IDW Publishing and Ed Hulse have put together one of those fantastic coffee table books worthy of anyone who wants something to browse through for a few minutes during that downtime in the living room. The Art of Pulp Fiction: An Illustrated History of Vintage Paperbacks chronicles the history of pocket-sized paperbound books designed for mass-market consumption, specifically concentrating on the period from 1940 to 1970. These three decades saw paperbacks eclipse cheap pulp magazines and expensive clothbound books as the most popular delivery vehicle for escapist fiction. To catch the eyes of potential buyers they were adorned with covers that were invariably vibrant, frequently garish, and occasionally lurid. Today the early paperbacks--like the earlier pulps, inexpensively produced and considered disposable by casual readers--are treasured collector's items.
For myself, I have two bookshelves filled with paperbacks from the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s. And when I used the word "filled," that is no understatement. My bookshelves are so wide I have two rows of paperbacks (one behind the other) on each shelf and books stacked on top of those rows. Most of them are vintage horror and science-fiction anthologies, mysteries such as the Alfred Hitchcock Presents anthologies, and a number of 1950s-1960s science fiction novels. So this book was of interest to further enlighten and educate my knowledge of paperback novels.
Award-winning editor Ed Hulse (The Art of the Pulps and The Blood 'n' Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction) comprehensively covers the pulp-fiction paperback's heyday. Hulse writes the individual chapter introductions and the captions, while a team of genre specialists and art aficionados contribute the special features included in each chapter. These focus on particularly important authors, artists, publishers, and sub-genres.
Illustrated with more than 500 memorable covers and original cover paintings, this 240 page book is a feast for the eyes. Hulse's extensive captions, meanwhile, offer a running commentary on this significant genre, and also contain many obscure but entertaining factoids. Images used in The Art of Pulp Fiction have been sourced from the largest American paperback collections in private hands, and have been curated with rarity in mind, as well as graphic appeal. Consequently, many covers are reproduced here for the first time since the books were first issued.
The book includes an Introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, novelist, essayist, pop-culture historian, and author of The Great American Paperback (2001).
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| Ed Hulse poses proudly with his book. |