The Dames, Dolls and Delinquents: A Collector's Guide to Sexy Pulp Fiction Paperbacks (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It’s no secret the sexy and racy cover art of femme fatales from the golden age of paperbacks and magazines exalts the female form in all its sexy and sultry allure. Still today, these lustful, and sometimes lurid images are enticing and artistically inspiring. In this book, from the founder and editor of Paperback Parade magazine, you will encounter an amazing assortment of nearly 700 full-color cover images of sexy, semi-dressed pin-up dolls, dangerous bad girls and deadly dames, not to mention lust, violence and passion expressed in fights and conflicts of all types. In addition this reference to renegade literature features details to help with identification, including title, author, cover artist, publisher, date, and values for three grades of condition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Krause Publications (July 16, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896899683
• ISBN-13: 978-0896899681
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #163,221 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some rats have two legs!, July 2, 2009

By	Jerry Block (Anaheim, CA) - See all my reviews

With titles like that, you're in for a lurid treat of dangerous dames, wanton wenches, swamp sirens, hayseed honeys, Mob molls, killer cuties and teenage temptresses from the reckless, untamed age of paperbacks, the 1950s and '60s. This was a pop-cult era when women were either good girls or whores. The paperback world was definitely infatuated with the latter. For the uninitiated, these covers are real eye-openers on the supposedly button-down world of Eisenhower America. The primary audience was mostly returning war vets, who were infused with violence and exotic women. The no-nonsense titles have the rat-tat-tat crack-pop of gunfire: Stone Cold Blonde, They Kill To Live, Hell Strip, Hard-Boiled!, Shack Woman, Pillow Tramp, Don't Cross Me, Honey, Sweet Savage! Author Gary Lovisi has long been the East Coast king of vintage paperbacks, publishing the hobby's best fanzine, Paperback Parade. With this book he's compiled 200+ pages of the wildest covers in the history of publishing, featuring bad, bad women in overheated passions and primary colors. This is a great book for the novice collector. Lovisi presents not only the most notorious covers and renown artists, but also some rare gems from obscure publishers. He's categorized them into the following chapters: Sexy Pin-Up Dolls; Sultry Streetwalkers; Bad Girl Delinquents; Deadly Femme Fatales; Women In Peril; Women And Violence; Luscious Lesbians; Fetish Covers; and Heated Embraces. Every cover is annotated with title, author, cover artist (if known), publisher, year, and collector value according to condition. He also includes some British paperbacks, which were often even more lurid than their American counterparts. My only complaint would be the exclusion of sexy space babes from science fiction paperbacks. These floating femmes, their Earthly lust catapulted into zero-gravitational space, definitely deserve their own extended chapter.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kiss My Fist!, September 12, 2009

By	Robert Blume (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One of my favorite titles in this book.
"Never Trust a Rich Bitch" is another. And there are so many more classics here to savor. This is not a comprehensive Overstreet style guide. This is more like a gallery of lurid, sexy, socially inappropriate and hilariously over-the-top paperback covers you might have found on the spinner rack at your local drug store or men's smoke shop from the late 40's to the early 60's. And there are selected men's magazine and pulp digest covers thrown in for good measure. As the previous reviewer has noted, Gary Lovisi knows his subject and includes many collector favorites along with some rare obscurities. I don't want to mislead anyone to think that this is just an art book. This generous volume is packed with great information. Under each cover is noted publisher, artist (if known) and rough value scale for anyone who might want to search for these books. In the back of the book is a terrific list of resources, dealers and websites dealing with vintage paperbacks. I was glad to add "Dames, Dolls and Delinquents" to my library. I recommend it.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars informative illustrated guide to collectible paperbacks, September 14, 2009

By	Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

One could easily forget that this is a guide to collectible paperbacks in looking through page after page of colorful cover art. Lovisi has divided the roughly 700 covers mostly four per page with a few full-page into certain subjects and types of images. These include the basic Sexy Pin-up Dolls and Sultry Sweethearts to the troubling and somewhat more complex Bad Girl Delinquents and Deadly Femme Fetales to the provocative and exotic Luscious Lesbians and Fetish Covers. Other categories are eroticized women in certain activities--Women in Peril, Women and Violence, and Heated Embraces. Inevitably there is overlap since the aim of any of the covers of such pulp fiction is to strongly suggest or depict outright sex--better yet, forbidden sex--danger, and uncontrolled and often perverse emotions.

Underneath these striking, evocative cover illustrations are the book's author, cover illustrator, publisher, and prices according to grades. Though many of the illustrators are unknown. In an introductory section, Lovisi discusses the art of a few of the most notable artists who are known. In many cases, however, the publishers would block out the artist's name. The selling point of such pulp fiction was not who was the cover artist. In most cases, publishers would alter the cover art anyway in the printing by making reds and other bright colors more vivid and glaring and would freely intrude on the art with titles, subtitles, and story blurbs.

Such fiction of interest mainly for the covers doesn't get high prices as far as collectibles and auction prices go. Between $40 and $125 is the range for most in better condition. There is one though titled Junkie (1953) by the author named William Lee which can go for over $1,000 in near perfect condition. William Lee is the pseudonym of William Burroughs, author of the Tarzan series whose first editions written in the early 1900s bring thousands of dollars.

So many pulp fiction titles were published when they were at the height of their popularity during the 1950s and into the 1960s that no guide can include them all. Along with being of interest as a gallery of book cover art in the vein of mass-market publishing and popular culture, this guide presents covers which have been proven to have value to collectors.