Before the days of Real Housewives and The Bachelor, people needed their junk content in written form. Enter, pulp fiction.
Thousands of cheap paperback books with scandalous covers flooded literature, and boy were they fun!
Here are 21 atmospheric photos of what paperback looked like before the age of entertaining television.
1
The Big Sleep
Mystery and drama.
2
Women's Barracks
The autobiography of a French soldier.
3
Detective Fiction
December, 1941.
4
Keyhole Peeper
Not so PC in 1955.
5
The Thrill Kids
Kids on the prowl, 1955.
6
Dormitory Women
A spicy book in 1954.
7
Weird Tales
"Death's Bookkeeper."
8
White Barrier
Well that didn't age well. 1955.
9
Love and Money
Serious stuff in 1954.
10
Murder for What?
A 1936 novel.
11
Argosy Weekly
January 1934.
12
Argosy Weekly
Creep, Shadow!
13
Broadway Virgin
1949 book.
14
Detective Novels Magazine
October 1943.
16
Forbidden
Romance in 1954.
17
The Hucksters
1952 book.
18
The Last Kill
Romance and betrayal, 1955.
19
A Foreign Affair
Infidelity in 1954.
20
Die by Night
Drama in 1955.
21
The Big Store
Business combat in 1955.