EDWIN SELF – BRITISH PULP FICTION AT ASH RARE BOOKS
![]() | EDWIN SELF – BRITISH PULP FICTION AT
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EDWIN SELF / PEDIGREE BOOKS – BRITISH PULP FICTION | |
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“BANARTO, Bart” : DAMES PLAY DUMB. BY BART BARNATO. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1951]. First edition. Nicky Folan is released from jail looking for vengeance. An early Bart Banarto title, here using the variant Barnato spelling, and with Edwin Self operating from his earlier Grays Inn Road address. Although an Edwin Self house-name, most of the Banarto titles appear to have been written by Albert Edward Garrett (1917-1968). SOLD |
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“BANARTO, Bart” : DANGEROUS CURVES. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1952]. First edition. “Bart Banarto grew up on the sidewalks of the East side of New York. He learned the facts of life in a hard and tough school; and he writes as he has lived – brutally, truthfully and without fear of the public enemies whose evil lives he exposes” – in fact Banarto (or occasionally Barnato) was a house-name dreamed up for his stable of writers by Edwin Self when he set up independently in 1951: most of the titles appear to have been written by the very much London-born Albert Edward Garrett (1917-1968). SOLD |
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“BANARTO, Bart” : DOUBLECROSS DAME. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1953]. First edition. Gail Dreiser tires of her hoodlum – “he wasn’t even a good hoodlum; he owned a yellow streak wider than Broadway. He owned the push of a corpse”. Although an Edwin Self house-name, most of the Bart Banarto titles appear to have been written by Albert Edward Garrett (1917-1968). SOLD |
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“COSTELLO, Pete” : BOWERY BLONDE. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1951]. First edition. “I felt like something had gone wrong with my breath. No dame had ever got me that way before ...”. An early Pete Costello title, with Edwin Self operating from his earlier Grays Inn Road address. The Costello house-name was used by a number of Self’s stable of writers, including George Bell and Frederick Foden. SOLD |
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“COSTELLO, Pete” : REDHEADS SPELL DANGER. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1952]. First edition. Sinuous mystery woman shoots flabby man: “That murder had been building up for a long time, and was never solved – officially. I could tell you something about it. I'll start at the beginning...”. An early Pete Costello title, with Edwin Self operating from his earlier Grays Inn Road address. The Costello house-name was used by a number of Self’s stable of writers, including George Bell and Frederick Foden. SOLD |
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ELLSON, Hal (Harold), 1910-1994 : I’LL FIX YOU : A REALISTIC NOVEL OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. London : Pedigree Books, (1958). First British edition. Ellson using his experiences as a social worker and recreational therapist to chart juvenile delinquency. First published in the USA in 1956. £25 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 45490 – or simply click on the button
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“LAVELLE, Marc”- [WILLIS, Ernest Lister Hale (Lisle), 1919-1988] : CALL ME SUGAR! London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1953]. First edition. Raven-haired Belle Marsden wants to leave one strong, muscular and powerful man, for another, even more brutal, who has just come out of prison. £25 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 45667 – or simply click on the button
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“LAVELLE, Marc”- [WILLIS, Ernest Lister Hale (Lisle), 1919-1988] : CURVES SPELL DEATH. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1952]. First edition. Three hoodlums bust into the apartment of naked and beautiful newspaper-woman Venetia Maynard. £50 SOLD |
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“LAVELLE, Marc”- [WILLIS, Ernest Lister Hale (Lisle), 1919-1988] : PARIS AFTER DARK. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1953]. First edition. Something of a hybrid from Lisle Willis, crossing between the staple gangster and faux French lines – “the proud, flaunting beauté of her superb breasts sparkled as much as the blade of the knife in the darkness”. SOLD |
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NORTON, R.A. : THROUGH BEATNIK EYEBALLS : A NOVEL OF TEEN-AGE LIFE. London : Pedigree Books (Edwin Self), (1961). First edition. “Here, for the first time, is a serious book written about teenagers, by a teenager and in a language that has delighted teenagers in America and Britain. It is written mainly in the now famous Kookie-talk” – the story of Fenella the clinker from way out – “Orbit strictly unknown. Destination nowhere!” – a cult classic of the beat generation, with a seven-page glossary of Kookie-talk for “Bods from Squaresville”. £50 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 42786 – or simply click on the button
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TRACY, Don (Donald Fiske), 1905-1976 : CAROLINA CORSAIR. London : Pedigree Books, [ca.1958]. First British paperback edition. Tracy’s take on the legendary Edward Teach (1680?-1718), better known as Blackbeard – pirate, corsair, rapist and murderer. Originally published in New York in 1955, with a British hardback edition in 1956, and here under Edwin Self’s Pedigree imprint. £20 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 41691 – or simply click on the button
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“VALOIS, Jean-Paul” – [WILLIS, Ernest Lister Hale (Lisle), 1919-1988] : BIENAIMÈE. London : Edwin Self, [ca.1955]. First edition. “Her inexperience of life coupled with her awakening sense of her own beauty and fascination lead her into dangerous paths ...”. Interesting in that although an earlier Valois title had been involved in Self’s trial on obscenity charges in 1954, the present title was openly issued from his post-prison address. The text is virtually identical to that of “Lovers of Montmartre” by “Michel Lesage”, published a few years earlier, although toned down a little in places and with an altered ending. SOLD |
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“VALOIS, Jean-Paul” – [WILLIS, Ernest Lister Hale (Lisle), 1919-1988] : CHERE AMIE. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1952]. First edition. “A fascinating story of the modern Paris underworld with all the romantic and glamorous aspect of life with artist’s models and midinettes”. One of the earliest “Valois” titles and frankly hilarious in its Franglais – “The température inside the room seemed to leap hundreds of degrees! The air was électrique, so that even Danielle Javenne could feel it in the garde-robe ...”. SOLD |
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“VALOIS, Jean-Paul” – [WILLIS, Ernest Lister Hale (Lisle), 1919-1988] : COLETTE CHÈRIE. London : Edwin Self & Co., [ca.1952]. First edition. “A fascinating story of the modern Paris underworld with all the romantic and glamorous aspects of life with artist’s models and midinettes” from “one of the newest successes in modern French literature”. This and the rest of the authorial biography – poor boy from Montmartre, served with the Maquis, imprisoned by the Gestapo – is all a complete fiction. Valois was the pseudonym of Lisle Willis, ex-RAF English school-teacher, local councillor and prospective parliamentary candidate. Both he and his publisher, Edwin Self, were tried on bizarre obscenity charges in 1954 and, even more bizarrely, found guilty. Self went to prison, Willis heavily fined and barred for life from teaching (he went into television). For an excellent account of the whole affair see Steve Holland’s “The Big Panic : The Story of Edwin Self and Pedigree Books”. £40 To purchase, call us or e-mail us at books@ashrare.com quoting stock number 45944 – or simply click on the button
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