I've been collecting paperbacks since for a long time. More than 45 years. During that time I've had a lot of things on my want list, but it kept getting shorter and shorter. One book that's been there almost from the beginning is Diversey Romance Novel #1, Reform School Girl. At first I didn't realize how scarce it was, but as years of digging through dusty used-book stores went by, I realized I wasn't likely ever to see a copy. It was the one book I wanted that I was never likely to own. Unless I wanted to bite the bullet and buy a copy from a dealer.
This year several things came together. I'm a notoriously hard person to buy gifts for. An anniversary passed and a birthday loomed. The book became available. So I talked with Judy for a few days, using all my persuasive wiles. George Kelley enabled me behind the scenes. Things worked out, and today the book arrived. It's now in my greedy little paws. That's a scan of it on the left. It will go on the shelf right next to Junkie.
Will I stop buying books now? Of course not. There are still a couple of the elusive Harry Whittington titles out there. I won't give up the hunt.
16 comments:
Harvey Swados was a literary novelist of the 40s and 50s who wrote about the disenfranchised working class (he would've shot himself if he'd known what happened to unions in the long run). I wonder if she was related to him--or maybe this was him under a female name. Literary writer R.V. Cassill did a number of pb originals too during that era.
Don't know about Swados, but I have all the Cassill paperbacks.
By the way, Cassill did an article about paperbacks for, I believe, the New York Post, about writing paperbacks. He mentioned that one of his books was written while on jury duty. This is also the article with the famous quotation that's used as a blurb on the Gold Medal edition of THE KILLER INSIDE ME. This is all coming from a 45-year old memory, so I might be wrong.
Not to be confused with the "classic" eighties movie, "Reform School Girls" with its immortal tag line: "So young. So bad. So what?"
Congratulations on REFORM SCHOOL GIRL! I'm happy my role as George the Tempter (Patti Abbott's nickname for me) enabled you to acquire a book you've wanted for decades. Doesn't it feel good to finally own it?
Feels great, George!
Deb, that movie has a great title and tag line, if nothing else. In fact, I believe I saw that one.
It sounds like it would have made a great Mamie Van Doran film to go along with Untamed Youth and Girls Town.
Why is this edition so special for you? Judging by another title on the cover, it's not even PBO. In fact, it was first published as limited edition by Doubleday.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/felice-swados/house-of-fury/
And Ed is right: Felice is Harvey Swados's sister. Look at the portrait of her working on this novel:
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/waaw/Ressintro/fig1.html
More info on the author:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jnk5aMFSbzkC&pg=PR42&lpg=PR42&dq=house+of+fury+swados&source=bl&ots=HsUwKY2OfK&sig=M66dj3Sio5p-n0sYpHNdoLIk_Uw&hl=ru&sa=X&ei=Yu-4U9K0Bum6ygO_1IKwDA&ved=0CHAQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=house%20of%20fury%20swados&f=false
Persuasive Wiles? Nice. Also would be a good name for a rock band.
Yes, George is definitely an enabler - NTTAWWT, of course.
Congratulations!
Jeff
I also found:
Swados returned to Buffalo, where he worked as a riveter at defense contractor Bell Aircraft, passed through a brief first marriage and, following his sister, moved to New York City, where he took another factory job at the bustling Brewster Aviation plant in Long Island City, just across the East River from Manhattan. A graduate of Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, Felice had married American historian Richard Hofstadter in 1936 and was working as an editor at Time magazine. House of Fury, a novel by Felice Swados, was published in 1941.
Jeff
Thanks Jeff and Ray for the cool research. The book (not a PBO, as Ray points out) was later reprinted under its original title. It's special for me simply because it's so hard to find in this edition.
The model on the cover was a Canadian skating champion, but I forget her name. I don't have the book, but I have a copy of the cover on a clock that Beth gave me.
Marty Collins was her name. There's a story out there that her father sued Diversey, resulting in pg 3/4 being razored out of most copies. What about your copy, Bill?
I think the main reason the book is so pricey is that in the early years of Overstreet's Comic Book Price Guide,American Comic Book Company hyped the value of the comic book, which used the Diversey cover, as one of their "esoteric" discoveries, worth zillions. The cachet leaked over to the paperback, which was the first use of the cover.
Art
Yes, my copy is missing those pages. However, the previous owner obtained photocopies of them, and those are included in a separate little plastic folder.
So, let's see the legendary & elusive missing pages - post images, please. Seems to be a similar story to the one about how most copies of Seduction of the Innocent had the bibliography pages in the back razored out.
Art
I'll see what I can do.
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