American Pulp tells the story of the midcentury golden age of pulp paperbacks an
d how they brought modernism to Main Street, democratized literature and ideas,
spurred social mobility, and helped readers fashion new identities. Drawing on e
xtensive original research, Paula Rabinowitz unearths the far-reaching political
, social, and aesthetic impact of the pulps between the late 1930s and early 196
0s.
Published in vast numbers of titles, available everywhere, and sometimes se
lling in the millions, pulps were throwaway objects accessible to anyone with a
quarter. Conventionally associated with romance, crime, and science fiction, the
pulps in fact came in every genre and subject. American Pulp tells how these bo
oks ingeniously repackaged highbrow fiction and nonfiction for a mass audience,
drawing in readers of every kind with promises of entertainment, enlightenment,
and titillation. Focusing on important episodes in pulp history, Rabinowitz look
s at the wide-ranging effects of free paperbacks distributed to World War II ser
vicemen and women; how pulps prompted important censorship and First Amendment c
ases; how some gay women read pulp lesbian novels as how-to-dress manuals; the u
nlikely appearance in pulp science fiction of early representations of the Holoc
aust; how writers and artists appropriated pulp as a literary and visual style;
and much more. Examining their often-lurid packaging as well as their content, A
merican Pulp is richly illustrated with reproductions of dozens of pulp paperbac
k covers, many in color.
A fascinating cultural history, American Pulp will cha
nge the way we look at these ephemeral yet enduringly intriguing books.
