Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, And Real Cool Cats

The first comprehensive account of how the rise of postwar youth culture was depicted in mass-market pulp fiction. As the young created new styles in music, fashion, and culture, pulp fiction shadowed their every move, hyping and exploiting their behavior, dress, and language for mass consumption and cheap thrills. With their lurid covers and wild, action-packed plots, these books reveal as much about society's deepest desires and fears as they do about the subcultures themselves. Featuring approximately 400 full-color covers, many of them never before reprinted, along with 70 in-depth author interviews, illustrated biographies, and previously unpublished articles, the book goes behind the scenes to look at the authors and publishers, how they worked, where they drew their inspiration and--often overlooked--the actual words they wrote. It is a must read for anyone interested in pulp fiction, lost literary history, retro and subcultural style, and the history of postwar youth culture.

“"This oversize paperback is elegantly illustrated with myriad book covers that were once seen on store spinner racks and in the bottom drawers of readers with appetites for racier fiction. It's a browser's delight, for sure." --J. Kingston Pierce, The Rap Sheet”

-Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats is populated by the bad boys and girls of mid-twentieth-century pulp fiction. Rumblers and rebels, beats and bikers, hepcats and hippies--pretty much everybody your mother used to warn you about. Nette and McIntyre have curated a riotous party that you won't want to leave, even though you might get your wallet stolen or your teeth kicked in at any given moment.- --Duane Swierczynski, two-time Edgar nominee, author of Canary and Revolver

Peter Doyle is an Australian author, musician, and visual artist. His book Get Rich Quick won the 1996 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel. Iain McIntyre is a Melbourne-based author, musician, and community radio broadcaster, who has written a variety of books on activism, history, and music. Andrew Nette is a writer and pulp scholar based in Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the founders of Crime Factory Publications and coedited Hard Labour and LEE.

A must read for anyone interested in pulp fiction, lost literary history, retro and subcultural style, and the history of postwar youth culture. The first comprehensive account of how the rise of postwar youth culture was depicted in mass-market pulp fiction. As the young created new styles in music, fashion, and culture, pulp fiction shadowed their every move, hyping and exploiting their behaviour, dress, and language for mass consumption and cheap thrills. With their lurid covers and wild, action-packed plots, these books reveal as much about society's deepest desires and fears as they do about the subcultures themselves. Featuring approximately 400 full-colour covers, many of them never before reprinted, along with 70 in-depth author interviews, illustrated biographies, and previously unpublished articles, the book goes behind the scenes to look at the authors and publishers, how they worked, where they drew their inspiration and often overlooked, the actual words they wrote.

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