Paperback 1098: Madball / Fredric Brown (Dell First Edition 2E)

 Paperback 1098: Dell First Edition 2E (PBO, 1953)

Title: Madball

Author: Fredric Brown

Cover artist: Griffith Foxley

Condition: 6-7/10

Value: $25

[The Book Den, Santa Barbara, CA]

Best things about this cover: 

• If I were a lady I would buy these pajamas (both colors) and sleep in them every night. Not sure how I feel about the capes, but the pajamas are hot.
• Most of the stuff I was eyeballing at The Book Den was a little on the pricy side (for me—I tend to be cheap and will only pay collector prices if the book is Really desirable and/or the condition is very good). But this book ... I feel lucky to have found a copy in the wild at all. I mean, you can order it on abebooks or whatever, but where's the fun in that? And I still got it for less than it's probably worth. But beyond the whole question of "Value" there's the book, a beautiful early Dell First Edition by a masterful, versatile, often hilarious writer. The book's a bit worn, but it's tight and complete. Got that slightly soft, highly read feel. I love a well read paperback. A really broken-in paperback. This book just screams Everything Good About the Midcentury Paperback. The dings and and creases give it character. In short, I'm very happy with this purchase. Very.
• Griffith Foxley's covers are always so ... creamy. Just a great painter of people. The girls look great, but I'm especially fond of the dopey-looking guy in the hat just slack-jawed gawking at the girls, as well as the square-jawed huckster in the boater and bow tie, carnival-barking into the mic with his whole damn body.
• "They're all alive inside!" is so enigmatic! I mean, are these girls robots? Or had there been rumors going around that everyone who went into the tent earlier had been murdered? "Those guys are still alive, fellas! That screaming you heard ... a chicken, I think. Anyway, step right up!"

Best things about this back cover: 

• Copy writer is on point today! Working that alliteration like his job depended on it. "The pitchmen and the pickled punks, the cotton candy and the kewpie dolls ... all-night alibis!"
• Well that is *one* way to pluralize "carny."
• "Can I take you home? Where do you live?" "You know Frenzy?" "Sure." "Well it's close to the edge of there." "How close?" "Too close." "Hmm. You know, I think the buses are still running. Or ... can I call you a cab?"

Page 123~

He'd pushed the brakeman off the moving train in sudden anger, the same blind anger that had made him strike Sammy last night. And he hadn't really meant to kill the lush he rolled, just to make him unconscious would've been enough. But they were murders just the same. They'd have fried him for either one.

That's the problem with lushes. So fragile. The law should really take that into consideration, you know? But carceral state's gonna carceral state, amirite? Yeah I'm right. Hey, pass me the Madball, I'm gonna see if it'll tell me where to eat tonight ...

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and BlueSky]

Paperback 989: Once Upon a Dreadful Time / ed. Alfred Hitchcock (Dell 6622)

Paperback 989: Dell 6622 (1st ptg, 1964)

Title: (Alfred Hitchcock's) Once Upon a Dreadful Time (Dell 6622)
Editor: Alfred Hitchcock
Cover artist: Banbury (one name! stylish)

Estimated value: $8-10
Condition: 8/10

Best things about this cover:

• Alas, poor Hitchcock...
• Nice self-sideeye
• Not sure why he's hiding a skull ... from ... himself ... but I'll admit it all looks super-cool.

Best things about this back cover:

• Donald Westlake completists will want to be sure to pick this up
• Contributors are indeed exclusively male. Women wrote a lot of horror / crime / suspense stories, so the men-only thing here is at least a little weird.
• The whole Hal Ellson / Hal Elison thing is so weird that his name is spelled both ways in this book (in table of contents, it's ELLSON—which is correct. Here's the NYT also getting it wrong in 1955). And then there's this, from wikipedia:

Harlan Ellison cites Ellson's work as having inspired his own interest in juvenile delinquency — an interest which led directly to the writing of Ellison's first novel, Web of the City. Ellison has also stated that in the earliest days of his career as a writer, he was often mistaken for Ellson writing under a pseudonym — and that decades later, when Ellison had become much more known and Ellson's career had waned, Ellson was often mistaken for Ellison writing under a pseudonym.

 Page 123~ (from "Anatomy of an Anatomy" by Donald Westlake)

At three o'clock on the dot, she heard a thump from above, and knew it was the head.

Westlake is just a champ and that's all there is to it.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 894: Death Has Many Doors / Fredric Brown (Bantam 1567)

Paperback 894: Bantam 1567 (3rd ptg, 1st thus, 1957)

Title: Death Has Many Doors
Author: Fredric Brown
Cover artist: Barye Phillips

Estimated Value: $20-25

Best things about this cover:

• Gah, stupid late-'50s covers with their newfangled love of "text," crowding out the good stuff. Painting is great, but more of a smudge-sketch than a fully realized painting. I like covers that give the art Real Estate.
• She's like a suggestion of a sexy backlit lingerie lady. Like, I get it, but I don't feel it. His pasty enigmatic leering face is wonderful, but that tower of Fuchsia Letters is crowding him.
• Fredric Brown could Wrrrite. He has bouts of hackneyed sucking, but when he's on, he's sharp and dark and hilarious.

Best things about this back cover:

• HA ha. Arrows! That gave me a genuine laugh. When in doubt--->arrows.
• So … it's warm then?
• I read "The Screaming Mimi" this past winter. Recommended.

Page 123~

I said, "This is John Smith. I want Charlie's address." "You mean my brother-in-law? I don't know where he is, Mr. Smith." I said, "Fine. I'll send a couple of the boys out some evening to see you. I won't mention which evening. We wouldn't want coppers around." He said, "Huh?" and sounded properly scared and excited.

See. Good.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 822: Human? / ed. Judith Merril (intro by Fredric Brown)

Paperback 822: Lion Books 205 (PBO, 1954)

Title: Human?
Editor: Judith Merril
Introduction: Fredric Brown
Cover artist: Rafael DeSoto [R. DeSaint??] [signature in bottom right corner, hard to make out—I read it as "R. DeSoto" because Rafael DeSoto is a famous cover artist. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database has "R. DeSaint," but I can't find any other mention of such a person on the Internet, so …?]

Yours for: $18


Best things about this cover:

• And that's when the 2213 Miss Glotron-X swimsuit competition got a little weird …
• "Um … sir? … your mankini top … it's just … if you could … maybe pull it … a little …"
• "This device allows me to speak to my own jugular veins directly!"
• "'Human?' The game show where you … decide what the answer to that question is. Are you ready, Bill? Let's bring out our first set of subjects!"
• Bill does not look confident. Or else that's just his "ill-fitting mankini-bottom" face.
• I'm all for body modification, but I think I draw the line at chicken-fishing.

Best things about this back cover:

• don marquis is the e. e. cummings of paperback scifi anthologies.
• Some heavy hitters in there. Also, Graham Doar. "My friends call me 'Trap'!" Sure they do, Graham.
• Just how many anthologists are there, Boucher? That's about as ringing an endorsement as "Sammy Hagar is among the very best Van Halen frontmen."

Page 123~

Immediately the room seemed to shake itself; things wavered uncomfortably; then I realized Drip was astigmatic.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

Paperback 8 - Bantam 302

Paperback 8 - Bantam 302 (1st ptg, 1948)

Title: The Fabulous Clipjoint
Author: Fredric Brown
Cover artist: Ed Grant

Yours for: $27


Best things about this cover:

• Her dress
• Her attitude ("What the hell do you want?") - she doesn't look that surprised or threatened, one arm akimbo, the other delicately cradling a lit cigarette. This guy should be menacing, but the whole scenario just makes him seem impotent. The chain stretches across her waist like a metaphorical chastity belt - none for you, young man.
• Good example of cover art convention: keep man in the shadows, nondescript and gray / make the woman pop. Even though the man dominates the frame, all eyes are on the woman (peek through the locked door almost as good as a peek through a keyhole, which was a common paperback cover convention, actually - we'll see several peephole covers in the coming months)
• Guy looks like the "gunsel" from the movie "The Maltese Falcon"

Fredric Brown was a great crime fiction and sci-fi writer of the fifties, well known for his taut writing and penchant for humor. Not nearly as famous as he deserves to be. His stuff is highly collectible, especially early paperbacks like this one. The Fabulous Clipjoint is probably his best known work.

RP