Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback: 1945-1955

by Lee Server

Server takes us on a tour of the subversive twenty-five-cent paperbacks of the late 40's and early 50's that led readers through a lurid world of drugs, sex, and violence in sensation-packed tales of hard-boiled private eyes, deadly dames, sex fiends, beatnicks, and juvenile delinquents. This is the era that spawned Mickey Spillane, Philip K. Dick, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Jim Thompson, and David Goodis. 100 color photographs and tips on how to collect vintage paperbacks. "A terrific coffee-table book for the killer at heart." --Scarlet Street

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

108 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Lee Server specialises in books on popular culture and literary history.

He is the critically acclaimed author of such as 'Danger Is My Business: The Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines' (1993), 'Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback' (1995) and the biography 'Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care' (2001).

Reviews

[Misty]

Interesting, but fair warning: because it is about paperbacks from the 40s, there is racism and slurs in the titles of the books mentioned.

[Erik Graff]

This book was donated to Heirloom Books by a friend moving out west. Having spent some years as an 'editor' with GoodReads I'd grown acquainted with the dime-store paperbacks of the postwar years and amused by their often lurid covers. This book is an appreciation of such cheap publications from 1945 through 1955. It contains many amusing anecdotes about authors, and their pseudonyms, and cover artists as well as a history of their evolving markets during that period. I'd have like more information about SF publications, barely mentioned in the text, but found what was presented entertaining and informative enough.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel]

Revisión general sobre el breve apogeo del paperback en su variante sensacionalista, desde los aciertos de Mickey Spillane a los relatos centrados en delincuentes juneniles. Destaca por rescatar nombres también asociados al tardío noir (Jim Thompson, Chester Himes) así como el pasei en de nombres como Jack Kerouac o William Burroughs.

[Fraser Sherman]

In the post-WW II years on through the 1950s, paperback covers — originally pretty close to hardback style — got lurid, screaming SEX, VIOLENCE, DRUG ADDICTION — and hooking readers accordingly. This is a good look at the style and tone of the covers and the contents, generously illustrated.

[Chris Stephens]

not worth much,
pictures are even of low quality books.

[Thomas]

This is a great pictorial collection of old paperback covers, with some historical notes by Server, including brief interviews with some pulp writers, that are great fun to read. A priceless collection and well worth a browse.

[Larry Webber]

Nice overview of the pulp paperback days with terrific reproductions of covers galore. Recommended for context!

[Michael P.]

A fun book that reproduced many lurid paperback covers, and that is its strength. There is not enough substance to the text for this book to be truly satisfying.

[Joshua]

A nice collection of images with brief look at the types of pulps to come out during the period. Glossy images help and otherwise light overview.

[TrumanCoyote]

The guy's a bit of a wienie at times, but not too bad (considering).