TRASHY TUESDAY BOOK HAUL: WAR, WESTERNS, CARTER BROWN AND ANOTHER HEADLESS BIKINI MODEL!

Pickings have been a little slim over the past few months, but I have acquired a few interesting books to add to my various collections. Especially pleased with some of the Australian Horwitz books I got.

Australian publishers Horwitz ventured into medical romances and medical adventure novels in a big way in the early 1960s. They commissioned a number of medical series, with one of the most popular and longest lasting being the Shane Douglas Series, which ran for some 60 books between 1959 and 1975. Written by Richard Wilkes-Hunter, the books covered a range of different medical scenarios and situations, including some set during World War II.  Most of the Shane Douglas books were located in America, including The Flying Physicians (Horwitz, PB 94, 1961), in which Wilkes-Hunter seems to have transported the popular Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service trope to small town America.

The artist is not identified, maybe Theo Batten, but is a great illustration and very typical of those on Horwitz medical romances, which usually had a strong jawed doctor performing some medical act while being watched by an attractive nurse or female observer. Dress standards were obviously very high in the world of flying physicians! The doctor is in a nice suit and tie and barely seems to be breaking a sweat while doping up the patient. While the lady observing, is nicely draped in a shawl. Only the poor patient is letting down the side!

Here is a link to an earlier article I did on Horwitz medical series: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-more-australian-medical-paperbacks-from-the-1960s/

POW novels were another staple of the Horwitz output in the 1960s and the books by Jim Kent typically dealt with wartime atrocities, evil Nazi experimentations or stories about Australian nurses being brutalised and sexually abused by Japanese soldiers.

They usually had quite exploitative covers (see below), but the one for Changi Terror, (Horwitz PB275, 1966), is quite restrained. Stark and simple, but it still manages to be quietly effective.

Here is an earlier article I did on POW novels: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-japanese-horror-camps-the-john-slater-pow-novels/

War stories were another staple of the Horwitz publishing machine.

J. E. Macdonnell was the main provider of Australian war novels, but other members of Horwitz’s regular pulp brigade also frequently added their contributions. James Holledge specialised in supposedly non fiction books, and wrote over 45 books between 1961 and 1970, most of which focused on sex and sleaze, such as Australia’s Wicked Women (1963), The Call Girl in Australia (1965) and White Slavery (1964). He also occasionally turned his attention to supposedly true tales of Australian war heroics.

For Valour (Horwitz, No. 35, 1965) is one of his later books and focuses on those Australians who won the Victoria Cross. It is a briskly written account and is much helped by a terrific action cover by master illustrator Col Cameron. It is probably one of the best war covers I have seen.

Carter Brown (Alan G Yates) was undoubtedly the prime best seller for Horwitz and his books numbered around 300, plus regular reprints.

I already had a copy of The Plush-Lined Coffin (Horwitz, No. 140, 1967), but this one was a little nicer. There is nothing very subtle about the cover, but the swirling purple background gives it the nice 1960s psychedelic feel that you would associate with a “California love cult”!

The Carter Brown books were sold around the world, most notably in America, but also in many European countries. Kuoleman Salaseura (Society of Death) is the third entry in Finland’s Manhattan series of Carter Brown novels.

The cover artist is not identified, but it looks like the work of one of the many Spanish artists who did syndicated covers during the 1970s and 1980s: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-more-larry-kent-spanish-covers/

I could not resist this British Ace edition of Dee Brown’s Yellowhorse (Ace, 1957), with the great wrap around cover by P. Morgan.

It is a very striking cover, presumably of Custer, and certainly caught my attention!

I did a post last year on Headless Bikini Models: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-headless-bikini-models/

One of the books I highlighted was the 1979 Warner cover for Joseph Mark Glazner’s Smart Money Doesn’t Sing Or Dance. I had never heard of Joseph Mark Glazner or his Billy Nevers books before that, but I recently found the second book in the series: Fast Money Shoots From The Hips (Warner, 1980). Again, it is an interesting cover, but the headless bikini model phenomena, was a strange diversion by publishers and I can understand why it was short lived.

I also have other recent acquisitions, including some J. E. Macdonnell war books, another Carter Brown, some Cleveland westerns and a couple of early British paperbacks, which I will post shortly.