Since the Publication of Edition #2, Tawdry Town has been awarded:

The Seven Wonders  award for Originality and Quality on the Web, and

has been listed on the Interport's Top 100 User Pages.

Exhibits in this edition:

Collecting Paperbacks, by Gary Lovisi (our first submission), together
                            a letter to the paperback community..

Nonfiction (Yeah, Right) Sleaze - the spawn of Psychopathia Sexualis.

This Month's Spotlight: Every Good Child Deserves a Gold Medal - A few words (and images) about Fawcett Publications' finest and most influential paperback label.

Gallery of Recent Acquisitions - fine cover art, from books uncovered at thrift stores, church and library sales, used bookstores, street sellers, vintage paperback dealers, and even the occasional fellow collector.

1. VINTAGE PAPERBACKS ON THE WEB - The Tawdromatic Guide - links to all of the Vintage Paperbacks sites on the Web that I and my correspondents can find.
2. From Tawdry Town, Edition 1: Introduction:  Statement of Purpose and a Short History of the Paperback Book.
3. From Tawdry Town, Edition 1: There's Gold in That There Sleaze! - The Collector's Market in Tawdry Paperbacks
4. From Tawdry Town, Edition 1: Sleazy Paperback or Paperback Sleaze? - "Vintage Paperback" v. "Paperback Exotica.
5. Sources used in preparation of this site and of additional information about vintage paperback books..
6. Links to other  low culture sites and other things I like.

• After God's Little Acre, the Deluge: Backwoods Trash Literature (This article has been postponed, pending future promised contributions)
• They Can't All Be Good: Lousy Covers

 Tawdry Town is actively searching for contributors.   Compared to some vintage paperback collectors, I am strictly a beginner; owning only a couple of hundred volumes; I know of some collectors who own thousands, (many of whom, not surprisingly, have ended up as dealers). I am particularly interested in publishing articles about or mounting exhibitions of works by significant low-rent paperback authors, both those revered in later years and those still held in general disrepute, such as Jim Thompson, Charles Willeford, Ed Wood, Mary Jane Meaker (aka Ann Aldridge and Vin Packer), Orrie Hitt, etc. If you would like to submit an article or a collection for display and you either live in the New York area or can submit the appropriate computer files by mail or email, please contact me here:

xcentrik@interport.net.

Special thanks for this edition of Tawdry Town go to Gary Lovisi, Kathy Greer, David Frame,

Tawdry Town is currently a nonprofit effort (I have assumed all costs) and is not in a position to offer compensation for any such contributions, other than appropriate credit and gratitude. Any dealers helping us out will be given due attribution.

This page was created with the HotDog 32 Web Page Editor, GNNPress and its successor, AOLPress,  Paint Shop Pro, and Netscape Composer. It has been specifically designed for Netscape, but does not include anything particularly fancy, and should look fine on Microsoft Explorer as well.  If you are using any other browser, feel free to stick you head in your refrigerator door and slam it until you come to your senses.  Some animated icons created by author with GIF Construction Set.  All animated icons not created by the author of this site (the great majority, in fact) and other images courtesy of The Icon and Image Bazaar. Most images scanned using a Umax Astra 300P, which may not impress some graphics professionals but is nonetheless one bitchin' piece of equipment for less than $200.

Home of Brooklyner Schlockwurken Electrical Jewelry and Kat Barph Wine Products.

All articles and all other aspects of this site (c) 1996 and 1997, Stephen Alexander Loeb, who is, with the exception of articles otherwise attributed, solely responsible for its form and content.  God forbid the wrong guy gets punched in the nose.