
Six masters of pulp fiction at its most powerful and suspenseful best -- John MacDonald, James M. Cain, Donald Westlake, Lawrence Block, Mickey Spillane, and Harrington Whittington -- distinguish this new anthology compiled by the award-winning editors of its two popular predecessors, American Pulp and Pure Pulp. Like them, Pulp Masters culls its tales -- in this case, six classic novelettes and one complete novel -- from the golden age of magazine fiction in the first half of the twentieth century. The writers included in this volume in time emerged as giants in the field of crime fiction, and the stories in this volume demonstrate why. Their voices fresh, their talents raw and original, with novelettes like "Ordo," "Stag Party Kill," "The Embezzler," and "Everybody's Watching Me," Westlake, Block, Cain, and Spillane both heralded and shaped the crime story as we know it today. So did "the King of the Paperback Original" -- Harrington Whittington -- represented here by the novel based on his pulp short story "So Dead, My Love."
Customer Reviews:
Very appealing collection.......2001-09-07
This is a very enjoyable set of crime stories from several of the most famous names in the genre. Contained within are six stories: five longish short stories (or novelettes) and one short novel. I have read very little of these types of pieces before, so I was unable to compare them to other examples of this genre. But as they say, I may not know trashy pulp novels from the middle part of the Twentieth Century, but I know what I like, and this collection is well worth reading.
As I said, I don't know much about written crime stories, though I have seen my fair share of the films from this era. There's something very enticing about these stories of gangsters, cops and private eyes. Every woman is a blonde and every case has a solution. These aren't the most realistic stories in the world, but you'll have to go far to find more enjoyable ones.
"The Embezzler" by James M Cain, 1938 - This is quite an interesting story set in and around a city bank. Money is missing, and a bank employee must figure out who is embezzling the money and how. A nicely realized romance between the protagonist and the wife of the suspect helps break up the action pleasantly. The ending feels a bit contrived, as if the author was forced to tack on a happy ending, but the story itself is very entertaining.
"Ordo" by Donald E. Westlake, 1977 - An interesting character study of a woman who leaves town and becomes a world-famous movie star. It's told through the eyes of a man she was married to before she became famous. It's a great story that will keep you intrigued the whole time. Fairly simple concept, but the execution raises up the quality of the entire piece.
"Stag Party Girl" by Lawrence Block, 1965 - A whodunit that doesn't quite live up to its full potential. The premise and investigation are fairly interesting, but the ending falls a bit flat.
"College-Cut Kill" by John D. MacDonald, 1950 - This one seems to be structured very similar to the previous story, though it has the advantage of being slightly better executed. The killer's motivation is far too similar to that of the murderer in "Stag Party Girl". It was probably a mistake to include these two stories next to one another in a collection. Placing a story or two in between them would helped to shadow the similarities.
"Everybody's Watching Me" by Mickey Spillane, 1953 -- A story of established gangsters who fear news of the arrival of one of the deadliest hit-men in the country. I didn't care for this story. While the premise is sound enough, there are far too many factions to keep track of in such a small space. There are two difference police departments, several groups of gangsters, a drug supplier, a hired killer, a newspaper reporter, the narrator, the narrator's love interest and his mysterious informer. Perhaps if this was a longer piece there would be more room to develop all these characters and sub-plots, but as the story is, they are just too underdeveloped and confusing. The ending is a surprise, but, unfortunately, it falls apart once you start putting some thought into it.
"So Dead My Love" by Harry Whittington, 1953 - This is the only full novel in the collection though it was a relatively short one. This was quite an enjoyable read. The story is set in a small town in the South, featuring a man who grew up there but then left to become a private investigator in New York. When he's called back to his roots, he must locate a missing person while avoiding the old feuds and power politics that caused him to leave in the first place. This was probably the most entertaining read in the collection. I couldn't wait to see what the protagonist was going to uncover next in this small town. All the characters and their relationships were well explained, and by the end of the story I was able to completely understand how the hero felt about the place he grew up in.
All in all, this was a very appealing collection. I hadn't read much of the genre before this anthology, but now I have a few more authors that I think I will be looking up to read more of. Recommended.
Amazon.com
Penzler Pick, November 2001: Pulp magazines reigned for about a quarter of a century as the most popular entertainment medium in America. They were cheaply produced and, during the Great Depression, were blessedly cheap to buy, generally a dime.
And they were plentiful. After a low-key beginning, when a few magazines displayed their tasteful covers to an appreciative readership, their success spawned countless competitors. The covers became more and more garish, and promised ever greater excitement. Western covers went from an illustration of an Indian gently paddling his canoe to furious cattle stampedes, a huge gang of obviously ferocious savages attacking a defenseless family, and depictions of shootouts in every conceivable locale. Mystery covers went from showing a cop on the beat to villainous thugs tearing the clothes off a helpless young woman (most frequently a generously endowed young blonde) or any other sort of action that promised the reader endless excitement.
And they delivered. Pulp writers knew how to write thrilling stories and books. Many of the best went on to extremely successful careers in book form. Dashiell Hammett wrote most of his stories and novels for the pulps, and he is now recognized as one of the most influential fiction writers of the 20th century. Raymond Chandler, too, wrote stories for the pulps and is frequently conceded to be the great mystery writer of the 20th century.
Pulps became more and more specialized as their numbers increased, soon appealing to fans of jungle stories, science fiction, fantasy, railroad stories, romances, Westerns, Western romances, aviation, the Foreign Legion, engineering, the outdoors, courtrooms, Wall Street, newspapers, firefighters, and so on. Now there is a new book that recalls that Golden Age of the pulp magazines (roughly 1920-1945) with a knowledgeable and nicely written text that covers all the highlights of the major magazines and the major writers, who are sometimes remembered today and, alas, sometimes not.
And there are those fabulous covers! Magnificently produced in Hong Kong, Pulp Culture is a genuine bargain. Here are the Shadow, Max Brand, Talbot Mundy, Erle Stanley Gardner, Black Mask, Sax Rohmer and Fu Manchu, C.S. Forester, and Captain Horatio Hornblower, Doc Savage, the Phantom Detective, and on and on.
For the old codgers among us, this gorgeous book will produce a happy trip down memory lane. Younger readers, eat your heart out. It will show you what you missed in a time of great storytelling that today's television shows can't ever match. --Otto Penzler
Book Description
Pulp fiction’s lurid adventures were vividly reflected on the magazines’ eye-catching covers. Hard-boiled dames, bizarre monsters, dicks and ‘tecs, sinister villains, and muscled warriors all appeared each month to tempt readers out of their hard-earned dimes. This gorgeous full-color compilation features hundreds of the genre’s most thrilling covers and includes an index. Taken collectively, they provide a dazzling panorama of some 60 years of illustration and social commentary.
Customer Reviews:
PULP Keeper!.......2007-03-30
The BEST collection of pulp genre ever. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? Is there a Doc Savage in the house? Can I get that Fu Manchu to go? how about some Lovecraft? I guess it all should have warped us, but it didn't, and all that we watch and read today has drawn strength from these wonderfully cheap reads. Totally sweet from design to content. Robinson knows his stuff and it all makes for a CHERISHED collectible book!
They finally got it right.......2007-03-16
This is a fully revised edition of the first pictorial history of the pulp magazines to be published and the authors finally got it right. There is a complete index of magazine titles and the artists who painted their covers, the images have been rescanned to eliminate any "moire" patterns that may have degraded the paintings, and the most unusual cover ever published has now been included (a painting by John Held Jr., famous for his "sheiks and shebas" of the Jazz Age). The cover has been redesigned and features the image of a pirate far more fearsome than Johnny Depp. This is the book that started it all and the price is now more than right. --Frank M. Robinson (I'm one of the authors).
WONDERFUL HISTORY AND DAZZLING ARTWORK.......2005-07-06
Hard-boiled Detectives, mysterious heroes, shadowy villains, evil oriental masterminds, and dames in distress...they are the stuff of the pulp magazines and the subject of this wonderful book by Frank Robinson which traces the history of pulp magazines and provides covers to hundreds of these great pulp magazines, so many lost in the antiquity of time...not to mention paper drives of the 1940's war years.
Robinson begins by tracing the roots of the pulps back to the dime novels of the late 1800's. Argosy would premiere as the first true pulp back in 1896 and before long dozens of competitors would emerge such as Popular Magazine, All-Story Weekly, New Story and so many more. Street & Smith, long a major publisher of dime novels would convert their Nick Carter series into Detective Story Magazine in 1915. The pulps were born!
Early on, adventure pulps were the most popular as they transported readers to strange and exotic lands in a time when few would ever leave their own state. It's where we first read the exploits of Tarzan, and heard the names of writers such as Burroughs, Mundy and Rohmer. Adventure magazine was among the most popular of those early days and they even had their own organization you could join called "The Legion" which would one day evolve into the American Legion. Adventure printed more than just fiction, they had many regular columns including "Wanted: Men & Adventurers" where real life mercenaries could advertise their skills for hire.
In the 1930's, detective pulps became the most popular as there were literally dozens of detective pulps being published. Among the most prominent pulps of the day was Black Mask Magazine, started by prominent newspaperman and political commentator H.L. Mencken. But he considered the pulps so low-brow that he didn't want his name associated with them. Still, Blackmask was a breeding ground for some for some of the great mystery and detective writers ever to pen a story including Dashiell Hammett, Erle Stanley Gardner, Lester Dent, and Raymond Chandler.
Robinson's narrative moves from one pulp genre to the next, with a short, but concise history of each. He examines the Western pulps and the interesting history of the man known as Max Brand. Brand was the most prolific pulp writer ever, appearing in 622 issues of Western Story magazine from 1920 - 1935. From there it's on to the hero pulps and the birth of the most famous pulp characters of all including "The Shadow", "Doc Savage", and "The Spider". The Shadow's covers were always among the most evocative and terrifying, especially those by the great George Rozen.
But the genre that gave us the most outrageous and grisly covers of the pulp era belongs to the "shudder pulps". Bondage, torture, sadism, nudity...nothing was held back in covers for such pulps as "Terror Tales" and "Horror Stories". These pulps are some of the most sought after today by collectors.
Romance, spicy adventures, sports, war...all of these get their just do in Pulp Culture but it's the sci-fi and fantasy section that will be a major appeal for many fans. It was here where some of the most famous and long-running pulps made their mark. Hugo Gernsback would usher in the age of Sci-fi pulps in 1926 with Amazing Stories. Soon there were dozens of competitors including Wonder Stories, Astounding Stories, and many more. And then there is perhaps the most famous, most collectible of all pulps, Weird Tales. Weird Tales would unleash the enormous talents of Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, and countless others with stories that would endure, and continue to be reprinted, decades after their original publication. There are dozens of covers provided featuring the works of artists like Margaret Brundage and Virgil Finlay.
Robinson closes his book by providing an appendix to a handful of pulp dealers and notes on pulp values. This book would be worth the $40 price tag alone JUST for the hundreds of stunning covers re-printed, but Robinson's concise history of pulps just adds to the luster of the book. Simply a magnificent book for any fan or collector of pulp magazines.
Reviewed By Tim Janson
A marvelous and instigating book .......2005-03-06
This book is a marvelous journey to a time that will not come back.Guided by two wonderful connoisseurs: writer ,pulp magazines scholar and collector Frank M. Robinson and Lawrence Davidson,"PULP CULTURE" was a beautiful gift that I bought(via Amazon.com ,from the NIGHT OWL CAFE Bookshop in North Hampton,NH) for myself.Reviewing this work for January magazine,David Middleton said:"For me it's mostly about covers.Those lurid,sensational covers." Well,for me it's about everything.I love the covers,of course(see the HANNES BOK painting for the November 1941 cover of WEIRD TALES),but I admire, too,the stories and writers.The adventure tales written by H.BEDFORD JONES and TALBOT MUNDY;the mystery and detective stories created by legends like DASHIELL HAMMETT and RAYMOND CHANDLER;the western yarns concocted by pulp giants like MAX BRAND and FRANK GRUBER.And the Magazines!It's titles!It's alluring titles:THE ARGOSY,THE ALL-STORY,BLACK MASK,DIME DETECTIVE MAGAZINE,ADVENTURE,THE BLUE BOOK,THE POPULAR MAGAZINE,WESTERN STORY,THE SHADOW MAGAZINE,G-8 AND HIS BATTLE ACES,TERROR TALES,HORROR STORIES,STRANGE STORIES,AMAZING STORIES,ASTOUNDING STORIES,FANTASTIC ADVENTURES,FAMOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES,THRILLING WONDER STORIES,PLANET STORIES and so on...I have a good envy of collectors like Frank M. Robinson who owns hundreds and hundreds of these shiny magazines with their garish covers,a happy guardian of these rare and precious popular art objects.
The books published by Collectors Press are already much sought after for it's exquisite design and intrinsic quality."PULP CULTURE" is one of them.
Beautiful overview of pulp cover art.......2002-05-22
I puchased this book for 50% off, and after reading it, I can say that even at full price, it would have been worth it. Page after page of bright clear reproductions of pulp covers, many almost full-page, with any extra space filled with smaller images. The book is divided into chapters based on subject matter: Westerns, Super Heroes, Sci-Fi, Horror, Gangsters, etc. The text is informative, but minimal - it provides just enough background on each chapter's subject and then lets the art speak for itself. Each cover is accompanied with information on the issue and artist, plus some informative personal commentary from the author. Plenty of top-notch artists are included, such as Wyeth, Baumhofer, etc. Don't buy this for an in-depth analysis of pulp magazines; the star here is definitely the art, and it delivers in spades.
Book Description
Long before the birth of the modern gay movement in 1969, a literary revolution was occurring between the covers of the cheaply produced pulp paperbacks of the post-World War II era. In Pulp Friction, cultural critic Michael Bronski collects a sampling of these now-little-known gay erotic writings-some by writers long forgotten, some never known, and a few now famous. Through them, he explores the ways in which these expressions of the erotic imag-ination ultimately led to the idea of a gay identity and the creation of gay culture. An entertaining, enlightening, and groundbreaking work.
Customer Reviews:
Truly incredible.......2004-03-28
I've respected Michael Bronski's journalism for years, but this is the first of his books I've read. I'll definitely be reading more. Here he performs two amazing feats. First, after doing an extraordinary amount of background reading, he selects examples of gay pulp fiction from the 1940s through the 1970s, ranging from the surprisingly literary to campy porn. I worried that the excerpt approach would be frustrating, but Bronski has a real knack for setting the scene, and the excerpts are all satisfying on their own. Given that most of these novels are hard to find (now probably more so), this is a tremendous resource.
Second, he offers an introductory essay bursting with insight & nuanced introductions to every piece (often with tantalizing information about the writers). At the back, perhaps most valuable of all, he puts together an annotated timeline of highlights of gay male literature 1940-1969 which discusses works by the writers included in the book as well as more literary work (Genet, Vidal, Baldwin, etc.). It's an essential resource for those looking for further reading.
The later pieces are often pornographic, campy and silly (very entertaining, occasionally dark or hard-core) while some of the earlier pieces are generally more thoughtful, even literary, though sometimes downbeat. Bronski's selections always emphasize what was exceptional or unique for the time. *None* of these pieces are routine. My personal favorites are "Sam," "Spur Piece," "Lost on Twilight Road," "The Boys of Muscle Beach," "Song of the Loon," and "Gay Revolution" (in which the world is turning gay, Body Snatcher-style). "Maybe--Tomorrow" is hilarious yet somehow brilliant. ("Muscle Beach" & "Gay Whore" are also hysterical.) My excitement about gay literature has been completely renewed. Bronski has eschewed the stuffy (often depressing) "classics" angle for a poppier approach of the smartest kind. At a minimum, every gay discussion group should read this book, but it should also appeal to adventurous non-gay readers.
Lots of fun.......2003-08-15
Michael Bronski's enlightening anthology of mostly forgotten gay writings from the mid-twentieth century is a wonderful addition to any bookshelf. Alternating literary analysis with lively samples, he demolishes the notion of a dearth of gay literature from World War II to the 1969 Stonewall riot. All of the works excerpted here are out of print, and while some may not be to our modern readers' tastes, they are all evocative of gay men's lives at the times, for better or for worse. From insightful drama to hardcore erotica, these books did much to shape America's views of homosexuality, and "Pulp Friction" whets the appetite and showcases where today's gay literature can trace its roots. Also included is an appendix where Bronski lists a smattering of gay novels published from 1940 to 1969. This anthology is a great introduction to this genre of queer writings.
A fascinating look into gay history.......2003-07-28
Just after the end of World War II, a small literary movement began, unnoticed to most of the public: the gay pulp novel. From quiet novels about homosexual relationships post-WWII to the psycho-analytic and sexually charged writings of the Sexual Revolution to the more speculative and activist writings post-Stonewall, Author Michael Bronski has drawn from extensive research and a large collection of pulp novels to give an in-depth look at this almost hidden movement. Through this anthology, the reader not only sees a history of the gay literature but of societal views concerning homosexuality and how they have progressively changed.
Bronski has chosen to cite only a few chapters from specific works to point out the pulp styles as they changed with the times. At first, I thought I would be put off by this, but instead, it has interested me enough to try to find copies of some of these works, many of which have not been in publication since the 1950s and 1960s. One selection of note is from "The Gay Haunt" by Victor Jay. Kind of a gay "Blithe Spirit," even the snippet that was included in this book had me laughing hysterically.
This is a fascinating read, most definitely worth your reading.
Average customer rating:
- Midwest Book Review: December 2006 Issue
- Excellent collection of mostly out of print titles
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Lesbian Pulp Fiction: The Sexually Intrepid World of Lesbian Paperback Novels 1950-1965
Manufacturer: Cleis Press
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ASIN: 1573442100 |
Book Description
Long before the rise of the modern gay movement, an unnoticed literary revolution was occurring between the covers of the cheaply produced lesbian pulp paperbacks of the post–World War II era. In 1950, publisher Fawcett Books founded its Gold Medal imprint, inaugurating the reign of lesbian pulp fiction. These were the books that small-town lesbians and prurient men bought by the millions — cheap, easy to find in drugstores, and immediately recognizable by their lurid covers: often a hard-looking brunette standing over a scantily clad blonde, or a man gazing in tormented lust at a lovely, unobtainable lesbian. For women leading straight lives, here was confirmation that they were not alone and that darkly glamorous, "gay" places like Greenwich Village existed. Some — especially those written by lesbians — offered sympathetic and realistic depictions of "life in the shadows," while others (no less fun to read now) were smutty, sensational tales of innocent girls led astray. In the overheated prose typical of the genre, this collection documents the emergence of a lesbian subculture in postwar America.
Customer Reviews:
Midwest Book Review: December 2006 Issue.......2006-12-02
Once upon a time, the multitude of lesbians lived closeted, secret lives, isolated from others and often from their own true feelings and aspirations. There was no Internet, no gay radio, no magazine or journal or organization to turn to for affirmation. Until the 1950s, precious few books reflected anything at all about the lesbian experience. This changed in 1950 when Fawcett Publications inaugurated the Gold Medal imprint and kicked off a wave of pulp fiction publishing that included both gay and lesbian novels. For the first time in history, women could find cheap paperbacks featuring lesbians, and the books sold in the millions. Pulp novels constituted one of the first steps toward lesbians having a written presence in any kind of literature. As Katherine V. Forrest writes in the introduction to LESBIAN PULP FICTION:
"The importance of all our pulp fiction novels cannot possibly be overstated. Whatever their negative images or messages, they told us we were not alone. Because they told us about each other, they led us to look for and find each other, they led us to the end of the isolation that had divided and conquered us. And once we found each other, once we began to question the judgments made of us, our civil rights movement was born" (p. xviii).
In moving style, Forrest also writes of finding in 1957 a copy of Ann Bannon's ODD GIRL OUT, "a book as necessary to me as air" (p. ix). How fitting that Forrest should edit this wonderful homage to these early writers when her own works are frequently cited as having the same effect upon other women as Bannon's work had upon her. CURIOUS WINE (1983) is frequently cited by lesbians as a book that saved their lives. I believe it when Forrest writes, "I write my books out of the profound wish that no one will ever have to be there again" (p. ix).
To spotlight those early pulp novels, Forrest has selected twenty-two excerpts by nineteen authors including Ann Bannon, Vin Packer, Paula Christian, Tereska Torres, Valerie Taylor, and Marion Zimmer Bradley writing as Miriam Gardner. Among reasons for selecting these particular excerpts, Forrest cites pioneering status, sexual content, happy endings, reflections of the times, and quality of writing. Many of these books have been reprinted (several by Cleis Press), and with a little diligence, all of them can be located and purchased. Each of them is well worth reading in its entirety, but this wonderful collection will provide hours of delight and enjoyment to anyone willing to enter into the sexually intrepid world of lesbian paperback novels. An essential text for all libraries, both private and public, this book is highly recommended. ~Lori L. Lake, Midwest Book Review
Excellent collection of mostly out of print titles.......2005-06-23
The collection gives a sampling of classic novels and a wee bit of background on each. Reading it has made me seek out the selected author's titles. A wonderful addition to anyone's library.
Customer Reviews:
Pulp Classics.......2007-09-10
Mammoth is definitely the word. This is one thick chunk of pulp fiction, my friends. Breaks the mail box, hurts the hands, makes you feel the pain, like pulp action should.
As a Pulp Era collector and researcher, I had to have it. However, as a reader, there are some definite speed bumps in this collection.
Well, you can't have it all. Nevertheless, worth a read.
The Worst of Pulp Fiction.......2005-03-02
I'm a bit of a connoisseur of pulp fiction, and often order paperback originals of Spillane, Craig Rice, Bill Ballinger, etc. from Amazon Z-shops.
This book was a huge disappointment to me.
Pulp writers did it for the money - and in some cases also produced great works of art, like James M. Cain's "Mildred Pierce." Unfortunately, most of the stories in this collection read like something knocked out on deadline to a precise word count - and once the writer hit that word count, he dropped it in the mail and headed for the corner bar.
Lawrence Block's "A Candle for the Bag Lady" is the worst offender - the writer sets up a fascinating premise in which a seemingly homeless woman, newly murdered, turns out to have distributed her substantial wealth in a complex will naming random strangers. Where did the money come from? Why was she living in such reduced circumstances? And why in the world did she choose these beneficiaries - the owner of a local newspaper stand, a neighbor she rarely spoke to, the detective himself - when her real friends and acquaintances got nothing at all? And how is all this linked to her murder?
We'll never know, because when Block hits his word count, he has a new character show up in the detective's corner bar and say, "I hear you are looking for the murderer. Well, I did it. I just felt like killing someone. Would you mind coming with me to the police station?" End of story. (Sorry to spoil it for those who haven't read it, but it's hard to imagine that anyone could spoil it more than Block himself.)
The Cain and Spillane contributions here are bores - truly not their best work. The one top-class story, Donald E. Westlake's "Ordo" , is also available in another collection, "Pulp Masters." I would recommend that book instead of this one.
Terrific collection for the avid or new noir fan.......2003-01-08
The Mammoth Books do a fine job in their respective categories, however, this collection surpasses them all. It is perfectly conceived with representative stories from the masters of the noir/hardboiled style as well as underappreciated authors who created a few gems. Black Pudding by David Goodis is remarkable and probably my favorite in the collection, but it really is hard to pick a favorite since there are so many stories. The best part is that each story stands on its own and they don't start running into each other. Long after you put the book down, you will remember each story.
Packed Full of Pulp.......2002-01-23
"The Mammoth Book of Pulp Fiction" certainly lives up to its name. Containing 32 stories and nearly 600 pages of text, it is packed full of hard-boiled crimes taless, many of them superior in quality. The best include, but are not limited to, "A Candle for the Bag Lady," a fine early Matthew Scudder tale by Lawrence Block; "So Dark for April," an excellent moody P.I. story by Howard Browne; "Stacked Deck," a masterful caper tale by Bill Pronzini; "We're All Dead," a heist-gone-wrong story by Bruno Fischer; plus a couple of good tales by the MacDonalds, Ross and John D.
On the downside, there are no author introductions for the individual stories to provide them context. Nor are all of the stories first rate. A couple of them veer into the supernatural, which doesn't seem to fit the theme. They range in time period from the early 1930s to the mid-1990s but are not chronologically sequenced. Nevertheless, as a reader you can certainly pick and choose, making this collection worthwhile for any fan of hard-boiled short crime fiction.
Variety is the spice of life.......2000-05-14
This book is filled with great little stories, each of which are pure art in their own way. Forget deep analysis, forget reading into heavy plot lines and meaning-drenched narrative, this book is good-old fashioned, great story-telling. And what makes it even greater is juxaposing current "political correctness" with the raw narrative of the old days. Sure, some of the stories don't cut it, but those that do will make you wish it was 1944 all over again.
Book Description
As America slowly relaxed its moral codes in the postwar era, pulp novels offered an initiation to the previously hidden demimondes of sex and hedonistic excess. While the cover blurbs feigned shock and disgust, the cover art reveled in illicit danger, their titillating scenarios offering a lurid window on America’s suppressed desires. Now, collected here, are tigresses and temptresses in all their reckless glory. Each title in the series features 23 color postcards.
Customer Reviews:
Resistance is futile @_@.......2005-08-14
A great postcard picture collection. i gave them to my girlfriend as a present, since she has wanted a collection of pulp covers for sometime now. She loved them, I loved them, and all of our friends that also saw them got a kick out of them.
All four of the pulp cover art books by Prion are highly recommended,whether you are a fan of pulp art or just like nice pictures in general. if you are a bit of a collector of pulp covers, get em all and add 92 excellent pictures to your collection.
Average customer rating:
- Sonny Tabor and Kid Wolf ride again
- Hey Pards...Saddle Up For A Great Ride Through The World Of The Pulp Western
- Pulpwriter
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Pulp Writer: Twenty Years in the American Grub Street
Paul S. Powers
Manufacturer: Bison Books
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Desert Justice (Leisure Western)
ASIN: 0803259840 |
Book Description
He wrote under at least eight pseudonyms, published hundreds of short stories and novellas in pulp magazines, and lived a life at times as outrageous as his fiction. Pulp Writer tells of Paul S. Powers’s travels from serious literary ambitions to the pages of Wild West Weekly, of his seeking his fortune (or material, at any rate) in the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado, and of his life in Arizona and California as he reaped the rewards of his wildly successful Wild West Weekly characters such as Sonny Tabor and Kid Wolf.
Extending from the Great Depression to the golden age of the pulps, Powers’s career, chronicled here in often laugh-out-loud style, is an American success story of true grit and commercial savvy and of a larger-than-life character with questionable but endlessly entertaining Western lore to spare. In the process, he provides a valuable and rarely-chronicled look at the business of writing and publishing pulp fiction during its golden years.
Powers’s granddaughter Laurie never knew her grandfather and lost touch with his side of the family. In her biographical essays, she finds her lost family and discovers the Pulp Writer manuscript. Her essays also provide a valuable historical context for pulp publications such as Wild West Weekly and their importance during the Great Depression.
Customer Reviews:
Sonny Tabor and Kid Wolf ride again.......2007-06-30
"Toward the bottom of the container I found a manila envelope ... I opened it. PULP WRITER: TWENTY YEARS IN THE AMERICAN GRUB STREET. I looked through it quickly ... I clutched it, disbelieving ... I'd found the lost life of my grandfather." - Laurie Powers
PULP WRITER is, above all, a journal of discovery - discovery by Laurie Powers that her dimly and ill-remembered paternal grandfather, Paul Powers, had a successful career as a western pulp fiction author during the 1930s and early 1940s, and the discovery by Paul himself of that uncertain road that sometimes leads writers to a hard-won success.
The core of the text, page 55 to 221, is Paul's reminiscences, written around 1943, of his evolution as a writer, first as a contributor of jokes to newspapers and national magazines, then, as his skills matured, as a creator of short stories and novelettes for pulp magazines dedicated to stories of the Old West, principally "Wild West Weekly" (WWW) published by Street & Smith, until demand for such fizzled out at the end of World War II and teenagers switched to comic books. Indeed, the quality of Paul's professional and personal life deteriorated after 1943. He died an alcoholic in 1971, disappointed and financially strapped.
Paul's narrative is buttressed at both ends by granddaughter Laurie. Up front, she gives a brief history of pulp magazines as a genre, her grandfather's place within it, and her investigations into his writing career, which produced not only the single novel of which she'd previously been aware, Doc Dillahay (subsequently re-issued with the title Six-gun doctor; (A Bantam book), but more than 440 stories for WWW alone comprising an output of an estimated 10 million words. The key to this amazing discovery was the realization that Paul had written under several pen names, and his cowboy heroes included the likes of Sonny Tabor, Kid Wolf, and Johnny Forty-five. She ends the volume with the chapter "Life after the Pulps", in which she summarizes Paul's relatively unhappy existence after the demise of the pulps until his own death.
Paul's memories are almost exclusively of his development as a writer and his relationship with his distant editors. The other major events of his life are barely mentioned. Indeed, his first marriage is given short shrift on page 116 - "So I got married and brought a wife back with me to Kansas" - as well as his divorce from the woman, on page 156 - "I had domestic troubles that quickly ended in divorce" - and his subsequent second marriage, on page 170, mentioned somewhat more romantically:
"In Arizona I had found some romance of my own, and that summer I married a Tucson girl, the one who will still be with me, I hope, when the last story is written and the dust cover is dropped over the old typewriter." (She was.)
In a sense, PULP WRITER is rather esoteric. It's most likely to be relished, perhaps, by lovers of literary fiction, and especially anyone who enjoys the art of stringing written words together for whatever reason, be it business or pleasure. The illiterate will be bored to tears. But for those who read this engaging volume, there are observational nuggets to be found.
Paul relates a letter to WWW by a reader from Ohio, who remonstrates, "Keep the gals out of your magazine - they only spoil things." Well said!
I grew up with comic books, and my generation now bewails young people's preoccupation with computer games and social networking websites. But, in 1943, Powers writes, "The 'comic books'... have made inroads, especially among the youngsters of teen age who used to have enough mental energy to read, at least."
And finally:
"Writers simply don't like to be told of (their) brainchild's faults. When they say they do, they lie ... Not for nothing are critics despised people!" (After nearly 1000 reviews, I'm most certainly despicable.)
Laurie Powers is responsible for bringing PULP WRITER to print. It was a labor of love, and honor is due.
Hey Pards...Saddle Up For A Great Ride Through The World Of The Pulp Western.......2007-06-29
Laurie Powers, editor of "Pulp Writer: Twenty Years In The American Grub Street", had for many years lost contact with the Powers side of her family. What she found upon reuniting with them while researching a thesis she was working on is a gold mine of Americana. A true treasure in the memoir of her grandfather Paul Powers, a writer of pulp westerns way back in the 1920's, 30's and 40's.
Bookended by two wonderful and interesting essays by Ms. Powers describing the family history she learned and her course of researching and a follow up on Paul Powers after the writing ceased to exist, you will find Paul Powers' memoir of his work and the times of the real pulp fiction writer. It is one of the most interesting and exciting memoirs I have ever read.
Although the son of a prominent Doctor, Paul Powers had writing in his blood. He could knock off an entertaining and adventurous 12,000 word read for fans of his popular characters like "Sonny Tabor" and "Kid Wolf" in a week.
He writes of trying to break into the business, writing 2 line jokes for various magazines, all the rejection slips on his stories and then finally breaking into the pulp business. He touches on his very nomadic personal life a bit- giving us the feel of the western towns of the early 20th century - but mostly, the reader will get a real feel for the life led by those of wrote for the pulp magazines, riding the highs and lows from pauper to king of the wild west stories, and back again. Power's tales are enthralling as they are funny, often told in a much self-deprecating manor.Also, between, Paul's memoirs and Laurie's research the business of pulp back in the days is a very detailed eye opener as well.
"Pulp Writer" will appeal to and entertain fans of the pulp western genre,is an educational read for history buffs, as well as writers researching their own family history and would certainly be an inspiration to anyone writing their own memoir. How fortunate we are that Mr. Powers wrote down for us this very important part of history that he was such a big part of, one that was so popular that even during the depression, fans still plunked down their precious pennies to read all the adventures. And we are fortunate as well, that Laurie Powers had it published for us to savor.
A highly recommended read. One that will not only keep your interest throughout, but may peak your curiosity so much that you may start looking up some of those old stories. So maybe we can hope for a companion piece to this book with some reprinted stories by Mr. Powers!
Happy Trails and Enjoy the Read....Laurie Shirley
Pulpwriter.......2007-06-08
An excellent book. The true background of a man who made big bucks writing for pulp magazines when they were a favorite form of reading for millions of people. This man had published over 450 stories in the 15 years from 1928 through 1943. His wanderings and commentary are exceptional reading for anyone who is interested in this time period.
Average customer rating:
- Whew !
- Early lesbian Nobel from the 1950's
- Pretty Bad
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Journey to a Woman (Lesbian Pulp Fiction)
Ann Bannon
Manufacturer: Cleis Press
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Women in the Shadows (Lesbian Pulp Fiction)
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I Am a Woman
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Odd Girl Out
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Beebo Brinker
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Spring Fire (Lesbian Pulp Fiction)
ASIN: 1573441708 |
Book Description
Dubbed the “Queen of Lesbian Pulp” for her series of landmark novels beginning in 1957, Ann Bannon’s work defined lesbian fiction for the pre-Stonewall generation. Following the release of Cleis Press’s new editions of Beebo Brinker and Odd Girl Out, Journey to a Woman finds Laura in love amidst the lesbian bohemia of Greenwich Village. This fifth in Cleis Press’s series of rereleased lesbian pulp fiction classics features a new introduction by the author.
Customer Reviews:
Whew !.......2003-09-08
It's really a great ending to a fiction. Beth search for Laura having her meet Beebo and falling in love with her in the process. I just wish there still a continuation to this book about Beebo and Beth's relationship.
Early lesbian Nobel from the 1950's.......1999-03-16
I don't know that lesbians growing up in the 1990's will understand this book, but those of us who grew up in the 1950's and 1960's most certainly will.
I have read all of Ann Bannon's books.
I found "Journey to a Woman" to be excellent.
It tells the story of tormented Beth, who turned away from her female lover, Laura, when the two of them were in college together. Beth chose instead to marry.
Now Beth, unsuited to the life of wife and mother of two young children, feels the misery of her choice.
She begins to dream of Laura. She begins to long again to have a woman in her life to love.
In her quest for lesbian love she becomes involved with Vega, a beautiful, sophisticated, many times married woman. It turns out the unstable Vega has a secret that makes a relationship with her a vast disappointment for Beth.
Beth yearns anew for Laura, and sets out on a quest to find her. She finds many surprises along the way, and eventually happiness.
Although the characters certainly are not into "Gay Pride", the book is very realistic in it's portrayal of what life was like for lesbians before Stonewall.
Pretty Bad.......1997-03-10
I found myself questioning whether such a character could
actually exist in the real world. The main character had
such extreme shifts in mood, thought processes, concerns,
and morality that she seemed better suited for an institution.
And in the end, you are expected to believe that she will live
happily ever after.
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