sleaze

Alright, I've been struggling with this (one of the largest sections of BookScans). It is not my intention that this be considered an "Adult Website." On the other hand, I most certainly don't want to "ban" book covers. And so ... I'll post everything that is sent to me (as long as it conforms to my date limit for "vintage paperbacks" ... in my case, BEFORE 1980). Some of the cover art from the 70s can get pretty graphic. I therefore recommend viewer discretion for this section.

For the books from the 50s & 60s, I sort of put "Sleaze" into two categories. First is the type of publication that used sex to sell books that might otherwise be categorized as mystery or romance. The second type of publisher wanted to sell "sex books" but couldn't be completely uninhibited because the U.S. Court System still had a very broad definition of "pornography," which was illegal. And so, they pressed the edges of that particular envelope very hard, and often had books questioned in court.

In the case of the first category (sort of the "R-rated" sleaze books), the largest publishers were Beacon and Midwood. Beacon was the first regular paperback-sized book published by the Universal Publishing Company, which also issued such labels as Uni, Intimate, Royal Giant, Stallion and Fiesta (most of which were digest-sized books). The Beacon label would eventually give way to Softcover Library (starting somewhere around book #B800), but it kept the same lighthouse colophon.

Midwood was published by Tower Publications. Beginning with #32-400, they are identified as Midwood Tower Books. Later in its run, Midwood would print more and more photo covers, often on "Double-Novels." These cover pictures tended to be generic presentations of scantily clad women, and usually had no bearing whatever to the works themselves.

Collector Jim Mix tries to make some sense out of Midwood-Tower's strange numbering system. To read excerpts from his email to me, click HERE.

In the second category (the true "sex books"), the largest publisher was Greenleaf, which had numerous labels (seen at the left). See my brief blog post about Greenleaf in the "Oddities" section.

If you really love sleaze covers, check out the "Sexy Digests" and the "Other Publishers" folders. You'll also find "sleazy cover art" in other sections of the database, like Popular Library, Gold Medal, various Avon publications, Berkley, Crest, and Monarch.

I've attempted to keep books together in the database within publishers' groupings. Therefore, I've moved several publishers OUT of the "Sleaze" folder that probably have a right to be here. For example, most covers by Zenith are pretty sleazy. But I simply couldn't bring myself to put "The Oral Roberts Reader" in this group, so I moved the whole publisher out and into the "Other Publishers" folder.

NOTE - At the left, in the pages listed under "Other Adult Publishers, Alphabetically," I've put each publisher's name on the first image of the series. Only book numbers follow that. If you lose track, click the image and see the publisher's name in the picture's web address.

That section includes:

After Hours, All Star, Anchor, Athena, Bachelor, Barclay, Bedside, Bedtime, Beeline, Black Cat, Boudoir, Brandon House, Calga, Candlelight, Carousel, Challenge, Chariot, Classical Library, Corsair, Crescent, Dollar, Domino, Dove, Epic, Essex House, Exotik, Fabian, First Niter, France, French Library, Gaslight, Gold Star, Headline, Hi Hat, Holloway House, Imperial, Intimate, Jade, Kozy, Magenta, Magnet, Mercury, Merit, Moonglow, Newsstand Library (American and Canadian), Nite Time, Nitey Nite, Novel, Pad, Paragon, Parliament, PEC, Pike, Pillow, Playtime, Private Edition, Ram, Rapture, Raven, Regal, Rendezvous, Royal Line, Saber, Satan, Saturn, Scorpion, Stanley Library, Swan, Tiger, Traveler's Companion, Tropic, Tuxedo, Twilight, Uni, Unique, Vega, Venus Volume, Viceroy, Wee Hours ...

and many, many others.

NOTE: A very large number of the scans in this section are courtesy of Achim von Weidner. He is attempting to document them, and has agreed to let me post his "Book List." There is an awful lot of valuable information there, and if these books interest you, I strongly suggest you check it out by clicking the link near the end of the left column.

NOTE:

The BookScans database does not include books published after 1979.

The Sleaze Folder was Updated in August, 2022