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NY: Pocket Books, 1951. First p/b edition. Cover art by Stanley Meltzoff (who used his wife, Alice, as the model for ''Molly-O''). "More powerful than a woman's love...more binding than a man's word...It was DOPE!" (cover blurb). Tear to first prelim.; fragile paper dustwrapper slightly rubbed, but intact and better... more
NY: Popular Library, 1953. First p/b edition. Good cover art by Owen Kampen (not credited), including back cover "Meet the Teen-Age Addict", featuring three colour portraits: "Rosa - the trailer camp girl who got her first 'fix' from her addict husband on their wedding night"; "Dave - the rich boy... more
NY: Ace Books, 1953. First edition of William Burroughs' first book, written under the pseudonym 'William Lee'. Bound dos-a-dos in wrappers with Maurice Helbrant's "Narcotic Agent". Ace Books was owned by Carl Solomon's uncle, A. A. Wyn, a connection made by Allen Ginsberg who was acting as Burroughs' agent at... more
NY: Ace Books, 1964. Wrps. The first separate publication of Burroughs' first book in the US, and the first under the author's real name. Second state (.60c price). The publisher's note was expanded for this edition, and a foreword by Carl Solomon added. A tight, Very Good plus copy. ... more
London: New English Library, 1966. Sage green wrps. Issued as no.114 in the Olympia Press Traveller's Companion Series. Text as in the first edition, except that the editor's notes originally printed in the text are published in a separate section. Mild creasing to lower wrapper, o/w Near Fine. ... more
London: New English Library, re-issue 1969. Wrps. Front cover art depicts junkie's arm with hypodermic syringe; back cover photo of Burroughs lighting a cigarette. Signed and inscribed by the author on the title page: "For Allen De Loach/ William Burroughs". A nice association, as De Loach published Burroughs in his... more
NY: Penguin, 1977. Wrps. First unexpurgated edition, and the first with the author's original spelling for the title. Signed by Burroughs on the title page. Introduction by Allen Ginsberg, in which he provides background on the writing of the book. Wrappers lightly rubbed, o/w Near Fine (spine unfaded). Scarce in... more
NY: Eton Books, Inc., 1952. First thus. Wrps. "She was in one of those soft, clingy blue nightgowns. I walked towards her and took her hand. It was cold and the room stank from marijuana smoke...". Good plus. ... more
NY: Dell Publishing Company, 1946. First p/b edition (Dell 270). 192pp. Classic cover art by Gerald Gregg depicting 'Death' rowing a coffin-shaped boat, with a huge reefer, its smoke rising in the shape of a naked woman. Back cover prints a map of San Francisco, "Where Marijuana and Murder Make... more
NY: Ballantine Books, 1952. First p/b edition. "From the reeking slums of a big city, from the twilight world of escape-hungry 'junkies', comes this novel of tormented adolescents - neglected by society, victimized by ruthless dope peddlers" (back cover blurb). Reading crease to spine; binding fragile; o/w Very Good. ... more
NY: Berkley Publishing Corp., 1958. First thus (originally published in 1904 as "Fumée d''opium"). Wrps. Trans. Samuel Putnam. Preface by Pierre Louys. Classic cover art by Robert Maguire featuring an erotic depiction of a naked blonde woman amidst the swirling smoke of an opium pipe. "The world of BLACK OPIUM... more
LA: Holloway House, 1971. P/b original. The author's first novel. "Trapped in the festering sore of a major American ghetto, a young man and a girl - both handsome, talented, full of promise - are inexorably pulled into the living death of the hard-core junkie". Slightly rubbed, o/w Very Good... more
NY: Avon Publishing Co., Inc., 1951. First p/b edition. Sensationalist cover art featuring a terrified blonde behind bars recoiling from a large syringe wielded by a sinister green hand. "This is the stark tale of an unwanted wife's two-year struggle with madness" (back cover blurb). Spine slightly creased. Very Good.... more
Derby, CT: 1964. First p/b edition. 206pp. Colour photographic cover. "Janet Clark was the product of a broken home. Pushed out into the world, without friends, without love or understanding, Janet turned from men to marijuana. From there, it was only a short step to heroin" (back cover blurb). Faint... more
NY: Beacon, 1958. First edition (p/b original). Colour photographic cover. "Women Need Men - Junkies Need Dope - I Needed Both!" - "A Blazing Novel of Delinquency - Intimately...Frankly...Shockingly Revealed By A Teenage Addict" (blurb). Very Good plus. ... more
NY: Dell, 1941. First edition in book form (the story first appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly), published as Dell Book 11, priced at .10c. (and originally sold in vending machines). Wrps., unpaginated. Classic pulp cover art by Bill Fleming. "A cheap and evil girl sets a hopped-up killer against a... more
New Malden, Surrey: Chrome Dreams/Buzzola, 2005. CD (BZCD 009). Features 18 songs by Charley Patton, Louis Jordan, Slim Gaillard & Slam Stewart, Cab Calloway, and Andy Kirk & His Twelve Clouds of Joy, among others. Colour booklet, featuring reproductions of some of the pulp paperbacks listed here. Fine (still sealed).... more
NY: Pocket Books, Inc., 1952. First p/b edition. Cover art by Clyde Ross. "Dope, delinquents and MURDER" (blurb). Small loss to tail of spine panel, o/w Good plus. ... more
NY: Permabook, 1956. First edition (p/b original). Dramatic cover art by Charles Binger depicting the scene of an apparent suicide, with a cop examining a syringe. "It looked like suicide by hanging. But it wasn't. The cause of death proved to be an overdose of heroin. And the fingerprints on... more
NY: Detective House Inc., 1953. First edition (p/b original, Cameo Books #330). Digest size. 130pp. Cover art by Rudy Nappi, one of the all-time classic pulp covers. "Beauty, talent, love, they all meant nothing to a girl in Jeannie''s predicament. All she wanted was to be happy, to be loved,... more
NY: Venus Books, 1954. Digest size. Good cover art by Rudolph Belarski depicting two blondes and their boyfriends smoking dope. "Girls of the Slums in a Mad Search for Teen-Age Thrills" (front cover blurb). Lower corner loss to wrappers, with associated wear to first and last four leaves, o/w Good.... more
A '60s reprint of the movie poster for Dwain Esper's 1936 dope exploitation flick, proclaiming "Weird Orgies, Wild Parties, Unleashed Passions". 46x34cm. Very Good plus (no tack holes, tears, or loss). Together with: DVD of the movie (Region 1). Narberth, PA: Alpha Video, 2003. B/w, 58mins. Dwain Esper's 1936 classic... more
Np: Something Weird, 2000. DVD, Region 1. B/w, 196mins. Classic drug scare triple bill from directors Dwain Esper, Elmer Clifton and Louis Gasnier. Extras include original trailers, radio-spot rarities, etc. Fine. ... more
Toronto, ON: Superior Publishers Ltd., nd. (c. early 1950s). P/b original. Digest size. 123pp. A collection of nine authentic police cases ("Every Story True"), including "Marijuana Murder - A maddening drug and a sharp knife brought death to a lovely lady" in Amarillo, Texas. Others include "Homicide at Ebb Tide... more
NY: Popular Library, 1953. First p/b edition. Cover art by Rafael DeSoto (not credited). "The Brutal Truth About Dope And Crime" (blurb). Contemp. bookstore stamp to front endpaper, o/w Very Good. ... more
NY: Original Novels, Inc., 1952, second printing. Wrps., 130pp. Digest size. Sensational cover art depicting blonde, hypo, etc. "Joy for one and all...or so they said...and at a price. That was the fateful, illusory stock-in-trade of the Dream Club. Behind its secret door, they would tell you, you could buy... more
New Malden, Surrey: Chrome Dreams/Buzzola, 2004. CD (BZCD 001). 18 songs, incl. Leadbelly, Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Don Redman, and many others. Colour booklet, incl. reproductions of some of the pulp paperbacks listed here. Though not especially keen on music, William Burroughs liked 1930s reefer songs, and track 13 on... more
NY: Universal, 1953. First edition (p/b original, Uni-Book #49). Digest size. Great cover art by Warren King depicting various women in a dream-like marijuana smoke haze. "The girl was the slave of marijuana - yet was she wholly bad?" (front cover blurb). Edges of upper wrapper slightly nicked, o/w Very... more
NY: Designs Publishing Corp., 1953. Presumed second edition (Stallion #213). Digest size. Shares the same colour photographic cover as items #35/36, this one featuring a red banner lettered in white, reading "the story your children WON'T DARE tell you!" Biro insc. to front cover stating "Uni-Book 49"; a little tape-strengthening... more
NY: Popular Library, 1952. First p/b edition. Good cover art by A. Leslie Ross (not credited). "I kissed her hard, tasting the musky odor of marijuana that clung to her warm lips...She stood up and carried the marijuana butt to the fireplace. She came back to the bed slowly. 'Turn... more
NY: Pyramid Books, 1954. First p/b edition. Great cover art by Julian Paul. "Here is a true, uncensored account of a growing social problem - the story of one man's struggle to return from the pit of depravity" (back cover blurb). Top corner creasing to upper wrapper; slight wear to... more
NY: Beacon Books (B 379), 1957. P/b original. Good cover art by Owen Kampen (not credited). "The Sizzling World of Real Gone Guys - and Dolls on Dope!" (cover blurb). "Shorty was mixing my blast. 'Baby, why don't you take that doll to bed? Horse sends her on a sex... more
NY: Designs Publishing Corp., 1953. First edition (p/b original). Digest size. "A daring novel of reefer smoke - reckless thrills - and the wild love of boys and girls of the city streets" (front cover blurb). The colour photographic cover depicts a tense mise-en-scène in a basement bedroom where a... more
NY: Designs Publishing Corp., (1953), later issue, with a printed 'banner' incorporated into the cover, concealing the man's lower torso, reading "A Biting Indictment of a Society Blind to the Needs of Neglected Youth". Page edges slightly tanned, o/w Near Fine. ... more
NY: Beacon, 1959. New edition, with colour photographic cover reproducing a different shot from the same session. Here the man sits on the far side of the bed, lighting a cigarette, his lower torso well out of sight, while his girl undresses on the other side under the angry gaze... more
Cleveland, OH: Kaywin Publishers, Inc., 1951. First p/b edition (originally published in hardcover in the UK in 1950). 128pp. Sensational cover art of blonde and hypo. "...a frank and daring exposure of the horrible White Slave rackets which thrive unchecked in London's evil 'square mile of vice'...This popular author unfolds... more
