MODERN FICTION LTD. – BRITISH PULP FICTION AT ASH RARE BOOKS
![]() | MODERN FICTION LTD. – BRITISH PULP FICTION AT
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MODERN FICTION LTD. – BRITISH PULP FICTION | |
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BUXTON, Raymond : MIDSUMMER MADNESS. London : Modern Fiction, [1946]. First edition. Simple but handsome farmworker led astray by forward hussies – well written and in places almost erotic, which is more than can be said for most of the Modern Fiction output. Buxton was the author of “Broken Liebestraum” (1944), “No Gentle Lady” (1949), etc. £25 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 34599 – or simply click on the button
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For more on the Modern Fiction imprint, see my Bookhunter on Safari blog-post of 19th June 2014. | |
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“GORDON, Spike” – [FEARN, John Russell, 1908-1960] : YOU TAKE THE RAP. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1953]. First edition. The first of the “Spike Gordon” series, believed to have been written by John Russell Fearn. The cover tag-line is “Wildcat Women and Dope”, which sums it up pretty adequately. SOLD |
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“GRIFF” : FROM DANCE HALL TO OPIUM DIVE. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1950]. First edition. Bullets, business and be-pop – better dead than dope-crazed – the “Griff” byline was first used by Ernest McKeag (1896-1974) in 1948, but became the most successful of the Modern Fiction pulp brand-names under various later authors. Lightning pace, crisp dialogue, casual violence, and seedy and salacious faux American settings are the common denominators. By 1950 most of the “Griff” titles, of which this is perhaps the most celebrated, were being written by the journalist, compiler of reference works and occasional Dickens scholar, Frank Dubrez Fawcett (1891-1968) and this is almost certainly his work. SOLD |
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“GRIFF” : NIGHT PATROL. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1953]. First edition. The terrible death of a beautiful woman – “gangsterdom and vice, against the pulsating background of New York’s seamier streets”. £25 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 30131 – or simply click on the button
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“GRIFF” – [BOYCE, David, 1916-1993] : SHOOT TO LIVE. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1953]. First edition. “Master-spies, gunhawks, mobsters, hoods, all the unsavoury characters of the underworld ... A young scientist is kidnapped. He carries badly wanted secrets in his brain ... the secrets of that most despicable of all forms of death ... germ warfare!”. Mark Freeman of the FBI is on the case. The “Griff” house name here being used by David Boyce. £50 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 32885 – or simply click on the button
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“LACROIX, Ramon” : RECKLESS LOVERS. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1952]. First edition. “Abruptly he stopped dictating. His dark eyes were suddenly amused. He said: “Will you have dinner with me tonight, Jennifer?” She nearly dropped her pencil and pad in amazement. Even her chin sagged, and then she snapped her mouth shut as she quickly recovered ...”. SOLD |
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“LACROIX, Ramon” : SEDUCTION. London : Modern Fiction (London), [ca.1952]. First edition. A novel set in the ruins of post-war Hamburg, as Ilsa decides to smoke her last cigarette – and wants a man to light it. £25 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 42784 – or simply click on the button
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“LAROCHE, René” – [McKEAG, Ernest Lionel, 1896-1974] : LADIES OF LEISURE. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1951]. First edition. Diane repents of her hasty marriage in a wartime suburb – the chapters tell the tale: loveless marriage, on the verge, marriageless love, bitter parting, out of her past, unwilling wife, silken sin, the goad of loneliness, the way of transgression, conquest, gathering clouds, betrayed, the choice – aftermath. “Translated from the French” claims the cover – a statement even less accurate than the mis-spelling of McKeag’s nom-de-plume as Rene Larouche on the title-page. SOLD |
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“LAROCHE, René” – [McKEAG, Ernest Lionel, 1896-1974] : STRIP-TEASE GIRL. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1951]. First edition. Small, pale, blonde – Joyce Morton is thrown out of her Manchester family home by her step-mother – heads to London to work as a dance-hostess. £40 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 41792 – or simply click on the button
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“LAROCHE, René” – [McKEAG, Ernest Lionel, 1896-1974] : TRAGEDIES OF MONTMARTRE. London : Modern Fiction (London), [ca.1954]. First edition. Provincial innkeeper raises a beautiful and headstrong daughter – an English painter comes to stay. £50 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 43344 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : BEECH ON THE BOULEVARD. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1952]. First edition. “Almost out-Zolas Zola” – “Girls disappear from their Paris homes; in many cases they are never traced ... enticed, on one pretext or another, by glib promises of a film, dance-hall, or cabaret career” – Ben Sarto with an “on-the-spot study” of a typical victim of the white slave trade. £40 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 44724 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : CHICAGO DAMES. London : Modern Fiction, [ca.1943]. First edition : the variant with the plain lower wrapper. The United Ladies’ Club of Chicago – Dynamite Doll, Slappy Sal (not to mention her husband Jelly the Fish), Velvet Vi, Reno Doreena – but Anna Toplitski craves the “sharp, puncturing kiss” of the hypodermic syringe. It has become apparent from the details of the May 1949 “passing off” High Court hearing before Mr Justice Romer, in which Fawcett and his publisher, Edwin Turvey, sued each other over the rights in the “Ben Sarto” name, that many of the Sarto titles were first published considerably earlier than has previously been supposed. Evidence produced at the trial over the surrender of rights in reprints suggests that the present title must have been in print prior at some time prior to the summer of 1944. £50 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 30322 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : CHICAGO DAMES. London : Modern Fiction, [ca.1943]. First edition : the variant with the plain lower wrapper. The United Ladies’ Club of Chicago – Dynamite Doll, Slappy Sal (not to mention her husband Jelly the Fish), Velvet Vi, Reno Doreena – but Anna Toplitski craves the “sharp, puncturing kiss” of the hypodermic syringe. It has become apparent from the details of the May 1949 “passing off” High Court hearing before Mr Justice Romer, in which Fawcett and his publisher, Edwin Turvey, sued each other over the rights in the “Ben Sarto” name, that many of the Sarto titles were first published considerably earlier than has previously been supposed. Evidence produced at the trial over the surrender of rights in reprints suggests that the present title must have been in print prior at some time prior to the summer of 1944. £40 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 31554 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : HI-JACKER’S LADY. London : Modern Fiction, [ca.1945]. First edition. “Corner of Gamm-street, Bowery. Dusk. December day; snow atop distant skyscrapers; awful squelcy slush underfoot; overhead railway smashing flashes of electricity from ice-hard rails. Everything around furtive, glum, anti-law, on account of the cold douche of Prohibition”. £50 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 43199 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : TOMBSTONES ARE FREE TO QUITTERS. London : Modern Fiction, [1947]. First edition. Nice young couple up against racketeers in the New York garment trade. £50 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 44632 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : DUCHESS OF DOPE. London : Modern Fiction, [1948]. First edition. Man returns to Idaho from the mountains of Chile to find his sweet young wife has killed herself having become a dope addict: an exposé of the American morphine, heroin and cocaine rackets. “Then there was Jacqueline; tall, slant-eyed, raven-haired, fiery, dynamic; packing a flashlook that would burn up almost any guy with desire. They called her ‘The Duchess of Dope’ ...”. One of the most successful of all the Modern Fiction titles. SOLD |
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : MISS OTIS GOES UP. London : Modern Fiction, [1947]. First edition. A murder in the Otis Restaurant – a revenge killing by a strange young man. £75 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 41962 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : MISS OTIS GOES UP. London : Modern Fiction, [1947]. First edition. A murder in the Otis Restaurant – a revenge killing by a strange young man. £75 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 42585 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : MISS OTIS HAS A DAUGHTER. London : Modern Fiction, [1948]. First edition. Playing with his own name, Fawcett gives us cheapstore dressmaker Frank Driffield Tawfitt, who has taken a shine to the mysterious and alluring new partner in Manhattan’s Paradise Restaurant – Miss Otis has gone incognito. £75 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 41963 – or simply click on the button
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“SARTO, Ben” – [FAWCETT, Frank Dubrez, 1891-1968] : THE OLDEST PROFESSION. London : Modern Fiction, [1952]. First edition. “As usual with Sarto books, it is the result of personal observation, plus access to police records and secret news files ... an innocent young girl from the country finds herself caught up in the toils of a Manhattan exploiter – with tragic results. One big, breath-catching thrill from first word to last, but shot with sadness and regret”. £100 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 44035 – or simply click on the button
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“SPENCER, Hank” : VICE SQUAD. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1954]. First edition. “Meet again that crashing, smashing heel, Kinsey Target, relating his own paralysing experiences in the shocking style that has made him famous” – we also meet Peach Dolfin, Pingpong Rizetti, and other surprising characters. SOLD |
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“SPENCER, Hank” : NECKS OF SINNERS. London : Modern Fiction (London), [1954]. First edition. One of at least ten titles put out under Modern Fiction’s “Hank Spencer” house-name towards the end of their publishing career. Set in Chicago as tough, honest, guy seeks justice and revenge – master criminal, mysterious dame – “something you'll have to read for yourself. It got too exciting for me!” says the cover. SOLD |
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