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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What do Batman, Spiderman, Bettie Page, Madonna and women wrestlers have in common? Well I'll tell you: they all feature in the life of today's featured pulp artist.
Today I look back at the career of "the father of fetish" Eric Stanton!
Eric Stanton was born in New York in 1926. His childhood was marred by many illnesses, and confined to bed he learnt to draw by tracing comic books. He was fascinated by strong Amazonian women like Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and soon began creating similar cartoons.
After high school Stanton joined the Navy in 1944, putting his skills to use in drawing aircraft recognition cartoons. Post-war he got a job with cartoonist Gordon 'Boody' Rogers, creator of Babe: Amazon Of The Ozarks.
Given the weather is getting warmer I feel obliged to ask the following question: is it time to bring back the leisure suit?
Let's find out...
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.
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.
Today in pulp... Blade Runner! Let's look back at the classic 1982 movie and see how it compares to original novel.
"It's not an easy thing to meet your maker..."
Blade Runner is based on Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? However 'inspired' may be a better word, as the film is very different to the book.
In the novel Deckard is a bounty hunter for the San Francisco police. The year is 1992; Earth has been ravaged by war and humans are moving to off-world colonies to protect their genetic integrity. They are given organic robots to help them, created by the Rosen Association.