Harpy Town

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Lust Running Wild In — Harpy Town

From the back:

TOWN TRAMP…
…the quiet, parched little town rocked from the blow of murder… foul and cruel and needless. Maudie had been such a nice girl, always willing to oblige any man, enjoying the shame and degradation that was the exclusive right of the town tramp. While all the other wantons went about their daily disgraces. Jack Bristol, the rough and ready lover. Rose, his wife, who only had charms for Rex Grayson. But they all fell under suspicion and became helpless victims to the depraved —
… SHAME CHASE!

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Unpublished Paintings by Norman Saunders

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36900591-Norman_Saunders_-_The_Living_Statue,_pulp_cover,_c._mid-1930s
36900590-Norman_Saunders_-_Shootout_at_the_Steam_Pipes,_pulp_cover,_c._1935

The Living Statue and Shootout at the Steam Pipes

When I could not find any information about where these paintings were published, I wrote David Saunders, who is the leading expert on his father’s work. David immediately wrote back and told me that they had never actually been published, which makes me feel better about my research skills.

 I am very familiar with these paintings ever since I was first shown photographs of them by Charles Martignette around 1998, at which point he was trying to arrange to trade them to me in exchange for other original art I own by my father. He stated to me that they were a part of a large collection of original paintings that he owned, which had all come from DELL Publications. He showed me photos of all the other paintings as well, and sure enough I recognized all of them as actual cover art from DELL publication pulp magazines. I helped him to identify the publication dates and titles for all of the other original paintings, but I was not able to find any examples of these two paintings having ever been published, so I told him at the time that they were “unpublished works.” By that time I had already spent a lifetime documenting my father’s art. I had thoroughly identified all known published examples of the art of Norman Saunders. Because of my expertise it was a surprise to see these two “unpublished” paintings, which were entirely unknown to me. They are clearly identifiable from their unique style as being from among the first group of paintings Norman Saunders designed with the intention of breaking into the pulp magazine industry in 1934. This was before his all-important study “master class” with Harvey Dunn in NYC at the Grand Central School of Art, where he received his advanced training from 1935 to 1938. So these are from an earlier period, before he was an accomplished master of oil paintings, when he might be described as a semi-professional illustrator of a student grade. He had already produced thousands of black and white interior story illustrations for Fawcett Publications in Minneapolis, but he had only painted a few full-color magazine covers. He moved to NYC in the summer of 1934 and he struggled to break into the pulp magazine industry as a cover artist. My father later told me that the first publisher to give him a break was George Delacorte at DELL Publications. Dad told me that Delacorte himself was interested enough to buy “an arm-load of sample covers.” Sure enough, many of the earliest published examples of my father’s cover art appeared on DELL pulp magazines, ALL DETECTIVE and BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE. I have made a great effort to inspect every single issue of every pulp magazine published by DELL from that time period, many of which are available for study in microfilm format at the US Library of Congress in Washington DC. I have inspected every such magazine and I feel confident to state definitively that neither of these paintings were ever published on the covers of any pulp magazine.

I suspect these were among the “arm-load of sample covers” my father sold to George Delacorte in the Fall of 1934 or Winter of 1935. These are the only two that have since surfaced from a collection that Charles Martignette bought from an unknown source from the archives of DELL Publications. All of the other examples that Charles Martignette showed me came from BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE circa 1935 to 1937. The evidence strongly suggests George Delacorte bought an “arm load of samples covers” from Norman Saunders and proceeded to use the finest examples on his covers of the pulp magazine BLACK BOOK DETECTIVE, but he never chose to print these. Incidentally, my father also told me that his earliest cover paintings were sold for only $25 each, so at that rate DELL could afford to buy more than they really needed to use.

I hope this background info helps you to better appreciate these unpublished student-grade paintings for what they are.

Best wishes,

David Saunders

Hush-Hush Town

Ember Library 336 1966

For Their Kinsey-Type Survey They Came To This — Hush-Hush Town

From the back:

There was a depraved killer loose in the town, and Sam Carter wanted him caught; but Sam had done too much research, knew too many dark secrets the citizens had kept hidden. And then he was in a jail cell, and coming at him with a rubber hose was probably the nation’s most beautiful interrogator, to make sure the city remained a —
Hush-Hush Town

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Go Down To Glory (Original Title: This Bright Summer)

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Dell D114 1952 Cover thumbnail
Dell D114 1952 Back Cover thumbnail
Dell D114 1952 Dust Jacket
Dell D114 1952 Cover
Dell D114 1952 Back Cover

She knew the earthly hungers of lonely mountain men
They loved in the shadow of fear and evil

This paperback is the only Dell edition with a dust-jacket. The colorful dust-jacket art is by Griffith Foxley, the more abstract cover itself is by Walter Brooks.

via my own collection

Free Lovers (Original Title: Fiddler’s Fee)

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Novel Library #3, 1948
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From the back:

Pierce Bryce hadn’t paid attention when his knockout of a wife, Peggy, announced she was going to divorce him to marry the town weatherman. For Peggy had always had a frivolous mind and a flock of ardent swains at her heels. But when it developed that half the hot-bloods in town were getting panicky over Peggy’s latest notion, Pierce woke up to find something dreadfully wrong.

For when some of Peggy’s own lovers such as Merlin Moore, writer of purple passion, Arthur Sorel, spinner of romantic webs, and Wert Monroe, the town’s wealthiest bachelor, urged Pierce to put up a fight to keep his wife, it became clear that no virile man could stand the thought of the town’s mildest male obtaining a monopoly on the radiant Peggy. And though Pierce had two or three glamour girls in reserve on his own string, his wife was still the gem of his collection.

Just how Pierce and his wife’s embattled lovers wrestled with their irritating love-challenge makes one of Jack Woodford’s most amusing and diverting novels. You will find FREE LOVERS a constant succession of exciting episodes and amorous escapades.

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A Game for Grown-Ups

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How Long Before The Difference In Their Ages Blew Their Affair Apart?

From the back:

Ralph Keyes, the new coach of the high-school football team, had wound up a spectacular professional career before returning to his new job in his old home town. But now both Ralph and Marilyn, his still-beautiful wife, secretly wondered how dull this new kind of life would be. They got their answers fast enough, and on their own. The coach found nothing boring about the school ‘s eye-filling, fun-loving twin cheerleaders who couldn’t wait to share experiences with a real pro like Ralph. And Marilyn Keyes quickly found the team’s young star player an exciting consolation for her husband’s growing neglect. Neither Marilyn nor Ralph took heed of possible catastrophic effects of their activities until their private lives nearly exploded into public scandal and they suddenly had to face the fact that their game was strictly for adults, no matter how skilled their younger partners might be. 
A bold novel of irresponsible adults and their devastating effects on today’s liberated youth.

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Love Hunters

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The pulse-stopping story of a decent town’s struggle against its own sin-bent people
The surfing crowd started early and loved fast — as it love were going out of style

From the back:

The Town Was Shocked…
at its wealthy young beachniks like Angela Pencoast, who offered her husband to other women but held on to her lovers, like teenage Sara, who fled from boys to men in her desperate search for happiness,  like Paul Kemp, who was living down a legend of lawless love, like big kid Stoney, who liked older men’s wives.
The Town Was Shocked…
by its own “good” people like married Helen Quinn, who found a new young love on the beach, like Helen’s husband, Harry, who hunted for young girls on the beach, like Grant Rennick, who could not trust himself on the beach, like Jessa, Grant’s wife, who trusted herself — too much to stay faithful?
The Wild And Wealthy Surfing Crowd Flipped the Town As If It Were A Coin. It Fell Right-Side Up — But Only After Ridding Itself Of The Surf Angels

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The Whole Town Knew (Original Title: The Yeller-Headed Summer)

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Every Man Was Her Favorite

From the back:

SHE COULDN’T HELP HERSELF

It wasn’t that Faye Williams was bad at heart — she just couldn’t help herself. She was the daughter of one of the town’s Good Families, and she took refuge in drinking in her rebellion against all the hypocrisy she saw around her.

Trouble started when she was attacked and killed by three young punks. Then all the rottenness and corruption of the town came out. To make things worse, Jack Winters, the white trash constable, had to go and shoot his mouth off…

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The Devil Loves Me / Down Among The Dead Men

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Two Complete Detective Books November 1943
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The Devil Loves Me

The wedding was so gay—such a colorful occasion—why was the bridesmaid poisoned? Dr. Paul Prye, psychoanalyst and amateur detective, was the groom. Why wasn’t he more upset? Duncan Stevens was the best man. Why was his skull caved in? There was another man—he got a bullet in his brain. And another—sandbagged and crammed into a rumble seat—say, what is this? A wedding? Or a funeral? What terrible and ghastly thing was footing its bloody way through that very nice house in that very nice section of Toronto? Truly, the Devil was in love with it, whatever it was. Dreadful premonitions were shaking the sixty-year-old bones of Aspasia O’Shaughnessy. And complete terror stalked the rest of the household. Except one. That one was redheaded. That one got mad . . . Inspector Sands could cut through red tape, could slash at the veil of snobbery drawn by the murderer. But he needed Paul Prye—and the one who got mad . . . 

Down Among The Dead Men

Plenty of dead ones get dragged out of the dark, roily water that runs through the greatest city in the world. The Harbor Police take only routine notice. But when the cadaver comes in installments—a torso, a leg, an arm—that’s murder . . . There are lots of murders, sure, but what made Lieutenant Steven Koski do a double-take on this particular butchery was the gadget that came with the torso. In its own frightful little way it was a weapon—the kind of weapon that kills a lot of people kind of quick. And Koski began to move—but fast. The murder marathon took him from a Coast Guard auxiliary vessel (cargo: one stunning blonde) to a waterfront dive. From a union leader’s hangout to an executive’s luxurious office. From a Chinese laundry to a ship being loaded with sudden death . . . And all the way, a long thin shape, detestable and horrible, paced him. Koski drove himself frantically onward. He had to catch that thing—had to . . .

This entire issue can be downloaded here

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Border Town Girl (1956)

Popular Library 750 1956 thumbnail
Popular Library 750 1956 back cover thumbnail
Popular Library 750 1956
Popular Library 750 1956 back cover

There Was No Turning Back For Her

From the back:

THE PLACE: A shabby border town on the Rio Grande
THE PEOPLE:

DIANA — a stranger is town, and alone.
FELICIA — the hot-blooded Mexican tart, who led men astray.
SANDY — the girl with a passionate past.
LANE — who couldn’t resist a beautiful dame . . . until he was tricked into a vicious narcotics and murder frame-up.

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