Pushing the Limits
The cover art was also an indication of the different types of publishing companies and their target audiences. In both the U.S. and Canada, paperback publishers came under government scrutiny in the early 1950s for provocative covers and content. Mainstream publishers, like Avon and Berkley Books, were more likely to respond to government pressure to tone down their illustrations.
We Too are Drifting, published by Berkley Books in 1955 is an example of the type of cover used by the mainstream publishers.
At the other end of the spectrum, publishers such as Beacon and Midwood were pursuing the adult market and were more likely to push the boundaries of public acceptability.
In comparison to the book cover of We Too are Drifting, the Veil of Torment published by Nightstand Books in 1957 demonstrates how the publishers specializing in erotica for male audiences were still willing to use provocative covers.
In the mid-1960s several U.S. and Canadian court cases opened the way for freer distribution of erotic and pornographic literature. The differences among the publishers regarding the sexual tone of their book covers grew more distinct. The mainstream publishers' covers featured clothed models, and the sleaze publishers' covers became more overtly sexualized.
The image to the left shows The Other Side of Desire, published by the mainstream publisher, Paperback Library. The example in the middle shows Sex in the Shadows, released by Softcover Library, a publisher of softcore erotica. The final image on the right presents Split-Level Sin, published by Globe Volumes, a press specializing in hardcore sleaze and pornography.
Browse the MSVU lesbian pulp fiction collection for covers from the different types of publishing companies
Sources
Bonn, Thomas L. Undercover: An Illustrated History of American Mass Market Paperbacks. New York, N.Y: Penguin, 1982.
Davis, Kenneth C. Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America. Houghton Mifflin, 1984.
Rabinowitz, Paula. American Pulp: How Paperbacks Brought Modernism to Main Street. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Server, Lee. Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback, 1945-1955. Chronicle Books, 1994.