About

We’re embracing the summer heat by highlighting our steamiest pulp-paperback book covers. Pulp fiction is typically associated with crime, romance, adventure, mystery, and science fiction genres, and the eye-catching covers are now recognized as a distinctive mid-twentieth century art form. Often touting racy titles, the covers of crime and romance books in particular were intended to both entertain and titillate, seducing would-be readers into an impulse purchase from the newsstand or book rack at the drugstore.

Pulp paperback cover art had its origins in fiction magazines, called “Pulps” …