Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks — The Coolness of the Past

Holliday - Scars of List

Welcome this Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks Blog.  The purpose of this blog is to post some hot, cool paperback covers for the gaze of your eye sockets, and to review and discuss selected titles.

Most of the titles will be from Don Elliott, Lauren Beauchamp, David Challon, Mark Ryan  (all pen names of Robert Silverberg), Gerrold Watkins and Mel Johnson (pen names of Barry N. Malzberg), as “notes” toward the two monographs I am writing, one on Malzberg and one on Silverberg and his pen names.

(But I will discuss others too as I go along — Joan Ellis, March Hastings, Andrew Shaw [aka Lawrence Block and Donald Westlake], Don Bellmore, etc etc.]

I wanted to write a short monograph or essay on the Don Elliott/Laoren Beauchamp books, as they were/are of high quality, compared to many books of the time or even erotica today.  They also exhibit Silverberg’s early style. But I was uncertain where such an essay or book would find a home — best here on the net.

I have discussed Barry Malzber’s US-era Olympia Press titles under his name and Gerrold Watkins in a monograph, Barry N.  Malzberg: Beyond Science Fiction, Toward Psychoanalysis (Borgo Press) due out late 2009, but I do not have 3 of the Watkins and none of the Johnson (Midwood Books) that are hard to find…as I do locate them, I will post a blog here.

Beauchamp - Sin on WheelsDon't Ever Love MeCarnival GirlGang GirlsGang Girl

Kept - MidwoodLord - Badelliott - beatnik

Horizontal Woman

Abortionist

Instant Sex A

Challon - Suburban Sin Club

10 Responses to “Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks — The Coolness of the Past”

  1. Looking forward to your Malzberg monograph; do you have a firmer publication date? Where will I be able to purchase? Whether it’s his science fiction or his sleaze, more people need to be reading and discussing Malzberg. I’ve been reading and collecting his books since 1976 (I was kicked out of a SF fan club in 1977 for espousing Malzberg and refusing to get into hard SF) but didn’t know his pseudonyms until about 1982. Since then I’ve manged to locate copies of all of his books with the exception of 2 Johnson books. Good luck in your searches for the Watkins & Johnson books.

  2. You’ve got a really cool blog. I love it.

  3. Question for you: Do you know what happened to all these small publishers? Did they just go belly up? Who took the rights to all these books? The authors? I’m just curious. . .

    • vintagesleazepaperbacks Says:

      They are all out of business, except for the remnants of Leisure and Dorchester, which now publish romances, horror, and thrillers.

      I wouldn’t say many of them were “small” but, in the case of Midwood and Nightstand, medium-sized. They were making millions in sales.

      As for rights — they vary. Some people like Lawrence Block re-newed copyrights to all pen named books to make sure no one would reprint them without permission.

      Others, the families of the deceased may have rights…some writers may not care…the smaller outfits like Sabre and Kozy did not exactly register the books with the copyright office or library of congress.

  4. I just bought a house that had over 200 books by Saber and others. Who would I contact to sell these books. I’d like to sell them as one lot rather than individually on Ebay.

    Thanks.

    Bill T.

    • vintagesleazepaperbacks Says:

      You can sell them as a lot on eBay, or contact someone like Lynn Munroe or Graham Holroyd to appraise them, buy the, or sell them for you.

  5. koppada premraj Says:

    Please let me know if any of the books are available for purchase in UK and if so, where and how. Thanks

    • I actually have over 400 of these books available for sale in the US. I’m happy to ship them to the UK if you are intersted. I can send you a list of the titles if you would like. Please let me know your email address.

      Bill T.

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