The African-American writer Chester Himes is best known for his noirish crime fiction and books set in Harlem. If He Hollers Let Him Go was his first novel. It’s a racially charged story set in post-World War II Los Angeles.
I read it after reading an interview with Walter Mosley wherein he recommended the book. I kept waiting for Easy Rawlins to show up. He did not but it’s a good book even without Easy and Mouse.
If He Hollers Let Him Go was made into a movie in 1968.
Here’s the trailer:
The whole damn movie is available on the YouTube for now.
This was another one of those weeks where I searched for something completely different and found this book. What’s not to love about the title Pirate Wench?
I’d never heard of this book until last week. I picked it because it has a cool title and cover, the Kansas Jayhawks made the Final Four, Leftoverture by Kansas was featured yesterday, and myfriend Dave Gladow is from Kansas. What the latter has to do with anything is beyond me but Dave *does* like Star Warsand comic book movies.
Joseph Millard was an American pulp science fiction writer who published nearly a dozen short stories between 1941 and 1943, and then apparently gave up writing for good. Most of his stories appeared in magazines like Thrilling Wonder Stories,Amazing Stories, Fantastic Adventures, and other pulps. He died in 1989.
In November 1941, he published his only novel, The Gods Hate Kansas, in Startling Stories magazine. It was reprinted a decade later in the November 1952 issue of Fantastic Story Magazine, and then appeared in paperback in February 1964 from Monarch Books, with a brilliantly gonzo cover by Jack Thurston, featuring a raygun-wielding hero riding bareback on a little red number and giving the business to an earnest-looking bug-eye monster.
Here’s the 1964 edition:
The Gods Hate Kansas became the 1967 British sci-fi flick, They Came From Beyond Space:
Same book, same title, dueling assassins. The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was wildly popular when Rod Gray came up with The Lady From L.U.S.T. series. Knocked off is more like it, but when could I resist a punny title?
I’d never heard of Gun Molls Magazine until recently. It was a short-lived publication founded in the early 1930’s; presumably to capitalize on the success of early gangster flicks such as Scarface, The Public Enemy, and Little Caesar.
Gentle Annie is a misnomer since the gun moll on the cover below has resting bitch face.
I hope to never meet the Cobra Broad in a dark alley.
I asked Mr. Google to suggest some Olympics related pulp books. That’s how I found Peril Is My Pay. I picked it because of the hardboiled title, not the Olympic connection.
I know what you’re thinking: when in pulp fiction doubt, post a Perry Mason cover. Guilty as charged. It’s also relevant this Muses Thursday. That all chick krewe throws decorated shoes.
I’ve posted a cleaned up version of the cover that I stumbled into on the artist’s web site. Thanks to John Farr.
If Donald Trump read books, he’d like the tagline about “an evil matriarchy.” Of course, someone would have to explain to him what that word means. So it goes.
I haven’t posted a Perry Mason cover in quite some time. Those of you follow me on social media, will understand the timing. The rest of you will get it tomorrow. Stay tuned.
There was a short-lived series of sci-fi books in the early 1950’s that featured The Human Bat. It took a lot of Gall to bring that idea Home when Batman had been around for years.
