Immerse yourself in the definitive visual history of twentieth-century pulp fiction. The mid-twentieth century saw paperback novels eclipse cheap pulp magazines and expensive clothbound books as the most popular format for escapist fiction. To catch the eyes of potential buyers, they were adorned with covers that were invariably vibrant, frequently garish, and occasionally lurid. In this book, award-winning editor Ed Hulse (The Art of the Pulps, The Blood 'n' Thunder Guide to Pulp Fiction) offers a vivid history of vintage pulp fiction in all its forms - from hard-boiled mysteries to Western adventures, from action heroes to the supernatural, from science fiction to sleaze - written and illustrated by a cast of characters often as colorful and fascinating as the books themselves.
Though they were inexpensively produced and considered disposable by contemporary readers, the earliest examples of these books are now treasured collector's items. The Art of Pulp Fiction is illustrated with more than four hundred memorable covers and original cover paintings, chosen with both rarity and graphic appeal in mind - many of them reproduced here for the first time since the books' original publication.