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BOOK REVIEW
DOPE MENACE
New from Feral House, 220 pages plus covers, by Stephen J. Gertz. List price: $24.95.
Here's a book that takes you back to the newsstands of the 1950s when paperback books -- also known as pocket books, because of their size -- ruled. They covered all subjects: crime, detective, war combat, adventure and, as witnessed here, drug usage.
Teenage boys were frequently lured to the garish covers, often hinting -- or shouting -- at dark menace and wild sex. But, of course, adults were the target market. Even so, as we learn in this incredibly detailed and lavishly illustrated offering, that did not stop the Congress from launching an investigation into the effects these books had on the public.
"In 1952," the author writes, "Congressman Ezekiel C. Gathings (D-Arkansas) convened a House Select Committee to investigate the proliferation of literature he considered a pox on contemporary American society, taking particular aim at paperback books which he believed were specifically marketed to [adults of low ethical standards]."
Elsewhere in the book, Gertz tells us: "In 1953 an unknown writer just shy of his fortieth birthday had his first book published. Issued by a new, small paperback publisher ....the book was Junkie, written by William S. Burroughs under the pseudonym 'William Lee'....Junkie was publish by Ace Books, a paperback house established in 1952 to surf the huge wave of paperback's popularity to the bank."
Dope Menace goes into all of this and much more in incredible detail -- it's an education on the manner in which book and magazine publishers responded to the times and how the government responded to the book and magazine publishers. But what makes this book such a total joy are the color reproductions of those wonderfully garish paperback covers. There are simply too many of these reproductions to count, making you wonder at the time and effort that must have gone into obtaining them all.
Gertz covers the entire genre, from it's earliest days to the recent past. We tip our hat to both Gertz and Feral House for creating this beautifully produced time machine. -- Bruce David/Swapsale
For more information on this book and other books from Feral House, go to: http://feralhouse.com/
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