Elmore Leonard is best known for urbane urban crime stories set in Detroit or South Florida. In his early days, he wrote a string of successful westerns. Boy howdy.
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Category Archives: Pulp Fiction Thursday
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Pale Moon
W.R. Burnett is best known for hardboiled crime fiction novels that were turned into movies: Little Caesar, High Sierra, The Asphalt Jungle, and Nobody Lives Forever. He also wrote the odd book set in the West. Pale Moon is one of them:
Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Dead Ringer
The Dead Ringer is set in a carnival, which explains the peeping gorilla. But was its name Tom?
Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Toff On The Farm
John Creasey was a successful and highly prolific crime fiction writer. And when I say prolific, I mean it: he wrote over 600 novels using 28 pen names. He made Stephen King look like a slacker.
The Toff was one of Creasey’s best-loved series. He was a gentleman detective who specialized in “fish out water” stories: hence the urban and urbane Brit at a farm.
My late mother was a fan of Creasey’s work and they were among the first grown-up books I read as a tadpole. No wonder I’m an Anglophile, eh wot?
Pulp Fiction Thursday: A Night For Treason
It’s time for another classic pulp image by Verne Tossey. The femme fatale on the cover may be ruthless but she’s well put together.
1956’s A Night For Treason was an early book by John Jakes who became famous for writing best-selling historical novels such as North and South. I don’t believe that there’s a A Night For Treason mini-series but Revlon or another lipstick company would have been a perfect sponsor. Oh well, there’s always Netflix.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Jazzman In Nudetown
Initially, I thought this was a parody book cover because of the ridiculous title. It is not. This fakakta book was published in 1964:
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Teen-Age Mafia
The most amusing thing about this cover is the hyphen in teenage. I guess the usage changed in the Sixties when teen-age culture went mainstream.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Hot Rod Mania
Anyone who has ever seen Rebel Without A Cause, can attest that hot rods were a big deal in the 1950’s. Here are two more examples of hot rod mania:
John Fogerty gets the last word:
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Here’s Blood In Your Eye
I identify with this book title because I have allergy related bloodshot eyes. Note that the cover on the left was published under the Harlequin imprint. It’s obviously not a romance novel. Ain’t nothing romantic about bloody eyes.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Rod Serling
Submitted for your approval:
Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Letter
Another day, another epistolary title. W. Somerset Maugham had a long run as a popular writer. He is only remembered today, if at all, because of some first class movie adaptations of his work. The Bette Davis-William Wyler version of The Letter is the best one of all.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Mr. Angel Comes Aboard/Johnny Angel
I’m working on a Movies Set In Louisiana piece for the Bayou Brief. It’s taking a bit longer than anticipated but it has a lot of moving parts; pun intended, it always is. It should be out sometime next week.
One of the moving parts is a nifty film noir set in New Orleans, Johnny Angel, which is based on a book by Charles B. Booth, Mr. Angel Comes Aboard.
The book cover is so torn and frayed that it gave me an earworm:
Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Deadly Dove
Rufus King had a long run as a crime fiction writer. 1945’s The Deadly Dove was published smack dab in the middle of that lengthy career. Both editions have a strong tagline game.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Lou Marchetti
Every once and awhile I like to honor the illustrators of vintage pulp paperbacks. This week, we’re featuring two covers by Lou Marchetti whose daughter Louise has assembled a terrific website in honor of her late father.
The tagline for The Mugger has given me an earworm so Genesis gets the last word:
Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Case Of The Shoplifter’s Shoe
I’ve never deliberately repeated a PFT entry before. This was first posted 2/8/18. Why am I doing this? It’s Muses Thursday and half the city is coming to our house. That’s why:
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 also posted a cleaned up version of the cover that I stumbled into on the artist’s website. Thanks to John Farr.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Darkness At Noon
Taglines can be misleading. Darkness At Noon is the tale of an old Bolshevik caught up in Stalin’s great purge. It’s a serious and highly-regarded look at the horrors of the Soviet system but Signet had books to sell. As long as Arthur Koestler got his fair share I have no beef with that. It was the way of the pulps.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: The Bleeding Scissors
I originally thought that Bruno Fischer was the pen name of an overly prolific pulp practitioner. I was wrong. Ya learn something new every day.
The last word goes to the Rolling Stones. Why? Why the hell not?
Pulp Fiction Thursday: New Orleans Mourning/The Axeman’s Jazz
I rarely post any book covers released after 1970 but there are always exceptions. These two novels by Julie Smith are set in New Orleans. And 1990’s New Orleans Mourning features a spectacular crime: Rex, King of Carnival, is murdered on his float on Mardi Gras day.
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Highways In Hiding/Space Plague
It’s sci-fi time here at First Draft. The original title is on the left. I prefer Space Plague. It’s catchy; in fact, it’s contagious.
