TRASHY TUESDAY: HORWITZ BOOK HAUL
Horwitz were arguably the prime Australian publishers of paperbacks and pulp fiction in the 1950s and 60s. Probably best known in pulp circles for their publication of Carter Brown novels, they also dabbled across the full spectrum of paperback fiction from westerns to detective fiction to war stories, romance, humour, racing car tales and a steady stream of unsavory books about pretty young white women being held captive and tortured by Nazis and Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Early Horwitz books are not as easy to find as they used to be, but I have acquired a good bunch recently from various bookfairs and shops. J. E. Macdonnell’s naval war novels dominate the finds, but there is also a medical romance, Nazi porn and the Horwitz edition of Gidget!
J. E. Macdonnell’s naval war novels were staple of newsagents throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Given the titles of ‘Australia’s Greatest Novelist Of The Sea’ and ‘Australia’s Leading Novelist Of The Navy’ by Horwitz, Macdonnell wrote nearly 150 books in his Sea Adventure Series plus another thirty, or so, medical, espionage and stand alone books.
His books were quick, popular reads, but were not of high literary value. The early naval war books, however, did sport some terrific, usually uncredited, artwork. John Dixon, Peter Chapman and Phil Belbin did some of the illustrations, but it is hard to allocate individual covers to them. Regardless, they were very striking and would have contributed to the popularity of the books. I particularly like the moody cover for To The Death (below).
Some more examples are here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-war-underwear-mens-magazines-and-carter-brown-aussie-paperback-pulps/
In contrast, Jim Kent’s war novels tended to deal with more exploitative themes, such war atrocities, the brutalisation of women prisoners by Japanese soldiers and evil experimentations by Nazis. Even his non-war books dealt with fairly sadistic subject matter, and featured titles like The Flagellation Club, In Chains To Hell and Slave Women. They were also well supported by graphic covers by Col Cameron and others. Kent, however, also did some straight war novels, and The Bridge Of Arnhem (below) was the last of his books for Horwitz (printed under their Stag imprint).
For more on Jim Kent books see here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-book-haul-war-westerns-carter-brown-and-another-headless-bikini-model/
Likewise, Horwitz’s John Slater series (primarily written by Ray Slattery) mainly focused on nurses and others being held captive and tortured in POW camps and Nazi concentration camps.
Prisoner Of Dachau (below) is fairly typical of the John Slater output and features an exploitive cover by Col Cameron.
More on John Slater can be found here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-japanese-horror-camps-the-john-slater-pow-novels/ and here: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-australian-nazi-exploitation-pulp-swastika-castle-by-john-slater-horwitz-1966/
Horwitz also had a steady stream of medical adventure stories and romances. One of their most popular and longest lasting series was the Shane Douglas Series which ran for some 60 books between 1959 to 1975. Written by Richard Wilkes-Hunter, the books were mainly set in America and covered a range of different medical scenarios and situations. Dr Glen Carew featured in a lot of the books, which were apparently quite popular in America. Doctor In Action is a little different from the rest of the series, as it deals in flashback with Carew’s experience during World War II in Manila.
In addition to publishing local books, Horwitz also reprinted books from overseas. In one of the strangest collaborations, Horwitz formed a joint venture with Penguin which took place over the period 1961 to 1963, and involved the publication of 33 books. These books were more literary than the usual output by the publisher, but most were still given the Horwitz pulp cover treatment.
I recently came across the Horwitz edition of Frederick Kohner’s Gidget, which was the last book in the Penguin venture. The uncredited cover features a nice bright illustration, which is based on the movie, but updated for the 1960s to feature Gidget in a bikini (in the movie Sandra Dee is in a one piece).
