Monday, June 01, 2009

Some Swedish paperback covers: Whittington and Brewer



Here are two paperback covers for Swedish translations of books by two American paperback masters, Harry Whittington and Gil Brewer.

Gil Brewer's Drömmen om ett mord ("Dream of a Murder"; Kometdeckaren #167, 1967) was originally titled Flight to Darkness (Gold Medal 1952). It's a noir thriller about an artist who sees recurring dreams of killing his own brother. I've read this, but can't remember much about it, except that I liked it quite a bit. The Swedish cover is probably Spanish in origin.

The Harry Whittington one is En skön död ("Beautiful Death"; Kometdeckaren #169, 1967) was originally titled Drawn to Evil (Ace 1952) which I haven't read. I'd like hear comments from those who have. I'm sure Bill Crider has. There's a signature beside the lady, but I can't make it out. I'm not sure whether it's American or European in origin.
I'll post tomorrow more about Kevin Wignall's Kuka on Conrad Hirst? I just wanted to get these out of the way - was cleaning the study a bit.

5 comments:

Anders E said...

Drawn to Evil is one of my favourite Whittingtons. Written from the POV of a cop so bad he could have stepped right out of a James Ellroy novel.

The symbol in the upper left corner indicate that these books came with an appendix of hardcore porn stories. Did anything like that occur in Finland (or elsewhere)?

Juri said...

Thanks, Anders - sounds great. Maybe I should try to brush up my Swedish?

And yes, both books have a section "Bilaga sex". The Whittington has an original short story by one Kim Saltöö and the Brewer has a section of Josephine Mutzenbacher's "memoirs" of a prostitute. (If reports are right about this, Mutzenbacher was really Felix "Bambi" Salten.)

Anders E said...

There are certainly more boring ways to brush up your Swedish than this. The sentences are short and to the point, so it shouldn't be that hard. It's not Proust, you know.

The author of "Bambi" also dabbled in porn? Wow. That just has to be one of the greatest pieces of trivia ever.

Btw, it is of course the symbol in the upper RIGHT corner that indicates porn. I need some sleep, I guess.

mybillcrider said...

Anders is right about Drawn to Evil, a great bad-cop story. And I like the original Ace cover a lot. I haven't read Flight to Darkness.

Juri said...

Anders, if you Google Salten or Mutzenbacher, you'll find mentions of Salten's porn workings. But, yes, it's a great piece of trivia.

Bill, thanks for the confirmation.