Artist Unknown

The book was first published in 1961.  The cover artist is unknown and I couldn’t find any information on Elliott Gilbert either.

Joan Manready’s name appears to be appropriate as she’s ready for any man.  I guess the title means that she had too much passion for just one man, like her husband, to satisfy.  Her husband is cold, which means that Joan has to seduce (or, as the cover puts it, conquer) the pool boy.  Not surprisingly, the pool boy is not putting up much resistance.  Speaking for myself, I like the broad shoulders and the abs but the unibrow is a definite turn off.

Artist Unknown

Cockpit was published in 1953.  In Britain, it was published under the title Image in the Dust.  In the U.S., it was called Cockpit.  Considering the book’s cover blurb — An Auto Racer …. A Drug Adddict … And The Woman They Shared — I think it’s possible that the title might have had a double meaning.

The book was written by a British writer named Elleston Trevor.  Warick Scott was one of the many pseudonyms that Trevor used.  Cockpit was the first of three books which Trevor wrote as Scott.  The other were called The Doomsday Story and The Naked Canvas.

The identity of the artist who did this cover is not known.  The woman they shared bears a strong resemblance to Marilyn Monroe while the two men in her life look like generic pulp cover men.  I’m worried that one of them appears to be standing in the middle of the track.  That’s probably the drug addict.

Artist Unknown

This book was first published in 1959 but the cover is from a 1961 reprinting.  The cover artist is unknown.  Like many pulp covers of the era, it equates bare shoulders with sex.  I like the contrast between the mansion and the sailboat in the background and the woman and the man in the foreground.  The cover blurb may read “The unashamed story of lonely women in a New England town … and the man who wove a net of passion around them all,” but unashamed is not the feeling that I’m picking up from the facial expressions on this cover.  Getting down that hill barefoot is not going to practical so I hope she remembers what she did with her shoes.

Artist Unknown

This book was published in 1959.  Don Holliday was a name that was used by several writers who were represented by literary agent Scott Meredith.  Pseudonyms like Don Holliday were used to protect both the reputations of Meredith and the writers who churned out a book-a-month for publishers like Midwood.  Among the writers who were wrote under the name Don Holliday: Hal Dresner, Robert Silverberg, Donald Westlake, and Lawrence Block.  While I was doing some research on Midwood and Don Holliday, I came across a post at Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks that attempted to determine which of the Don Hollidays actually wrote Only The Bed.

The cover artist is unknown.  I like the way that the bars of the resemble the beds of the prison, suggesting that the couple on the cover as prisoners of their own lust.