#Popular Library

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Shirley Jackson - We Have Always Lived In The Castle - Popular - 1982

[driveintheaterofthemind]

Vintage Paperback - That Girl by Paul W. Fairman

Popular Library (1971)

[paintermagazine]

‘Cupcakes?’

Original artist: Rudolph Belarski

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Jules de Grandin, Occult Detective - art by Vincent Di Fate (1976)

[smbhax]

Cover illustration by Robert LoGrippo

Additional information from ISFDB

[mudwerks]

(via Killer Covers: And a Very Merry Christmas to All!)

The Corpse in the Snowman, by “Nicholas Blake,” aka Cecil Day-Lewis (Popular Library, 1945). Cover art by H. Lawrence Hoffman

[thehauntedrocket]

Vintage Paperback - Dragon's Island by Jack Williamson

Art by Earle Bergey

Popular Library (1952)

[uwmspeccoll]

Steamy Saturday

"Flaring passions behind hospital doors."

". . . hospitals are sex-charged places full of the pressures of unfulfilled and unfulfillable yearnings. . . ."

". . . soldiers return bedridden . . . and women . . . were all too eager to supply what they missed."

". . . there are some who will read this book furtively, looking for the lurid passages."

". . . revealing the seamy side of hospital experiences."

". . . a dozen intertwined tales of love among the limbless."

Whoa, whoa, whoa!! What kind of steam is this?! Despite its lurid cover art with its inflammatory copy to entice readers, this pulp novel is not nearly as sordid as it is made out to be. But it is about the rehabilitation of soldiers disabled by war and the nurses who care for them. And, yes, there is some romance.

Ward 20 is by American military and Western writer James Warner Bellah (1899-1976). Despite writing for the pulps, a number of his stories were turned into films, such as John Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy," Fort Apache (1948), She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), and Rio Grande (1950), and with Willis Goldbeck, Bellah wrote the screenplays for Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962). Bellah himself was a veteran of both World Wars, leaving the service with the rank of Colonel. As a veteran, he wrote his military stories with authority, and Ward 20 was heralded for its stark authenticity.

Ward 20 was originally published in hardcover by Doubleday in 1946. Our copy is the first pulp-fiction edition published in New York by Popular Library in 1953.

View other nurse romance novels.

View other pulp fiction posts.

[bilibliophl]

Earle K. Bergey - cover art for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos. Paperback edition c. 1948.

[paperbackpurgatory]

Shirley Jackson's The Haunting Of Hill House (1959)

Edition from 1962 with stills from the film on the cover.

[judgeitbyitscover]

The War of the Worlds (1898) by H. G. Wells

Cover art by Richard Powers

Popular Library, May 1962

When an army of invading Martians lands in England, panic and terror seize the population. As the aliens traverse the country in huge three-legged machines, incinerating all in their path with a heat ray and spreading noxious toxic gases, the people of the Earth must come to terms with the prospect of the end of human civilization and the beginning of Martian rule.

[unrighteousbooks]

Sometimes we are unaware of the people around us. Now and then, they reappear unexpectedly. That is the case with Vivian Maier. This book, by John Maloof and the Howard Greenberg Gallery, contains an exceptional collection of Maier's photography. She passed away in 2009, and her work was all but unknown during her lifetime. This book was first published by Harper Design in 2014. Meanwhile, When the Gods Are Silent, by Mikhail Soloviev, which made an appearance in one of Maier's photos from 1954, can still be found in bookstores such as Aziraphale's Books.

[paintermagazine]

‘A sore point!’

Original artist: Rudolph Belarski

[monkeyssalad-blog]

Popular Library 526 by Uilke Via Flickr: 1953; You can't stop me [.38] by William Ard. Cover art uncredited but it gives me a Rafael DeSoto feeling. Published by Popular Library 526.

[ozgurkedi]

[podddcasttt]

Friendly reminder that if you talk about how representation is important and how there's not enough diverse media, I implore you to seek out the media that already exists. And if you live in an area with a public library, go to see if they're available at your public library. And then go check them out.

As a librarian, it is demoralizing to see how low the circulation statistics are on lgbt+ books and books by BIPOC authors. I include them in displays and readers advisory, but people still don't check them out as much. Libraries only have a finite amount of resources, including space. We don't get a book then keep it forever. If not enough people check it out, we have to get rid of it to make room for more books. And when James Patterson Book #69 gets checked out 30 times in one year and cool, subversive Sci fi novel with a Black trans woman main character has never been checked out once, the librarian (me) has to make a hard decision.

If you're looking for something tangible and easy to do this pride month, look for lgbt+ books (there are millions of lists online that you can find. It's easier than it's ever been to find diverse books) and check them out from your library.

No time to read? Look for a short story or poetry anthology and just read as much as you have time for. Or just check out a book cus it looks interesting and read as much as you can. We have movies too.

As cool as it would be for me to just keep the books I want and get rid of the ones I don't, I have to listen to the community on matters of collection development. And the community tells me what books they want by checking them out and leaving the ones they don't want on the shelf.

If you think this doesn't apply to you because you live in a progressive area and obviously the books are being checked out, you're wrong. I once worked in a community with a large lgbt population. Those books were not getting checked out. If you want to tell me you live in a conservative area and your library doesn't have any diverse books, you are legally obligated to check the catalog before replying to this post. I currently work in a conservative community and we have lgbt+ and bipoc books. And if you still cannot find any, you are legally obligated to see if your library has a collection request form that patrons can fill out before replying to this post.