Book Covers

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  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,832MI6 Agent

    The thriller is a great Field of literature. ๐Ÿ™‚

    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    What else do you need to begin your Saturday?…

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,195MI6 Agent
    edited October 2023

    It's a crime that not one of these writers got a Nobels prize for litterature! Perhaps there should be a Nobels for book covers? I'd really like that.

  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,832MI6 Agent

    A Nobel Prize would be very appropriate as some of these book covers are dynamite. ๐Ÿงจ

    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 22,195MI6 Agent

    ๐Ÿคฃ

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Nobels for pulp book covers? Now, that would make that boring institution interesting ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ˜

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,832MI6 Agent

    It would certainly be an explosive reform. Who cares about the scientists, politicians and diplomats who are usually awarded the Nobel prizes. It's high time that the pulp artists received their due! ๐Ÿ˜€

    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Paul Radar was an artist who was in demand for painting pulp paperback covers. You can see why below…



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Arthur C Clarke will not be appearing in my Pulp thread so I will feature some of his output here. He was a scientist as well as an author and many of his predictions have turned true, probably the most famous being communication satellites. There is always a large dabbling of hard science in his books but they are also written in an enjoyable, appealing style. Some of them are real cliffhangers and the next chapter must be read before setting the book down for the night. My personal favourite is A Fall Of Moondust (1961) which plot Paul Gallico would re-use in a different setting at the end of the decade in The Poseidon Adventure.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    This was a quite a decent secret agent series, plenty of action and sex as Joe Gall is hired by the CIA to partake in missions for them. Decent covers helped in sales.



    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 37,592Chief of Staff

    Never heard of this series, but praise from Chandler (now where have I heard that before? ๐Ÿ˜) does make me interested.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    I’ve read a handful and they’re pretty good. I’m sure Chandler’s agent supplied the praise to several authors for grateful recompense ๐Ÿ˜

    The first book has appeared on Kindle - hopefully the rest will follow. The first one was written over a decade before the second one, I haven’t read it so don’t know if it’s similar to the others or not. There are a couple of reasonable priced copies on ABE books site - don’t pay the prices for the couple of books available on Amazon as they are far too much (I know I was sometimes accused of overpricing but the prices quoted there are way over the top).

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,536MI6 Agent
    edited November 2023

    Spy Guys and Gals rates this series a B+, which is fairly decent. More than 20 novels makes it a serious investment. Good looking covers, with an insert panel familiar from the early Pan Fleming paperbacks. I too have never heard of character or author.

  • TonyDPTonyDP Inside the MonolithPosts: 4,303MI6 Agent
    edited November 2023

    @CoolHandBond, over the years I managed to snag a few nice vintage hardcovers of Arthur C. Clarke's novels. My copy of The City and the Stars dates back to the 1950s, I found it at a bookstore in Boston ages ago.


  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    @TonyDP Thats a nice copy of City And The Stars - I haven’t seen that one before - is it published by Frederick Muller - it’s similar to the first edition. Looks like you’ve got a nice ACC collection there ๐Ÿ˜

    I went to Boston for a day trip in the early 2000’s, I drove from Easthampton where my friend ran a secondhand bookshop - we used to send each other weekly parcels of books - I was amused at the number of towns I went through with English names - Boston was nice - I wish I could have spent more time there - must go back one day.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    @Barbel @chrisno1 Philip Atlee was the pseudonym of James Atlee Phillips who also co-wrote the screenplay to Robert Mitchum’s Thunder Road and he did uncredited work on John Wayne’s Big Jim McClain. His son Shawn Phillips sung the title song to the 1973 musical film Lost Horizon (more useless information) ๐Ÿ˜

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,832MI6 Agent

    This quote appears at the beginning of The Bond Files by Lane and Simpson so you're in good company, @CoolHandBond:


    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • TonyDPTonyDP Inside the MonolithPosts: 4,303MI6 Agent
    edited November 2023

    @CoolHandBond, the dust jacket says it's a book club edition, published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, copyright 1953, 1956. Can't find any other identifiers.

    I've lived in Boston since my family moved here in 1970 (I was 5). There used to be a vintage bookstore called Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop on Newbury Street that specialized in older books and magazines and I remember losing many hours in there. Sadly, it and all the similar haunts in Boston are now long gone.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Lost bookshops - especially used/secondhand ones - are unfortunately a common recurrence everywhere it seems ๐Ÿฅฒ

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Oscar Wilde and Winston Churchill are always good sources for quotes ๐Ÿ˜

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,536MI6 Agent

    There used to be a second hand / vintage book store in Wimbledon near the Asda but the block is knocked down now. I bought some OO7 paperbacks there and I often regret not buying the Gardner hardbacks I saw. The place was something of a mess and you needed to take your time to find anything ! Memories...

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    I don’t particularly remember that bookshop but I probably did go there once. I went to virtually every bookshop in London at some point over the years, mainly to try and strike up some sort of mutually beneficial trading relationship.

    I was always surprised at messy bookshops, I could never work in conditions like that, my books had to be displayed in orderly fashion and I found that customers appreciated that.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,536MI6 Agent

    This one looks familiar?


  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,057MI6 Agent

    coolhand said:

    Lost bookshops - especially used/secondhand ones - are unfortunately a common recurrence everywhere it seems

    __________________________________________________

    actually round here I find used bookstores are more common than new, which is OK by me as I prefer hunting for vintage editions as celebrated in this thread.

    new bookstores in Canada are dominated by one bigbox chain (Chapters/Indigo) and they fill up half their floorspace with coffee cups, blankets, totebags, chocolates, etc with the everdiminishing shelf space for actual books towards the back.

    Small independent bookstores keep very little stock instore and rely on special orders, which can't be sustainable in the long run, as customers will realise they can order themselves from Amazon and skip the middleman. Special ordering from a bookstore has to be a deliberate choice to keep the local business afloat.

  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Yes, I do remember going there once, he didn’t spend much sprucing up the place, did he? Still, it’s the books people are after in the long run, but I always found that the more pleasant a place is the longer people will want to stay, and more importantly, the more they are prepared to pay ๐Ÿ˜

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Good to hear that Canada still has lots of used bookstores ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,510Chief of Staff
    edited November 2023

    This is the second hand bookstore I used (and will use in the future) last time I was in Victoria on Vancouver Island.

    It’s spread over a couple of floors…it’s easy to lose track of time in there ๐Ÿ‘€๐Ÿคฃ

    YNWA 97
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 4,057MI6 Agent

    Victoria is such a civilised city. I do remember that one as it was just down the street from my old office so I'd browse at lunch hour

    when I used to live there (25 years ago!) there was an especially beautiful and wellstocked new book store called Munro's Books, apparently still there, I'm sure you'll find your way there

    I'll just link a Google image search so you can see various shots of the interior, I assume its an old bank

  • Sir MilesSir Miles The Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,510Chief of Staff

    Already been there and bought from them ๐Ÿคฃ

    YNWA 97
  • CoolHandBondCoolHandBond Mactan IslandPosts: 6,992MI6 Agent

    Thanks for those pictures, guys, I would love to visit one day.

    Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
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