The Pulps are Here!!!
Five years ago, Special Collections at the University of Otago Library, took possession of a collection of pulp fiction, some 900 publications with wonderful winning titles such as Bella Donna was poison, No blonde is an island, If the coffin fits, Dead white males, Slay ride for Sandra, Baby your racket’s busted, and Never trust a Martian. Importantly, all of these books were published in Australia and of course sold here. Invincible Press, Cleveland Publishing, and Horwitz churned out dozens of westerns, romances, science fiction novelettes, and crime. The impact on readers in New Zealand has yet to be ascertained.
The world of pulp has often been dismissed as ephemeral, of little or no consequence. However, the tide is turning. Understanding popular culture, particularly ours and that of our channel cousins, is becoming increasingly important. This collection will form an invaluable resource for literary scholars, social historians, art historians, book designers, artists, and of course pulp-vintage paperback readers.
‘She was curled up on the divan in my apartment…and she wasn’t my aunt, grandmother, or a visiting fireman. She was Lulu, the cutest, hottest belly-dancer this side of Farouk…’.
So begins Marc Brody’s The Bride Wore Black, one of the 900 or so Australian pulp fiction publications that were purchased in 2005 and form the Pulp Fiction Collection in Special Collections, Central University Library. Pulp Fiction, an exhibition highlighting these publications, will begin on 27 August in the de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, University of Otago Library, and will run to 10 December 2010.
In 1939 and due to an embargo on American pulp magazines, local Australian publishing houses began churning out their own pulp fiction. After the war and the lifting of paper rationing, local publishers, writers and artists continued to find an eager market for these cheap, mass-produced ‘pulp’ publications. Hundreds of thousands of soft-covered novelettes spewed forth each month, and by the early 1950s, publishers were asking local Australian writers for American crime fiction. Most of the publishers were Sydney-based: Action Comics, Calvert Publishing, Cleveland Publishing, Currawong, Invincible Press, and Horwitz Books. Importantly, many of the titles were distributed to New Zealand and were eagerly devoured by local readers.
Detective fiction, westerns, science fiction, sports, war tales, and romance feature. Almost all have bright colourful covers and tantalizing titles such as Blind Date with Death, Nemesis for a Nude and Stripper Strikes Out. The authors include Alan Yates, Des Dunn, Don Haring, and J. E. Macdonnell. The stories are formulaic and somewhat repetitive. Indeed, one writer (Audrey Armitage – co-author of the K.T. McCall books) said: ‘We’d be given a picture of the cover and were given the title, along with a few words. From that you prepared the plot and wrote the story. One of the rules of the game was that you started off with a body - either two in bed or somebody dead.’
To contextualize the Australian Pulps, a select number of early American magazines such as Weird Tales, Dime Detective, The Shadow, and Spicy Detective will be on display. It was this sort of material that the Australian government embargoed in 1939 and which led to the development of Australia’s own pulp industry. Another highlight is a small archive of photographs and draft book covers by Robert Maguire (1921-2005), the American illustrator and artist who produced over 600 covers for crime pulps.
Venue: de Beer Gallery, Special Collections, 1st floor, University of Otago Library
Hours: 8.30 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday
Duration: 27 August to 10 December 2010
For further information, please contact Dr. Donald Kerr, Special Collections Librarian, University of Otago. Ph: (03)-479-8330; email: Donald.kerr@otago.ac.nz
Footnote:
Donald Kerr advises that this exhibition is already generating extreme interest. He was fortunate to be put in contact with the daughter of Robert Maguire, an American artist who did some 600 crime pulps. She allowed him to put images of various portfolios of her father on-line. And the entire show - including the Maguire material - will eventually be online. Can't wait. Would love to visit Dunedin to see this exhibition.........
Maguire link below:
http://www.ramaguirecoverart.com/about_artist.php
And to top off all the exccitement down there in the south , Caren Florance, printer and operator of Ampersand Duck is at the university doing her thing and printing an Aussie/NZ suite of poems. She blogs! As per below.
http://ampersandduck.blogspot.com/
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