SIN-A-RAMA: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties

From Publishers Weekly
Older readers may remember the lurid soft-X-rated paperbacks-titles like Topless Waitress, Lake of Lust, Casting Couch and so on-that crowded the shelves of newsstands and candy stores but more often adult bookstores in the 1960s. What most distinguished these paperbacks wasn't their narratives but their frequently amazing covers, swashes of erotic eye-candy that, as surely as a Warhol soupcan, now define an era. And so the emphasis in this first-rate celebration of these paperbacks is on the covers, with hundreds reproduced in what looks like accurate (i.e., soul-shocking) color. Most of these reproductions appear in the editors' grouping of sex paperbacks into various themes (Asphalt Jungle, Sex at Play, Butch Swish, etc.) but more show up in the startling essays and profiles that precede these groupings-startling for the several well-known authors profiled (Donald Westlake, Ed Wood, Lawrence Block) and for the praise-going by the illustrations, well justified-for a handful of the star cover artists. The book opens with overviews of the history of softcore paperback publishing by Jay A. Gertzman and Stephen J. Gertz and, most notably, by acclaimed SF author Robert Silverberg, who in "My Life as a Pornographer" recounts how by 1962 he was "turning out three Nightstand books a month" and earning enough money to buy "an enormous mansion in the finest residential neighborhood of New York City." A catalogue of "sleaze publishers" and a list of author pseudonyms (Miriam Gardner: Marion Zimmer Bradley; Paul Merchant: Harlan Ellison, etc.) close this informative and giddily entertaining book. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


Boston Globe, March 20, 2005: The Golden Age of Sleaze
Deeply satisfying...a lavish tribute to the courageous authors, illustrators, and editors...There is much to admire about SIN-A-RAMA.


Seattle Weekly, March 9, 2005: Seattle Weekly Pick
More kitschy fun than arousing...an amusing peek into an underground pulp-publishing industry that has been almost entirely forgotten.


Book Description
Swappers, swingers, transvestites, nymphos, hookers, dominatrixes, lesbians: in the 1960s, these stock characters were staples of the naughty novel, and their lurid antics formed an entire genre dubbed "sleaze" by legions of avid modern-day collectors. Uncovering a racy repository of American fantasies and fears from more than 40 years ago, Sin-A-Rama ravishes readers with the splendidly spicy cover art of the period's top illustrators as well as entertaining excerpts from the best and worst of the genre. Cultural commentary is featured as well, including fascinating accounts of the ways in which the genre's publishers - often mobsters - would distribute their titles to the public.


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"Sin-A-Rama celebrates the forgotten world of erotic paperbacks from the 1960s, when sex acts were described with code words, writers used pseudonyms, and publishers hid behind mail drop addresses." "Sleaze paperbacks sold by the million throughout the decade. Their unorthodox content and inroads into the marketplace provoked new laws, FBI investigations, high-pitched court battles, and prison sentences for the crime of obscenity. Earl Kemp, the notorious Greenleaf Books editor, provides an insider's perspective, profiling famous and little-known co-workers. In "My Life as a Pornographer," science fiction legend Robert Silverberg divulges how he and other famous authors learned their craft and earned their keep pounding out softcore sin." "The bizarre glories of cover artists Robert Bonfils, Gene Bilbrew, Eric Stanton, Paul Rader, Ed Smith, Bill Ward, and Doug Weaver are seen throughout in lurid color." This is the first book-length exploration into a shadowy but revolutionary industry. A useful appendix reveals the actual names behind the pseudonyms, and catalogues both established and fly-by-night sleaze operators.


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