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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
@PulpLibrarian
Aug 8, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read • Read on X
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Today in pulp... the mysterious JX Williams!
JX Williams was an alias used by many writers who knocked out cheesy sex pulp for Greenleaf publishing. At least 20% of each novel had to be sex scenes with the other 80% titillation, voyeurism or padding.
As a result Greenleaf plots were somewhat thin affairs: sexy sensationalism was more important than character arcs or the niceties of the three act drama.
William Lawrence Hamling set up Greenleaf publishing in 1950, initially specializing in science fiction magazines. By 1959 the company had moved into paperbacks.
By the early 1960s sex was selling better than sci-fi and a number of writers were quietly supplying novels for both scenes. Robert Silverberg Harlan Ellison and Donald E Westlake all provides pseudonymous sex novels for Greenleaf.
And no form of desire was off limits for Greenleaf. What mattered was what sold. Ed Wood Jr was able to pen Parisian Passions for the imprint, though it was never a best seller.
Pulp sex publishers in the early 1960s were, in their own way, blazing a trail for the permissive society. Any sex was good sex and if it felt good then do it!.

It couldn't last...
The US Government prosecuted Greenleaf on many occasions under the obscenity laws of the time.

For a while Hamling's luck held...
But in 1971 Hamling was imprisoned for publishing - of all things - a fully illustrated version of the Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.

No prizes for guessing what the illustrations were like...
Appeals against the sentence went in for many years, but Uncle Sam wasn't going to let up. It all ended in 1976 with Hamling on parole but banned from working in the obscene book trade.
By the mid 1970s the obscenity laws had changed, hard core magazines were on the news-stands and cheesy sex novels were on the way out. Turns out the permissive society wasn't that interested in reading.
But let's give a cheer for Greenleaf and the mysterious JX Williams. They fought the law and the law won: but what a fight they put up!

More torrid takes of publishing another time...

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More from @PulpLibrarian

Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jun 30
Given the current heatwave, I feel obliged to ask my favourite question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?

Let's find out... Image
Now we all know what a man's lounge suit is, but if we're honest it can be a bit... stuffy. Formal. Businesslike. Not what you'd wear 'in da club' as the young folks say. Image
So for many years tailors have been experimenting with less formal, but still upmarket gents attire. The sort of garb you could wear for both a high level business meeting AND for listening to the Moody Blues in an espresso bar. Something versatile. Image
Read 16 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jun 29
Time once again for my occasional series "Women with great hair fleeing gothic houses!"

Let's see what's in the library... Image
The Voice of the House, by Margaret Erskine (an Inspector Finch Gothic Mystery). Ace Gothic, 1973.

She'll fall over if she leans like that. Image
The Three Sisters of No End House, by Mona Farnsworth. Ace Gothic, 1972.

I said she'll fall over if she leans like that! Image
Read 10 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jun 27
Today in pulp I look back at the publishing phenomenon of gamebooks: novels in which YOU are the hero!

A pencil and dice may be required for this thread... Image
Image
Gamebooks are a simple but addictive concept: you control the narrative. At the end of each section of the story you are offered a choice of outcomes, and based on that you turn to the page indicated to see what happens next. Image
Gamebook plots are in fact complicated decision tree maps: one or more branches end in success, but many more end in failure! It's down to you to decide which path to tread. Image
Read 22 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jun 18
Time for a pulp countdown now, and today it's my top 10 public relations campaigns! Image
At no 10: prunes! Let's get this party started. Image
At no 9: butter! Don't suffer from a lack of it. Image
Read 12 tweets
Pulp Librarian Profile picture
Jun 15
You know what I haven't done in a while? Bad book covers!

Let's change that... Image
Ooh you little lyre... Guardian Angels, by Joseph Citro. Zebra Books, 1988. Image
How I answer the door in the mornings... Encounters With Aliens, by George W. Earley. Charter House, 1978. Image
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Pulp Librarian Profile picture
May 11
He was the terror of London; a demonic figure with glowing eyes and fiery breath who could leap ten feet high. The penny dreadfuls of the time wrote up his exploits in lurid terms. But who was he really?

Today I look at one of the earliest pulp legends: Spring-Heeled Jack! Image
London has always attracted ghosts, and in the 19th Century they increasingly left their haunted houses and graveyards and began to wader the capital's streets.

But one apparition caught the Victorian public attention more than most... Image
In October 1837 a 'leaping character' with a look of the Devil began to prey on Londoners. Often he would leap high into the air and land in front of a carriage, causing it to crash. It would then flee with a high-pitched laugh.

The public soon named him "Spring-Heeled Jack." Image
Read 14 tweets

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