The Mushroom Jungle
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Mushroom Jungle: A History of Postwar Paperback Publishing is a 1993 non fiction book by Steve Holland which tells the story of post-WWII pulp fiction British publishing.
Review by the grumpyoldbookman
Steve Holland's The Mushroom Jungle (published by Zardoz Books, ISBN 1874113017) is not a new book; it was first published in 1993. It tells the story of an extraordinary period in British publishing -- a period of about ten years during which a few enterprising businessmen, with no previous background in publishing, were able to supply cheap paperback books to working-class readers and make a modest profit. grumpyoldbookman
Book description by the publisher
Nominated for a Bouchercon Anthony Award. The definitive story of the emergence of the post war publishers, with an introduction to pre-war publishers. Extensive coverage of: the emergence of Panther, Corgi, Pan Books and others from the fly by night post war publishing world; the mystery surrounding publishers such as Scion, Gannet, Muir Watson, Brown Watson, R&L Locker, Harborough and many, many more; the search for the origins of those many pseudonyms and house names, such as Griff, Hank Janson, Ben Sarto, Vector Magroon, Volsted Gridban, Roland Vane, Dale Bogar. The story of the entanglement of publishing with a sleazy underworld and the complete lowdown on the Hank Janson Obscenity Trials. Also a run down on the 1950s comics purge, the superb artists of the period--Reginald Heade, Ron Turner, Denis McLoughlin, James McConnell, Perl--with prime examples of their work, and interviews and comments from the authors and publishers of the era. A superb book that documents Steve Holland's many years of research in a one well illustrated authoritative volume. All the information is illustrated by many b&w and colour illustrations of those great paperback covers.
Books that cite this book
- Cult Fiction: Popular Reading and Pulp Theory by Clive Bloom
- The Great American Paperback : An Illustrated Tribute to Legends of the Book by Richard A. Lupoff in Back matter
- Youth, Popular Culture and Moral Panics: Penny Gaffs to Gangsta Rap, 1830-1996 by John Springhall in Back Matter
- Cultural Work: Understanding the Cultural Industries (Routledge Harwood) by Andrew Beck on page 35
