Pulp International - Cover for Man Trap painted by Paul Rader

Nov 1 2014

Tonight I think I’m in the mood for a big, juicy piece of meat.

Paul Rader once again demonstrates his genius with this cover for Brad Curtis’s Man Trap, brought to us by always reliable Midwood Books, 1963. Curtis was a pseudonym used by Giles A. Lutz, predominantly a writer of westerns who made a few forays into thrillers. What we really like about this cover are the spangles in the background hinting at some wonderful nocturnal metropolis, doubtless rife with sex, sin, and other worthy pursuits. Pretty nice, too, how Rader slipped his signature—in this case a single “R”—onto the back of the menu.

Midwood Brad Curtis Giles A. Lutz Paul Rader cover art literature

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1963—John Profumo Resigns

British Secretary of State for War John Profumo resigns after the revelation that he had been sexually involved with a showgirl and sometime prostitute named Christine Keeler. Among Keeler's close acquaintances was a senior Soviet naval attaché, thus in addition to Profumo committing adultery then lying about it before the House of Commons, authorities pressed for his resignation because they also feared he had been plied for state secrets.

1939—Journey of the St. Louis

The German passenger liner MS St. Louis, carrying 963 Jewish refugees, is denied permission to land in Florida, United States, after already being turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of its passengers later die in Nazi concentration camps. The event becomes the subject of a 1974 book, Voyage of the Damned, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts, and is later adapted into a film with the same title, released in 1976.

1968—Andy Warhol Is Shot

Valerie Solanas, feminist author of an anti-male tract she called the S.C.U.M. Manifesto (Society for Cutting Up Men), attempts to assassinate artist Andy Warhol by shooting him with a handgun. Warhol survives but suffers health problems for the rest of his life. Solanas serves three years in prison and eventually dies of emphysema at San Francisco's Bristol Hotel in 1988.

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