SIN-A-RAMA celebrates the forgotten world of erotic paperbacks from the 1960s, when sex acts were described with code words, writers used pseudonyms, and publishers hid behind mail drop addresses.
Sleaze paperbacks sold by the million throughout the decade.
Their unorthodox content and inroads into the marketplace
provoked new laws, FBI investigations, high-pitched court
battles, and prison sentences for the crims of obscenity.
Earl Kemp, the notorious General Books editor, provides an
insider's perspective, proviling famous and little-known
co-workers. In My Life as a Pornographer
, science
fiction legend Robert Silverberg divulges how he and other
famous authors learned their craft and earned their keep
pounding out softcore sin.
The bizarre glories of cover artists Robert Bonfils, Gene Bilbrew, Eric Stanton, Paul Rader, Ed Smith, Bill Ward, and Doug Weaver are seen throughout in lurid color.
SIN-A-RAMA is the first book-length exploration into a shadowy but revolutionary industry. A useful appendix reveals the actual names behind the pseudonyms, and catalogues both established and fly-by-night sleaze operators.