Vixen Press founder Gilbert (Gil) Fox was a Greenwich Village denizen. Mr. Fox had quite a circle of friends.
Perhaps no one has paid attention to the Vixen books because they are hardbacks, and the only hardcovers here. Most of the vintage sleaze action is in lurid paperbacks, but this line of spicy stories certainly qualify.Though hardcovers, they are still cheap,tawdry and one hundred percent grade-A certified sleaze. They are also (when and if you can find them) quite affordable since no one cares. Al are now nearly 60 years old, and even harder to find in their book jackets.
Gil Fox was one of the most prolific of sleaze writers. From his early books around 1950 to a massive output of Midwood books in the 1960s. He had pseudonyms such as Kim Savage, Peter Willow, Leda Starr, Kimberly Kemp, Dallas Mayo, Paul Russo, Violet Loring and more. Paperback book scholar Lynn Monroe interviewed Gil once, and I hope there are more chats coming. He certainly has stories to share. The interview is essential for any scholar interested in popular culture of the 1950s.
Fox was born in 1917, served in the Air Force during the WW2 and married a female swinger whose swing went both ways. Next thing you know, he is living in Greenwich Village and itis 1950. At some point Gil met John Willie (real name was John Alexander Scott Coutts) who published the Bizarre series digests. Willie had his drawings published by Robert Harrison and is even rumored to have been responsible for asking Bettie Page to pose in bondage get-ups. Apocryphal tale, I think. Not long after meeting Willie, Gil Fox began writing his own books for Woodford Press. Fox also wrote for Stanley Malkan.
Some time around 1953, Gil set up Vixen Press at 125 Christopher Street in New York City. 125 Christopher Street was also the location of the Alfred Hitchcock's film
Rear Window(!) At least before they changed the address to 125 West the Street in the movie. There is an understanding in the film business that murder films use
phony addresses for the same reason every big screen telephone number starts with 555.There is no 125 West 9th Street, but Gil's place still sits at 125 Christopher.
Today apartments in the building rent for several thousand dollars a month and it remains a pre-war 6-story residential building. You can find real-estate listings online if you would like to relive the glory days of Greenwich Village... but it looks to me like they re-did the floors and I don't see any of Gil's ink stains.It is,however, nice to think of Gil typing while peering into same courtyard as James Stewart and Grace Kelly.
Vixen Books was an apartment operation and an outlet for writers other than Gil. Barry Devlin, one of the most prolific Vixen writers, was selling work which was published as Beacon paperbacks at the same time. Another was the mysterious Justin Kent, the pseudonym of a writer who testified against mobster Edward Mishkin in an obscenity case. They apparently put out a book a month. They were likely distributed in the Times Square bookshops, but they were also distributed by Associated Booksellers in Westport, CT. and at least one other outside of the Tri- state area. Several of the copies here have stickers from "Capitol Book Store" in Indiana, so they got out to the Midwest too. No wonder New York City has a bad reputation. The cover price was $2.50. Each title, regardless of who receives credit for writing, has a hoity-toity quote from Shakespeare or an ancient learned philosopher following the title page, and each is dedicated to a dame or a couple. Hmmm.
As you would imagine from the titles and covers, the Vixen line was not noted for fine literature. All the books were written as soft-core pornography. Limp-core. The characters drank and had torrid sexual adventures, even if they acted like soap opera scripts of the day. Remember, these were written in the early 1950s. Some have girl on girl action at a time it was most taboo. Plenty of lingerie too, and being taken off slowly. Some of the original Vixen titles were subsequently published as paperbacks with new titles. Moon-kissed by Barry Devlin came out under the title Forbidden Pleasures as a Berkley book. Kim Savage also had a paperback titled Helen's House published by Beacon. Mark Tryon's The Fire That Burns came out as a paperback with the byline "Girls who pose for anything" on the cover. It is more than possible others were republished in paper with entirely new titles and authors credited. For that matter, and for all I know, AL of them were written by Fox, but in particular I have seen a reference somewhere that Kim Savage was Gil Fox, though I am not sure. File under speculation.
In the notes to Girls Lie Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius by Edward de Grazia (1972) one Vixen book (Sweeter Than Life by Mark Tryon) was called "the forerunner of the sex pulp novels so numerous in the sixties; It contained a prominent lesbian theme and it seems to have had no appreciable literary value. (The book) is described in some detail in Felice Flannery Lewis, Literature, Obscenity and Law (1976) 180-181." Fair enough.
There WAS an obscenity case brought against Gil Fox...U.S vs. Gilbert Fox, Vixen Press et al, involving four of the
titles. I am not sure the outcome, nor do I know if Mr. Fox spent any time in pokey. I certainly hope not.
The list of Vixen books following is the first one compiled as far as I know. The sleeve they came wrapped in is worth as much as the book. Which reminds me..the jacket illustrations are credited to NJD, de Persis, Patrika, Don Rico, who follows, and sometimes nobody.
(An excerpt from the book TIMES SQUARE SMUT by Jim Linderman available from Blurb.com
Helena's House Kim Savage 1960 Madame Big Barry Devlin 1953 Chains of Silk Barry Devlin 1954 Golf Widow ? 1953
Boss Lady Rick Lucas 1954
No Holds Barred Barry Devlin
Carnal Cargo Barry Devlin 1952
Baby Makes Three Kim Savage (Gil Fox?) 1953 Desolate Sands Michael Norday 1955
The Sinning Lens Mark Tryon 1953 Joanne Scott Stone 1955
Mask of Night Michael Norday 1954 Dreamboat Rick Lucas 1955
Lazylegs Kim Savage 1953 Gold-plated Sin Barry Devlin 1953 Fire and Ice Barry Devlin 1952 Complex Mother Rick Lucas 1955
Take tI Off! Mark Tryon 1953 Fast Curve Justin Kent 1953
Bent to Evil Kim Savage 1952 Weekend Kim Savage 1952
Rogues and Riches Rick Lucas 1954 Blaze Scott Stone 1954
Sweet and Twenty Don Morro 1955 The Fire that Burns Mark Tryon 1954 Devil's Web Scott Stone 1955
Other Loves Barry Devlin 1955 Countess Margo Scott Stone 1955 This Paris Barry Devlin 1955
Sweeter than Life Mark Tryon Acapulco Nocturne Barry Devlin 1952
Mavis Justin Kent 1953
Dark Magic Michael Norday 1954 Strange Journey Rick Lucas 1954
On with the Dance Michael Norday 1954 Gold-plated Sin Barry Devlin 1953 Lovers and Madmen Barry Devlin 1953 Hellion Kim Savage 1951
Moon-kissed Barry Devlin 1953
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