Dames, Dolls and Delinquents: A Collector's Guide to Sexy Pulp Fiction Paperbacks

by Gary Lovisi

It's no secret the sexy and racy cover art of femme fatales from the golden age of paperbacks and magazines exalts the female form in all its sexy and sultry allure. Still today, these lustful, passionate and sometimes lurid images are enticing and artistically inspiring. From sexy, semi-dressed pin-up dolls to dangerous bad girls and deadly dames, many of these rare covers were painted by some of the most talented and collectible artists of the last 50 years, including popular American artists Robert Bonfils, Robert Maguire, Gene Bilbrew and Bill Ward, and British artists Reginald Heade and H.W. Perl.

Always titillating, often tawdry, definitely not politically correct nor for the faint of heart, the nearly 700 full-color pulp fiction paperback cover images in this book show women in all their sexy, sassy and sinful best.

This dynamic book also 700 covers with title, author, cover artist, publisher, book number, and date of publication for each book Values for three grades of condition A quick guide to collecting A list of specialist book dealers and collector shows

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Reference, Pulp, History, Books About Books

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 18, 2009

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dames, Dolls, & Delinquents is a collection of sexy pulp covers from the 50's and 60's. That's all the description you need.

DD&D is 223 pictures of pulp fiction covers featuring women in various states of undress, much like Gary Lovisi's other book that I've read, Bad Girls Need Love too. While the books have similar subject matter, I only noticed a few covers overlapping between editions.

This book has quite a variety of covers, from lesbian pulp to fetish pulp to the Hard Case Crime series. It's fascinating to see what got published back in the day.

All in all, I preferred Bad Girls Need Love Too to this volume. For the most part, the art wasn't as good. While the prices of the vintage paperbacks in the collector's market was interesting, it didn't make up for some of the lackluster covers.

That being said, some of the covers were quite good. If you like lurid pulp art, this is definitely worth an hour or so of your time.

I'd like to read the following books based on title and/or cover:
Satan Was a Lesbian
Forbidden Fruit
In and Out
Sorority Snob
Adam and Two Eves
Dance-Hall Dyke
12 Chinks and a Woman
Satan is a Woman
Passion's Greatest Trap
Warped Desires
Never Trust a Rich Bitch
Dangerous Dolls Must Die
Corpses Ain't Smart
Angels Bruise Easy
The Girl Who Killed Things

and many more.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty solid collection of covers (which includes a few recent Hard Case covers), with an emphasis on naughty sex stuff, and less on crime (though there's that as well). I think someone noted that there's a lot of British pulp authors in this collection. That makes sense, since I didn't recognize many of the authors. Still, cheese is cheese, and the combo of titles and art work makes for great browsing (and laughing). I checked this one out at the library. I own a few books like it, but I think mine are better, braver, bolder.

Some random titles:

Jambalaya Loverman
Swingers in Danger
Shack Woman
Oriental Orgy
So Many Dead
Everybody Slept Here
Satan Was My Pimp
Reefer Club
Beebo Brinker

You get the idea.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the two Lovisi cover art books this is the one aimed at the collector. Lovisi has introductory material to help collectors and the covers are organized thematically: “Sexy pin-up Dolls,” Bad Girl Delinquents,” “Deadly Femme Fatales” etc. and Lovisi has a one page introduction to each chapter discussing the category. Overall the book has 700 covers, each with details about author, artist, publisher and estimated values. And for those who can’t afford an expensive hobby like collecting cover art, this book is an inexpensive entry point to a vast array of covers. Also has a directory of book dealers and an index by book title (which is an entertaining read on its own). Collecting aside, the other fascinating aspect is what the titles, cover copy, and the cover art says about the culture and the book buyers in the era (1950s and 1960s) this book catalogs. They were truly trying to sell a book by it’s cover and what they were selling was the flip-side of the puritanical American dream.

[Baroness · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wait a minute... There were words in this book?
Fun to look at.
Enjoyed his other book more, Bad Girls Need Love Too.
Indeed we do hahaha.

[BikerDude · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bigger pages than Lovis's Bad Girls book as well as more pages. I think the book did an excellent job of defining and showing the various genres of pprbk collecting world. His section on lesbian themed books/covers was especially wonderful. I wish I was a lesbian...I'd collect those! As one who collects only sleaze digests (larger than reg sized pprbks) of the era, I still had a great time looking and reading about all the books. Some humor thrown in here and there by author only added to the fun.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tons of fantastic pulp paperback cover art for new and old collectors alike. I've been collecting vintage paperback for years and there's some title's shown here that I've never even seen. A great collection of images and a fantastic resource if you need a reference guide.

[Honey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice collection of images. Haphazard commentary.