Easy Reading

There's been a little of a pulp resurgence of late, what with the age of the geek and the vast number of super hero films we've been receiving. So I thought it might be a good moment to lie back and pull ut some dusty old pulp novels to interest you all.

What we have here is a collection of late era pulp digest novels, the 50's version of those airport books that you enjoy reading but are secretly embarrassed of. By this point the era of classic pulp was on its last legs, soaring paper costs being a legacy of World War II. Soon nearly all these books would undergo re-branding, becoming known as Science Fantasy or Light Crime Drama or simply Adventure (that most useless of genre titles) in an attempt to escape the fall of pulp. 

So why did pulp fail while comic books continued to succeed for another twenty years? I'd guess for the same reason comics failed later down the line, people were still dealing with their new reality, one of global war and nuclear annihilation. Comics stopped actively reflecting or mocking real world events and instead either focused on the themes of the time (becoming grittier and darker), or absolute escapism with no bearing on reality.

But the elements of pulp clearly carried on into other forms, especially titles targeted to younger audiences. Using colourful and creative covers, a loose understanding of the English language and a complete disregard for the quality of the written word, these titles thrived with more than just their intended audiences.

 

The 'Tom Swift Jr.' ran for an impressive 33 novels between 1954 and 1971 and included every conceivable fictional use for atomic power (minus the horrendous growths the characters must have received from the atomic cars, atomic ray guns and even atomic powered flying research lab). But they had a far greater impact on our culture than we might wish to admit, inspiring famous scientists with their intriguing inaccuracies, altering our written language with their insistence upon variation and the use of entirely too much descriptive text.

Books like these slowly began to vanish, their audiences growing older and wiser, unable to bear the stylings and fallacies of there childhood literature. It is only recently that we have seen an outright return of pulp magazines and pulp novels thanks to various sub culture craves and the greater freedom people have to publish their work for commercial release. I dare say this new generation of pulp will be just as inaccurate, poorly written and ludicrously silly as its forebears.

As always check out our collections at Biblio and ECRareBooks, and while you're at it take a moment to check our new full catalogue on women naturalists and scientists which can be found Here.