Title: The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife Author: Erle Stanley Gardner Cover artist: Mitchell Hooks
Yours for: $7
Best things about this cover:
Truly incredible design. Most of these Cardinal reprints are dreadfully boring, but this one is gorgeous - subtle, yet eye-grabbing. I swear to you that until this very second, when I scanned the cover (and thus blew it up to an abnormally large size), I did not notice the silhouette of the man in the fedora inside those slashing black lines. Very nice effect.
"Half-Wakened Wife" really really wants to be "Half-Naked Wife" every time I look at it.
I know that when *I* am half-wakened, I can't help but reach blindly for my revolver. It's just normal human instinct.
Best things about this back cover:
"Chiseler" is one of the all-time great words in the crime lexicon.
"This is a Genuine Cardinal Edition" - I'm trying to imagine all the bootleg and rip-off versions out there: Oriole? Cardinale? Sorny?
Gardner's signature remains certifiably insane.
Page 123~
Ellen Cushing once more raised her voice. "I guess you've got to come out, Mother."
Title: A Dangerous Woman Author: James T. Farrell Cover artist: Uncredited
Yours for: SOLD (6/2/08)
Best things about this cover:
This is more like a woman auditioning for a paperback cover than an actual cover painting. "You want me to [not] wear what?"
"... her obsession for men became a desire to repel them" - Mission Accomplished.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Five bangles on her right wrist. Yes, that's a record for a paperback cover. Congratulations, boring, overly-clothed lady. You can collect your $10 Target gift certificate on your way out the door. Buh-bye.
"Dangerous" extends directly out from her crotch. Nice.
Best things about this back cover:
This blurb writer is from the "Adverb adjective, adverb adjective, adverb adjective, and adverb adverb adjective..." school of blurb writing.
Why don't writers cover "the human scene" any more?
That Panther is far too sedate to be a good logo. It should really be killing something, or at least roaring.
Page 123~
I never knew what anarchism was except that I'm against it and it's radical, but I never knew what an anarchist was. Now I know. An anarchist is a Frenchman driving an automobile in gay Paree.
Paperback 105: Panther 026193 (14th or so ptg, circa 1971)
Title: The Ipcress File Author: Len Deighton Cover artist: Photo cover
Yours for: $9
Best things about this cover:
Simplicity - B&W still photo that is the epitome of mid-century hard-boiled cool. Espresso vs. Smith & Wesson - Paper Clips vs. Bullets. Such great, simple balancing of iconic images. Gives you a sense of the Where and What and even the Who of the story before you've even opened the book. Details are incredibly precise. You can even read the "Gauloise" on the cigarette and the "Wesson" on the barrel of the gun. This book is from outside my collecting window (i.e. post-1969), but when I saw it at my local University book sale, I had to have it. If I ever publish a book, I want it to look like this, no matter what it's about.
LEN Deighton is a frequent crossword puzzle answer
The paper clips are somehow charming the hell out of me
Best things about this back cover:
Stamp!
A near complete lack of punctuation, including standard blurb quotation marks. No exclamation points, commas ... figure it out for yourself, reader!
Quaint passive voice construction in the last sentence. So British (Panther is a British imprint, in case you didn't know)
PAGE 123~
Wriggling away from the legs of the tower, black smooth cables and corrugated pipelines rested along each other like a Chinese apothecary's box of snakes.
This site is dedicated to my vintage paperback collection. Every couple of days, I pull a book off the shelf and write about its cover. That's it. To understand the spirit of the blog, please read the following:
