In Search of... In Search Of: An Index to the Alan Landsburg Book Series

by John Scoleri

Growing up in the 1970s, a time when interest in aliens, bigfoot, and strange phenomena seemed to be at an all-time high, one of my favorite TV shows was In Search Of. Hosted by Leonard Nimoy, each episode detailed stories of unexplained mysteries, von Daniken inspired alien influences, and other strange phenomena.

Many years later, I discovered that the producer of the show, Alan Landsburg, had written a series of books for Bantam; each focused on a category of the types of stories that appeared on the show. As the show and the books were so closely related, it's worth providing a brief of history on the origin of the series. It all started with In Search of Ancient Astronauts, an edited version of a 1970 documentary based on Erich von Daniken's 1968 book Chariots of the Gods; re-dubbed by Rod Serling and aired on television in 1973. Landsburg also produced two follow-ups similarly narrated by Serling: In Search of Ancient Mysteries, a 1973 TV movie, and the 1975 documentary, The Outer Space Connection. If not for Serling's death in 1975, one can reasonably assume he would have gone on to host the TV series that aired from 1977 to 1982.

What follows is an index of the eight Bantam volumes and the contents of each. Note: all volumes contain 32 pages of photos.

In Search of Ancient Mysteries
by Alan and Sally Landsburg
Foreword by Rod Serling
Bantam, February 1974

Table of Contents
Foreword by Rod Serling
1 How Did We Start?
2 Spores and Artifacts
3 The Sea in the Mountains
4 Space base One?
5 Who Was Viracocha?
6 The Colossal Charts
7 Something to Make the Gods Weep
8 Voyages into Limbo
9 Who Taught the Egyptians?
10 Secrets in Stone
11 A Feretic at Karnak
12 Back to the Bible
13 Looking Down on Earth
14 How Did Man Get His Brain?
15 Shortcuts in Space-Time?
Bibliography
Index

The Outer Space Connection
by Alan and Sally Landsburg
Foreword by Rod Serling
Bantam, July 1975

Table of Contents
Foreword by Rod Serling
1 The Question We Couldn't Get Out of Our Minds
2 The Mayan Mystery
3 How About the Clone?
4 Engineering the Embryo
5 Neurosurgeons in Peru
6 The House of Death
7 Back to the Pyramids
8 Book of the Dead
9 Myth as History
10 Methuselah Lived to Be 980
11 Old Age: A Curable Disease?
12 Strange Life Forces
13 Afterlife: The Journey to the Heavens
Epilogue

In Search of Lost Civilizations
by Alan Landsburg
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy
Bantam, December 1976

Table of Contents
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy
Prologue
1 Where Did Everyone Go?
2 The Drowned Kingdoms
3 The Wave That Wrecked a Civilization
4 To Meet the Minotaur
5 Into the Maze
6 What the Cyclops Left
7 A Blind Man's Secrets
8 When Death Was Fun
9 Britain's Shadow People
10 Egypt's Black Rival
11 Reach Into Darkness
12 Africa's Tribe of Mystics
13 The City Under the River
14 The First Civilization?
15 The Invisible Machines
16 Old Enemies
Bibliography

In Search of Extraterrestrials
by Alan Landsburg
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy
Bantam, January 1977

Table of Contents
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy
1 The Hunt Begins
2 Beneath the Surface
3 To Witness the Fires
4 The Tainting Problem
5 History Visits in the Deep Past
6 Out There
7 Hello Out There
8 Black Holes
9 Designs of Spaceships
10 Astronomers' Views
11 The Viking Mission
12 Why Bother with Life Out There?
13 Conclusion
Epilogue
Bibliography

In Search of Magic and Witchcraft
by Alan Landsburg
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy*
Bantam, February 1977

Table of Contents
(Foreword by Leonard Nimoy)
Introduction
1 What is Magic?
2 What is Witchcraft?
3 Witchcraft and Christianity
4 What Makes People Want to Be Witches?
5 The Witchcraft Scene Today
6 Talismans, Amulets, and Fetishes
7 Spells, Incantations, and Rituals
8 Mediterranean Magic Cults in Modern America
9 Love Potions, Herbs, and Scents
10 The Kabala, Alchemy, and the Hermetic Orders
11 Curses, Fact or Fantasy?
12 Magic, Witchcraft, and Sex
13 Satanism and Devil Worship
14 Exorcism
15 Voodoo
Bibliography

In Search of Strange Phenomena
by Alan Landsburg
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy*
Bantam, March 1977

Table of Contents
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy
1 What Are Psychic and Other Strange Phenomena?
2 The Nature of Man: The Link With Strange Phenomena
3 Pipeline to the Beyond
4 ESP and its Variations
5 Psychic Dreams and Astral Projection
6 The Case For Reincarnation
7 Ghosts and How to Deal With Them
8 Kirlian Photography and Psychic Photography—Hoax or Fact?
9 Criminal-Detection Work and ESP
10 Psychic Surgery and Healing
11 The Psychic World of Plants
12 Pyramids and Pyramidology
13 Improbable Monuments and Archaeological Puzzles
14 The Bermuda Triangle
15 Mediums and Mediumship and the Strange Case of Uri Geller
Bibliography

In Search of Myths and Monsters
by Alan Landsburg
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy*
Bantam, July 1977

Table of Contents
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy
1 Monsters and I
2 The Reign of Monsters
3 The Great Dying
4 Missing and Presumed Nonexistent
5 The Things in the Loch
6 Dark Worlds Below
7 Sea Giants
8 The Snowman Wants to See You
9 America's Longest Hide-and-Seek Game
10 Monsters Astray?
11 Part-time Monsters
12 Monsters from the Laboratory
Bibliography

In Search of Missing Persons
by Alan Landsburg
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy*
Bantam, February 1978

Table of Contents
Foreword by Leonard Nimoy

Part I - The Adventurers
Prologue
1 Richard Halliburton
2 Percy Fawcett
3 Amelia Earhart
4 Michael Rockefeller

Part II - The Fugitives
Prologue
5 The Romanovs
6 Martin Bormann
7 James Hoffa
8 D.B. Cooper

Part III - Strange Disappearances
Prologue
9 Jesus Christ
10 Aimee Semple Macpherson
11 Dalton Trumbo
12 The Great Gods

Bibliography

*Nimoy wrote different Forewords for the first two volumes in the In Search of series. His Foreword from the second volume was reprinted in each of the remaining volumes.

Fans of the series may be interested to know that in 1979, the Doubleday Book Club released a hardcover condensed compilation of the first five Bantam In Search of paperbacks published in 1977.

In Search Of...
by Alan Landsburg
Doubleday Book Club, 1979
(printed in December 1978 as per T52 gutter code)

Table of Contents
Introuduction

Part One - Lost Civilizations
1 Where Did Everyone Go?
2 Atlantis
3 The Heirs of Minos
4 Britain's Shadow People
5 The Invisible Machines

Part Two - Extraterrestrials
6 The Hunt and the Witnesses
7 The Scientists' DIlemma
8 The Prospects Out There
9 The Visitors

Part Three - Magic and Witchcraft
10 What is Magic?
11 What is Witchcraft?
12 The Witchcraft Scene Today
13 Talismans, Amulets, Potions and Herbs
14 Spells and Curses
15 Witchcraft, Sex, and the Devil
16 Possession, Exorcism, and Voodoo

Part Four - Strange Phemomena
17 ESP
18 Spiritual Survival and Reincarnation
19 Psychic Dreams and Astral Projection
20 Ghosts and How to Deal With Them
21 Psychic Phenomena at Work

Part Five - Myths and Monsters
22 Monsters: Missing and Presumed Nonexistent
23 The Reign of Monsters
24 Dark Worlds Below
25 Monsters Who Walk Like Men
26 Dracula, Vampires, and Werewolves

Bibliography
Index

Fans of the show, and those interested in strange phenomena, will be thrilled to know the entire series (including the original two pilot films and two follow-on series) has been released in a complete series set on DVD. You can order the complete series of In Search Of on Amazon (and keep an eye out for sale prices - it has been offered for less than $50 in the past!).

In memory of 
Leonard Nimoy
March 26, 1931 - February 27, 2015

Alan Landsburg

May 10, 1933 - August 14, 2014

A Gallery of the Richard Matheson Book Covers by Murray Tinkelman

by John Scoleri

Regular readers of this blog know that two of my (numerous) collecting obsessions are 1) the works of Richard Matheson and 2) paperback book series released in matching cover designs by a single artist.

Berkley Books acquired the rights to eight of Richard Matheson's books to be published throughout 1979, and hired artist Murray Tinkelman to design their covers. Tinkelman's work was recognizable to readers of science fiction and horror thanks to several HP Lovecraft book covers he designed for Ballantine in the mid-70s. On Tinkelman's website, fellow artist Vincent DiFate describes his work on the Lovecraft covers:

"Since the artist used an open crosshatch technique, his illustrations appeared light in tone, reminiscent of an old photograph that had faded with time. Contrasted with the fully rendered paintings of other paperback artists, Tinkelman's drawings looked so unlike traditional book cover art that they had an immediate and significant impact."

The same can be said of Tinkelman's Matheson covers.

The overall cover design would change slightly for the last two books, where the art was no longer presented full bleed and the M and N in Matheson's name do not extend below the other letters. Sharp-eyed readers will notice that Shock III was originally designed to match the earlier books as can be seen on the back of Shock Waves (and reproduced at the top of this article).

Here is a gallery of the Tinkelman covers for the Richard Matheson books Berkley released in 1979 (along with the text copy from the front and back covers of each book):

The Shrinking Man
January 1979
ISBN 0-425-04021-6 $1.95
One of the most incredible Science Fiction classics of all time!

Scott Carey was a normal-sized human when he passed through the chemical fog... 
He was the size of a doll when the basement door slammed—and locked—behind him...
He was the size of a moth when the Black Widow awakened to feed...
THE SHRINKING MAN
The incredible SF classic of a man stranded in a nightmare world of horror—his own cellar!

The Shores of Space (collection)
February 1979
ISBN 0-425-04024-0 $1.75
"Ambidextrous, unpredicatble... always first-rank" —Harlan Ellison

Here are thinking jellies that feed on man, cold dimensions of otherness that lurk in the summer air, eerie encounters with a killer doll... and a visit with Mom on the last day of the world.
Here are provocative and unforgettable stories from a celebrated master of science fiction and fantasy!
BEING
BLOOD SON
THE LAST DAY
THE DOLL THAT DOES EVERYTHING
...and other incredible journeys to
THE SHORES OF SPACE

Thanks to a recent Heritage Auction, we can see that Tinkelman's cover art to The Shores of Space was cropped to remove the nudity.

I Am Legend
April 1979
ISBN 0-425-04053-4 $1.75
One man against a planet of vampires. Neville is the man. The planet is... Earth!
The Nightmare Classic

Daytimes are okay. It's at night that the horror begins...
At night, when the empty streets begin to fill with the lurching, bone-white shapes of the walking dead, creeping toward the fortress-house of the last man alive on Earth, howling for the precious substance they crave...
Blood.
I AM LEGEND
Considered one of the great masterpieces of modern science fiction, I AM LEGEND is the source of the WARNER BROTHERS motion picture THE OMEGA MAN starring CHARLTON HESTON.

Shock I (collection)
May 1979
ISBN 0-425-04095-X $1.95
First in a series from the far side of Strange

Classic Fantasy from the celebrated Discoverer of the far side of Strange
A long night in a too-strange town, a star-voyage on a doomed ship, a visit to the Edge, Berserkers, Fungi, bus rides to Nowhere, phone calls from the Dead and other events uncanny, uncommon... and unforgettable.
THE CHILDREN OF NOAH
THE DISTRIBUTOR
LEMMINGS
THE EDGE
ONE FOR THE BOOKS
THE SPLENDID SOURCE
LONG DISTANCE CALL
DANCE OF THE DEAD
THE CREEPING TERROR
MANTAGE
LEGION OF PLOTTERS
DEATH SHIP and THE HOLIDAY MAN
SHOCK I

A Stir of Echoes
June 1979
ISBN 0-425-04107-7 $1.95
The masterpiece of terror about the man who had an Open Mind

"You will awaken now, with the full power of your mind..."
The party game was over, and the descent into Hell began: a terrifying parade of shapes, seizing Tom Wallace's brain, plunging him into a world of incalculable horror...
All because of an amateur hypnotist's casual mistake. For which of us could live sanely with the full power of the mind?
A STIR OF ECHOES

 Shock II (collection)
July 1979
ISBN 0-425-04158-1 $1.95
Second in a series from the darkside of the Imagination
"Matheson is masterful..." —Harlan Ellison

A visit to the long afternoon of Earth, a one-year-old man, a mind-singing ceremony, a maelstrom, cricket armies, Venus babies for sale... and other apparitions incredible, intriguing and intensely Strange.
THE MAN WHO MADE THE WORLD
DESCENT
DEADLINE
NO SUCH THING AS A VAMPIRE
BROTHER TO THE MACHINE
GRAVEYARD SHIFT
THE LIKENESS OF JULIE
LAZARUS II
MUTE
FROM SHADOWED PLACES
BIG SURPRISE
CRICKETS
A FLOURISH OF STRUMPETS
Classic Fantasy from a Master of Imaginative Fiction

Shock III (collection)
September 1979
ISBN 0-425-04209-X $1.95
Third in a series from the outer edge of unReality.
Matheson is "always first rank!" —Harlan Ellison

A one way trip through Time, the day dreams were money, a killer house and a rain of snakes, the real Mr. Universe, a nuptial corpse, the human from Mars and other unRealities weird, wise and wildly probable.
GIRL OF MY DREAMS
RETURN
THE DISINHERITORS
SHOCK WAVE
WITCH WAR
MISS STARDUST
'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JELLY
THE JAZZ MACHINE
SLAUGHTER HOUSE
WHEN THE WAKER SLEEPS
FIRST ANNIVERSARY
FULL CIRCLE
NIGHTMARE AT 20,000 FEET
Classic Fantasy from a Master of Imaginative Fiction

Shock Waves (collection)
October 1979
ISBN 0-425-04218-9 $1.95
Fourth in a series from a world where Weirdness walks

A look at the ugliest doll ever seen, a selfmurderess, the man who bled oil, a machine that promises never to stop, the lights around the moon and other horrors bizarre, believable and bone-chilling!
SHOCK WAVES
Don't miss these other volumes in the classic SHOCK series by a Master of Imaginative Fiction





 

The Andrew Shaw Checklist

prepared by Lynn Munroe

Lawrence Block told me he was Andrew Shaw until he left the Scott Meredith Agency in late 1963 or early 1964. Meredith kept the pen name going until 1967 but Block was not involved. Of course it is probable that the editors had some Block-authored Andrew Shaw books in the pipeline or in what Earl Kemp called the "slush pile", which could explain the 1966 Shaw book Kitty, which reads like Lawrence Block.

The author names following the titles on the checklist are ones I've been told wrote those books. Whoever was writing Shaws after Block is unknown, so those are blank.

NIGHTSTAND BOOKS

1505 CAMPUS TRAMP (1959) Lawrence Block

1511 THE ADULTERERS (1960) Block

1517 HIGH SCHOOL SEX CLUB says Shaw on cover, John Dexter on title page

1520 THE SIN-DAMNED Block

1526 THE WIFE-SWAPPERS Block (reprinted: 1719)

1531 SEXPOT Block

1534 COLLEGE FOR SINNERS Block

1541 TRAMP (1961) Block

1543 THE TWISTED ONES Block

1546 $20 LUST Block (reprinted: 1705)

1548 GIRLS ON THE PROWL Block

1551 LOVER Block

1553 TRAILER TROLLOP Block (reprinted: 1703)

1563 PASSION SLAVES William Coons (reprinted: 1712)

1566 SIN DEVIL Coons

1569 ARMY SIN GIRLS Coons

1575 HOUSE OF 7 SINS Coons

1578 PONYTAIL TRAMP Coons

1599 SIN HELLCAT Block & Donald E. Westlake

1604 BUTCH (1962) Block

1611 PASSION ALLEY

1614 LUST WEEKEND

1619 HARLEM HARLOT says Don Holliday on cover, Shaw on title page

1623 REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS

1627 EAST SIDE SINNERS

1629 THE SADIST Block

1635 SINTIME

1639 LUST PAD

1641 FLESH MAD

1647 SIN SLUM

1703 reprints 1553

1705 reprints 1546

1712 reprints 1563

1719 reprints 1526

1745 THE HOUSE IN JOY COURT (1965)

1772 SIN SEER (1966)

1775 PASSION PROF
1777 PASSION LASH

1783 ROMANCE ROBOT

1786 KITTY Block

1803 PASSION'S PREY

1828 BACK SEAT SINNERS (1967)

1835 ON-CALL WIFE

MIDNIGHT READER

402 PASSION IN PAINT (1961) Block

404 MOTEL SEX CLUB

405 LUST DAMNED

408 LUST CAMPUS Block

409 SLUM SINNERS (1962)

416 LUST SLUM

420 PASSION C.O.D. Coons

427 CROSSROADS OF LUST Block

431 FLESH PARADE

436 PASSION NIGHTMARE Coons

447 THE WANTON WATCHER

456 HARLOT SCHOOL

462 FLESH MOB Block

472 SIN BUM

477 FLESH FOOLS (1963)

491 SIN HOSTESS

BEDSIDE

1224 GUTTER GIRL (1962)

EMBER BOOK

904 SIN BABES by Andrew Shole (1963)

906 LUST TEAM by Andrew Shole

910 ORGY HOUSE by Andrew Shole

934 LUST LADDER by Andrew Shole (1964)

940 CALL GIRL SCHOOL

EMBER LIBRARY

316 SINTOWN SETUP (1966)

326 WILLING INTERN

332 A MOUNTAIN OF SIN

336 HUSH-HUSH TOWN

338 LEATHER

341 BAD TOWN

356 A PLAGUE OF PASSIONS

375 HOT ROD ROGUES (1967)

LEISURE BOOK

603 PASSION MADMAN by Andrew Shole (1963) Coons

605 SIN SULTAN by Andrew Shole (1964) Coons

613 SIN ALLEY

620 SEX ROUTE
621 THE SINNER

628 SEX CAPTIVE

634 LUST IN TIME

643 WANTON DOA by Andrew Shay

648 SIN STOP by Andrew Shay

653 PASSION PARTY by Andrew Shay

688 PENTHOUSE PLAYERS (1965)

1118 VOYEUR

1134 FRATERNITY OF SHAME (1966)

1143 THE JAZZ SINNER

1149 STRANGE AFFAIR

1151 THE SCREAMING VIRGIN

1155 BUT LOVING NONE

1173 VILLAGE OF DESPAIR

PILLAR BOOK

827 SIN MASTER 

848 PASSION POST (1964)

EVENING READER

709 SHAME CLUB (1964)

713 THE WILD ONES

719 SHAME MATES

725 LETHAL LUST

733 PASSION PAL by Andrew Shay

746 BORN TO LUST by Andrew Shay

760 THE SHAME MAKERS by Andrew Shay

763 EXOTICA by Andrew Shay

767 WOODLAND WANTON by Andrew Shay

788 SIN WATCHER (1965)

1214 OLYMPIC ORGY (1965)

1220 THE SEX PRO (1966)

1221 PASSION PROFITEER

1233 MISS UNDERSTANDING

1243 PSYCHO CIRCUS

1256 ACRES OF SHAME

IDLE HOUR

420 THE SIN SATYR by Andrew Shay (1964)

436 SIN STORE by Andre Shay (1965)

440 PROJECT PASSION

450 SIN SMOTHERED

487 LONG ISLAND LUST (1966)

517 FUGITIVE LOVER

SUNDOWN READER

527 THE PROCURER by Andrew Shay (1964)

538 HALLS OF SIN by Andrew Shay (1965)
(note: 538 credits Andrew Shaw on the cover but Shay on the title page)

548 THE SINFUL SIX

552 HILLTOP LUST

572 BARTERED BODIES

CANDID READER

906 NO ROOM FOR SHAME (1967)

912 LETHAL LOVER

COMPANION BOOK

518 FALLING IN LUST (1967)

LATE-HOUR LIBRARY

712 FISHERS OF FLESH (1967)

REED NIGHTSTAND (reprints the first 100 Nightstands and the first 20 Midnight Readers)

3005 CAMPUS TRAMP (1973) reprints Nightstand 1505

3011 THE ADULTERERS reprints Nightstand 1511

3017 THE CORRUPTED retitles Nightstand 1517

3020 THE SWITCHERS retitles Nightstand 1520

3026 THE LIBERTINES retitles Nightstand 1534

3031 THE WANTONS retitles Nightstand 1548

3033 THE UNASHAMED retitles Nightstand 1543

3034 CINDERELLA SIMS retitles Nightstand 1546

3036 TRAMP reprints Nightstand 1541

3039 THE WIFE SWAPPERS reprints Nightstand 1526

3045 LOVER reprints Nightstand 1551

3047 FOUR WILD GIRLS retitles Nightstand 1553

3050 BAD GIRL retitles Nightstand 1531

3056 THE DEVIL'S MAIDENS retitles Nightstand 1566

3062 THE CARNAL CROWD retitles Nightstand 1563

4003 THE BRAZEN CORPS (1974) retitles Nightstand 1569

4009 THE OBSESSED retitles Nightstand 1575

4012 NO STAIN SO DEEP retitles Nightstand 1578

4022 THE LOVELOST retitles Midnight Reader 402

4024 THE WILD ONES retitles Midnight Reader 404

(same title as Evening Reader 713 but a different book)

4029 THE VIOLATED retitles Midnight Reader 405

4032 UP IN LINDA'S ROOM retitles Midnight Reaer 408

4037 PITY THE DAMNED retitles Midnight Reader 409

4048 THE TROUBLE WITH KAREN retitles Midnight Reader 416

4049 A PIECE OF THE ACTION retitles Nightstand 1599

4056 PITCH MAN, LOVER MAN retitles Midnight Reader 420

Make sure to keep checking this list as it's updated periodically.

Lynn's even more detailed list of Andrew Shaw's novels can be found here. This is also an issue of eI that contains a lot of information about the Andrew Shaw/Lawrence Block connection.

20 Great Vintage Sleaze Reads

by Lynn Munroe

1. CROSSROADS OF LUST by Lawrence Block writing as Andrew Shaw. Midnight Reader 427, 1962.

Block was the first Andrew Shaw, and he has recently been republishing the books under his name. This is one that deserves to be available again. 

Many vintage sleaze paperbacks are all about "topic A" and nothing else. But several of the early Andrew Shaw titles, like this one, are hardboiled crime novels disguised as sleazy paperbacks. Block used this forum to hone his skills writing crime novels, and there is very little difference between his Andrew Shaw thrillers and the early Gold Medals published under his real name. This one is about an armored car robbery that goes wrong and gets bloody.

2. THE SADIST by Lawrence Block writing as Andrew Shaw. Nightstand 1629, 1962.

Block has already reprinted the best Andrew Shaw crime book, $20 Lust, under his original title Cinderella Sims. But this ice-cold chiller deserves to be republished too. 

The Sadist is a dark ride, a trip to the black night of men's souls in which the main character is no hero but is a sadistic hit man named Jack Garth. Garth loves his work, because it affords him an outlet for his dark side. He is a serial killer who gets by calling himself a "hit man". Garth takes the jobs no one else has the stomach for, like killing all the members of one Albany family. In one chapter that gave me night haunts, he forces the daughter to watch as he chops up her mom with an ax. This is a far cry from the usual sex and fun of the other Nightstands. In many ways ahead of its time, The Sadist is more like a modern gore movie. Later authors would be noticed for writing books with killer "anti-heroes" like this, but the only author I can think of who did so before Andrew Shaw was Jim Thompson with The Killer Inside Me.

3. THE SIN DRIFTER by Donald E. Westlake writing as Alan Marshall. Bedside 1218, 1962.

All four of the Bedside Alan Marshall books are fun reading and good examples of early Westlake. Traveling salesman Mike Mallory of the Wilmot-Dexter Peanut Butter Company has a seies of wacky trysts in this romp full of early 60s in-jokes. There's a couple named Wilma & Barney Stone, and Mike stops at the Bates Hotel, where he meets "two bottomless wells of giggling, bouncing, piston-hipped lust" named Cherry and Merry.

4. PASSION'S PLAYTHINGS - Westlake as Alan Marshall. Bedside 1208, 1961.

Walt McKay from Sodd, Ohio runs into plenty of action during his first visit to New York City. He finds himself on 42nd Street, joining the sex movie racket and meeting an unforgettable group of bizarre characters. Westlake often uses a storyteller's trick of involving you in the story by making "you" a part of the proceedings, as this quote from Passion's Playthings illustrates:

"..what's going to happen to this ordinary-looking guy in a few minutes is not something you would want to be involved in. You might think it's going to be fun, and maybe at first it will be, but the fun is going to evaporate faster than after-shave lotion, and the smell it will leave behind will not be nearly as pleasant. Walt is going to have an adventure, and remember, an adventure is some other guy in a hell of a situation."

5. CALL ME SINNER - Westlake as Alan Marshall. Nightstand 1581, 1961.

"Alan Marshall" became a house name used by many different writers, but Westlake was the first Marshall, and unlike many of his contemporaries he had no qualms about owning up to which of the books he had written. In chapter two of the second Dortmunder Gang story, Bank Shot, a box of sleazy paperbacks falls open and Westlake lists six of the titles. Except for one of his Edwin West titles (Strange Affair), they are all Alan Marshall books, and one of them is Call Me Sinner. This is his way of telling us he wrote this book. This book has the same first sentence as one of the Midwood Marshalls, Virgin's Summer, but the two stories go off on different tangents from there.

6. PASSION DOLL - Westlake as Alan Marshall. Sundown Reader 528, 1964.

Westlake was very adamant that he stopped writing these when the books appearing under his own name began to take off. I believe him, and I think he wrote Passion Doll in the early 1960s, but the publisher held it until 1964. I also think Westlake liked Passion Doll, because he mentioned it twice in his other books. It's another one of the books in the box in Bank Shot, and in one of the Parker hardcovers, as by Richard Stark, a drive-in movie is showing Man Hungry and Passion Doll (The Midwood Man Hungry is the third Alan Marshall book in Bank Shot, the other two are Off Limits and a Midwood called Apprentice Virgin). Passion Doll is reminiscent of other Westlakes, a road novel about a hitchhiking soldier and the runaway beauty queen who picks him up and takes him to motels.

7. OFF LIMITS - Westlake as Alan Marshall. Bedside 1202, 1961.

As noted above, Off Limits was one of the books named in Bank Shot. Westlake had served in the Air Force, and this story takes place on an Air Force Base. Richard Stark would return to this setting for The Green Eagle Score.

8. THE WARPED ONES - Westlake as Alan Marshall. Bedside 1211, 1961.

After his Air Force tour of duty, Westlake and his first wife got involved in the Greenwich Village off-off-Broadway theatre scene, and that is the setting of The Warped Ones. Westlake invented the bad play title "A Sound of Distant Drums" and Block quickly started using it too as they put jokes for each other in their manuscripts. That play is in this book.

9. THE SIN LOSERS - Westlake as Alan Marshall. Idle Hour 465, 1965.

Westlake is easily recognized by his breezy, conversational sense of humor. A friend of a friend of Westlake's once gave me a short list of Westlake's "adult" titles, and The Sin Losers was on that list. It is unmistakably his work, as this description of wedding night problems demonstrates:

"So then, she was stripped.... Now came the slipping and sliding process. They were both as slippery as eels by this time, and as nervous as inhabitants of Death Row, and though Hubert slid atop his wife with all the aplomb of a man for whom things like this are a common occurrence, happening every decade, the next stage of this fiasco found Hubert totally unable to find, anywhere on his wife's anatomy, the portion he had been led to believe was standard equipment on all women, and which was, in a way, the ultimate object of all this fooling around. He poked and pried and scrambled around like Ponce De Leon jabbing Florida all over with a stick in search of the Fountain of Youth , but, also like Ponce De Leon, all he seemed to be finding was more Florida."However, remember this is called THE SIN LOSERS, and everybody loses in the downer of an ending to this story.

However, remember this is called THE SIN LOSERS, and everybody loses in the downer of an ending to this story.

10. BEAST OF SHAME - David Case writing as Don Holliday. Pillar Book 847, 1964.

Case was the second Don Holliday, and he has many fans in the vintage sleaze world. His original title for this was Lust Werewolf, and that is too perfect to stick, they called it Beast of Shame. Case was interested in writing horror (he later wrote the movie tie-in for And Now the Screaming Starts), and finding himself with a sleazebook assignment he chose to write this dark delicious sleaze/horror crossover. Perhaps the only book from this publisher with an actual werewolf as one of the main characters, Beast of Shame is about a guy who runs around eating women. Literally.

11. THE LUSTFUL ONES - William Knoles writing as Clyde Allison. Nightstand 1525, 1960.

When I interviewed William Knoles' wife for an article on Clyde Allison, she told me he used to come home frustrated after a day at his job at Scott Meredith Literary Agency, reading the manuscripts they were providing to Nightstand Books. "I'm sure I could write a better one", he'd say. But then, unlike a lot of guys who come home complaining about their work, he wrote one. His first novel for Nightstand, The Lustful Ones, stands out from the pack as one of their supremely best-written books. The poignancy and deeply felt emotions of the characters ring true and resonant with the reader. It is unexpected, especially from this kind of paperback. For example, there's a scene in The Lustful Ones - it's a standard sleazebook scene - where our amorous prowling hero realizes he can totally boink this nubile, vulnerable young lady whose emotional defenses have been destroyed. But then he doesn't, because even though he'd have his fun, it would only break her more . Personal integrity like that comes as such a surprise after reading all the sex scenes and mindless bed romps in all these books that it's almost shocking. Chris Eckhoff, the extraordinary Brooklyn paperback dealer, once called The Lustful Ones "a masterpiece" in his book catalog. He was right on the money.

12. SIN SONG by William Knoles writing as John Dexter. Nightstand 1562, 1961.

"John Dexter" was one of the house names everybody shared at Nightstand, and the editors would randomly assign manuscripts from their regular writers to these house names. Knoles called this The Girl You Love to Hate, and as you read it, you recognize it's a Clyde Allison book. There's even a character in it from another Clyde Allison book, Hollywood director Hudson Ford from The Sex Riddle. Sin Song is about a promoter who takes a backwoods hick singer and turns her into a female Elvis. It's a biting satire on American pop culture and the music business. The more she sneers and misbehaves, the more popular she gets. It's a story about celebrity that's ahead of its time.

13. THE SEX SPREE by William Knoles writing as Clyde Allison. Midnight Reader 439, 1962.

Clyde Allison became famous for his hilarious James Bond parodies, the 0008 books. But a lot of his other, lesser-known titles are just as good, like this carefree spree about a guy named Dave Bender who goes on a 30-day bender. In a satire on the then-fairly-new world of instant credit, Dave realizes that since his credit card won't be due for 30 days, he has a month to live large, go wild, travel the world and make whooppee like crazy before he has to admit he can't pay for any of it.

14. THE GLASS MISTRESS by Evan Hunter writing as Dean Hudson. 

Midnight Reader 464, 1962. Hunter / Hudson had this notion that a man who was a skid row bum could simultaneously be a huge success in whatever field of work he chose. It's a ludicrous notion, but it's the basis for his Curt Cannon books like I Like 'Em Tough and it is the idea behind The Glass Mistress, which is about an actor who is both a drunken bum and a world-class lover. I always wanted to ask him, have you ever smelled a wino? How can he possibly succeed with the ladies as a famous lover and famous actor? The actor's true mistress, however, is his glass of booze.

15. THE SIN VELDT by John Dexter. Leisure Book 1152, 1966.


Sir Cecil Aubrey's circus, with its leopard-skin-wearing strongman Zondrik and the voluptuous Darvi, journey into deepest Africa in search of a Great White Ape. Zondrik (whose real name, we learn, is Algernon P. Fothingsgap) is not exactly Tarzan, and the Ape, who is afraid of biplanes and the Empire State Building , is not exactly King Kong. Along the way, every jungle adventure, safari movie and giant ape story is sent up as the circus folk journey from Mombasa to a Hollywood movie studio, where a giant ape movie called MIGHTY SAM YOUNG is made.

16. HER by J.X. Williams. Leisure Book 1218, 1967.


Rumors abound that Her was written by "a famous science-fiction author", but to date that name has not yet been revealed, and Earl Kemp, the science-fiction fan who edited this book, has forgotten just who submitted it. Her is one of the grand spoofs this publisher did from time to time. This one is a send-up of jungle adventures like She by H. Rider Haggard. Rugged he-man Steve Mitchell and his stalwart companion Colonel Fothingsgap (whose name suggests that this J.X. Williams also wrote The Sin Veldt as John Dexter) venture into darkest Africa , where they encounter Tarzan & Jane and an ancient goddess known as Her. They take Her to New York City , and on our tour of Manhattan, Steve wanders into a 42nd Street bookstore and asks, "Got anything by John Dexter?"

17. PASSION CACHE by Harry Whittington writing as J.X. Williams. Sundown Reader 580, 1965.


If you like Gold Medal crime thrillers by Whittington, Gil Brewer, and Charles Williams, you will want to seek out Whittington's pseudonymous sleaze books like Passion Cache. A burned out man is driving down a dark California road when he comes upon a half-naked blonde with a dead millionaire husband. He makes the classic mistake of stopping to help, winds up in bed with her (“She'd offered me a package deal, a quarter of a million dollars and enough wild loving to put me in a wheelchair.” ) and is soon in jail for her husband's murder. One of the characters in Passion Cache dies very slowly, and in Whittington's skillful hands we ache with anguish as we read about this death. We die a little. He is that good.




18. BLOOD LUST ORGY by Harry Whittington writing as John Dexter. Nightstand 1780, 1966.


Another hardboiled Whittington that grabs ahold of you is Blood Lust Orgy, which Harry also published as "The Crooked Window" in the November 1965 issue of Shell Scott Mystery Magazine. An ordinary guy takes his girlfriend shopping at a big department store at the mall. He waits in the car. She never comes back out. Ever. Nobody in the store remembers her, and he is just beginning to question his sanity when the police find a corpse in his closet. Now we are beginning to question his sanity. But hold on, there are more twists and turns ahead. Blood Lust Orgy is a hardboiled murder mystery disguised as a John Dexter Nightstand.

19. JAZZMAN IN NUDETOWN by Bob Tralins. Gaslight 101, 1964.

The first 18 books on this list were all published by the same man, William Hamling. There were other vintage sleaze publishers, however, and it is only sporting to end this list with a couple of them. Jazzman in Nudetown is a wild read about a sax player named Jock Midnight who is on the road, dining on booze and Alka Seltzer, when he is picked up by two busty Amazons who seem to have escaped from a Bill Ward drawing or a Russ Meyer movie. 

Just when you think their wild sexplay will make up the whole story, the always-resourceful pro Tralins turns this into a searing novel about race relations in the Deep South. With the late Mr Tralins' unique use of language ("I'd been gadzooked by two swinging cats!"), this is one I've never forgotten.

20. SEX A GO GO by Russ Trainer. Exotik Book W-22, 1966.

I used to have a book customer who worked in the offices of Rhino Records in L.A. She told me that on Friday afternoons, to end the work week, the office staff enjoyed reading aloud another chapter of this outrageous, kinky and bizarre sleazebook. Ostensibly the adventures of a rock'n'roll band called The Irresponsibles, Sex A Go Go is really a thinly-veiled pastiche about Beatlemania. In case you aren't paying attention, the group's drummer is Bimbo Sweet, a short hop from Ringo Starr. And then there is the Beatles-takeoff cover art by Norm Saunders. "A swinging story for all you hot cats!". Unlike some of the titles on this list, Sex A Go Go actually is a dirty book, with weird chapters on such old favorites as midget sex, double amputee stump sex and bestiality. And then it just gets kinky. Russ Trainer would later publish Cameo Books, where he did books by Dean & Gerda Koontz like Bounce Girl. He recycled some of his own books under pen names, and Sex A Go Go was reprinted there as Hot Rock by Gloria Bell.

Tomorrow: In our final post of "Sleaze Week at bare•bones," Lynn Munroe provides a checklist of every Andrew Shaw novel.