Upcoming release: Beat Girls, Love Tribes, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950-1980. Paul Bishop and David Foster from Spy Vibe sister-sites, Bish's Beat and Permission To Kill, have teamed up with a number of other pulp authors and pop culture scholars to create an exciting overview of mass-market paperbacks. From the press release: "The first comprehensive account of the rise of youth culture
and mass-market paperback fiction in the postwar period, Beat Girls is a
must-read for anyone interested in retro and subcultural style and popular
fiction. As the young created new styles in music, fashion and culture, pulp
fiction followed their every step, hyping and exploiting their behavior and
language for mass consumption. From the juvenile delinquent gangs of the early
fifties, through the beats and hippies, on to bikers, skinheads and punks, pulp
fiction left no trend untouched. Boasting wild covers and action-packed plots,
these books reveal as much about society’s desires and fears as they do about
the subcultures themselves. Featuring over 300 pulp covers, many never before
reprinted, as well 70 in-depth author interviews and biographies, articles and
reviews, Beat Girls offers the most extensive survey of the era’s mass market
pulp fiction. Novels by well-known authors like Harlan Ellison, Lawrence Block,
Evan Hunter/Ed McBain, and by filmmakers Samuel Fuller and Ed Wood Jr., are
discussed alongside neglected obscurities and contemporary bestsellers ripe for
rediscovery. More than 20 critics and scholars of popular culture contributed
to this celebration of a fascinating body of work." This project thrills me on a number of levels. As a kid who searched the bookshops every weekend for James Bond and Man From U.N.C.L.E paperbacks, my eyes always scanned over the piles of other authors and series titles that crammed the mystery and adventure shelves. There were so many I didn't have time to explore, but now Beat Girls can serve as an excellent introduction! And as an adult with a background in sociology, I'm especially interested to read about mass-market books and how they reflected youth culture and changes in society during the Cold War. Beat Girls comes out in November from Verse Chorus Press, but you can pre-order on Amazon here. Congratulations to Paul, David, and the Beat Girls team for what will certainly prove to be an essential addition to everyone's Spy Vibe library.
