Midwood Books

Midwood Books was an American publishing house active from 1957 to 1968. Its strategy focused on the male readers' market, competing with other publishers such as Beacon Books. The covers of many Midwood Books featured works by prolific illustrators of the era, including Paul Rader.

Novels from Midwood Books were written by many well-known authors, most writing under pseudonyms. Among these were Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, Robert Silverberg, and Richard E. Geis.

History

Harry Shorten was a writer and editor who had worked for MLJ Comics, publisher of Archie, for most of the 1940s and 1950s. He had made his fortune with partner Al Fagaly, by creating a syndicated gag cartoon called There Oughta Be a Law! Shorten provided the scripts, Fagaly the art.

Looking for an investment in the financial results of his comics, Shorten decided to become an editor of paperbacks. He wanted to follow the example of publishers Beacon Books and Universal Distributing, which specialized in publishing cheap, lightweight books telling dramatic or erotic romances, with suggestive covers, for a male audience. Thus he created in 1957 the publishing house Midwood Books, named after his neighborhood in Brooklyn. At the time, the publishing house address was 505 Eighth Avenue in Manhattan.

Unlike other New York publishers such as Bennett Cerf at Random House, Shorten did not have extensive knowledge of quality literature. But he knew what would entice the average American reader. His books were bright, colorful, and eye-catching. Midwood's first publications were paperback collections of the There Oughta Be a Law! strips and an unnumbered book series in the same style as Beacon Books. With the 1958 release of Midwood 007 — Love Nest, by Robert Silverberg, writing as "Loren Beauchamp" — began the emergence of authors and artists recognized later as appurtenant to Midwood. Shorten quickly began soliciting manuscripts from the Scott Meredith Literary Agency (which also provided manuscripts for fellow pulp publisher Nightstand Books).

Only five people wrote most of the first 40 issues of the Midwood numbered series: Lawrence Block ("Sheldon Lord"), Robert Silverberg ("Loren Beauchamp"), Donald E. Westlake ("Alan Marshall""), Orrie Hitt, and Hal Dresner ("Don Holliday"). This group stabilized Midwood until Shorten was able to put together a stable of recurring writers, such as Sally Singer, Gilbert Fox, Julie Ellis, John Plunkett, and Elaine Williams. Although nobody at Midwood knew it at the time, several writers were providing books for both Midwood and Nightstand, but under different pen names. For example, "Loren Beauchamp" (Robert Silverberg) become "Don Elliott" a year later at Nightstand, "Sheldon Lord" (Lawrence Block) became "Andrew Shaw." Some writers wrote under the same name for both publishers.

Shorten obtained his cover illustrations from the Art Balcourt Service, the same agency that provided covers for Beacon. Artists such as Nappi, Rader, and Robert Maguire were significant to the company's success. The covers sold the books: Midwood's novels were not great literature, but were generally very entertaining. Many pages contained sex scenes, described as pornographic, full of insinuations and veiled references.^[1] Although romances and melodramas were of more interest to women, the target audience of companies like Midwood and Beacon was men. This was apparent from their covers.

In 1964, Midwood merged with Tower Publications to form two subsidiaries: Midwood-Tower and Tower Comics. Shorten went on to be editor-in-chief of Tower Comics.^[2] By 1965, Midwood's headquarters were at 185 Madison Avenue (alongside fellow pulp publisher Lancer Books).^[1]

Popularity among lesbians

Pulp titles with strong connotations of lesbians were very popular; the authors were frequently men using female pen names, such as "Barbara Brooks," "Jill Emerson," and "Kimberly Kemp;" while the target audience was male readers, an unexpected second small audience base was lesbians themselves, with these books often reviewed in early lesbian and gay publications such as One Magazine and The Ladder by Barbara Grier, under her pseudonym "Gene Damon." Julie Ellis, though not lesbian herself (unlike Singer and Williams), bucked her bosses by insisting on putting happy endings for the lesbian lovers in her lesbian pulp fiction a brave act for which she received much appreciative fan mail from emerging lesbian social and activist groups during Ms. Ellis' Midwood Tower authorship period (1962-1968).

Authors

• Lawrence Block, writing as "Sheldon Lord"
• Hal Dresner, writing as "Don Holliday"
• Julie Ellis, writing as "Joan Ellis," "Susan Richards," and similar pseudonyms
• Gilbert Fox, writing as "Dallas Mayo" and "Kimberly Kemp"
• Richard E. Geis, writing as "Peggy Swenson"
• Jay Greene
• Orrie Hitt
• Al James
• Stuart James
• William Johnston
• William Knoles, writing as "Clyde Allison"
• Pat Perdue, writing as "Randy Salem"
• John Plunkett, writing as "Jason Sloane Hytes"
• Robert Silverberg, writing as "Loren Beauchamp"
• Sally Singer, writing as "March Hastings"
• Donald E. Westlake, writing as "Alan Marshall"
• Elaine Williams, writing as "Sloane Britain" and similar pseudonyms — committed suicide in 1963^[3] as a result of the social stigma she suffered as a lesbian

Selected titles

source: ^[4]

See also

• Pulp magazine
• Lesbian pulp fiction

References

Sources consulted

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Midwood Books.

• Midwood at Books Are Everything!
• Midwood at Lynn Monroe Books