It takes scholarly love and a fan’s enthusiasm to devote oneself to putting together a 300-plus page book dissecting obscure pulp fiction. But that is exactly what Australian writers Andrew Nette and Ian McIntyre have done with Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980.
The respected site, Literary Hub, has a terrific piece by New York crime writer, Scott Adlerberg, talking about pulp fiction and the new book on youth subculture and pulp fiction that Iain McIntyre and I have edited. You can check it out in full on their site here.
Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats: Pulp Fiction and Youth Culture, 1950 to 1980 is out now through PM Press.
Just received Girl Gangs Biker Boys….. in the mail this morning and after ten minutes just flicking through the pages, it has already exceeded my expectations – a damn fine publication .
A tip of the hat for acknowledging the late Graeme Flanagan, Canberra’s original paperback junkie. I had the pleasure of giving a little assistance to Graeme when he put together the ground breaking book, The Australian Vintage Paperback Guide.
Chris,
Great that you have received it and look like you will enjoy it. Yes, I had the pleasure of meeting Graeme a few times. He was a lovely man and always very helpful. It is fascinating to here that you were involved in helping him put together The Australian Vintage Paperback Guide. That is an invaluable resource. Indeed, I am use it all the time for the PhD I am currently undertaking on the history of Australian pulp paperback publishing.
Thanks for stopping by and, if you like the book, please help spread the word.
Cheers,
Andrew
Andrew
I have not been able to put the book down (much to my wife’s disgust) Congratulations on the layout, design and depth of content. I Really enjoyed the Beat chapter, McEwan’s Beat Girl is an undiscovered Australian classic.
It is great to see the early Australian pulp writers finally getting some recognition – they were probably read by more Australians than the celebrated Australian authors of the time like Patrick White and George Johnston .
Good luck with the PhD, I hope you can discover why Australian paperback buyers were fascinated with books about women being ravished by Japanese and German soldiers in World War II.( Slater, Kent etc.) It seem to be a genre of pulp unique to Australia.
Chris
Chris,
I am thrilled that you are enjoying the book. Yes, my PhD is looking at Australian war pulp, amongst other genres, and why it was so popular. And, no, those more extreme examples, the Kent and Slater books, are in no way unique to Australia. That kind of pulp was also quite prevalent in the US. Indeed, I am pretty certain our variant of it was influenced by the US books,
Cheers,
Andrew