Jim Linderman blog about surface, wear, form and authenticity in self-taught art, outsider art, antique american folk art, antiques and photography.
Showing posts with label Dell Mapbacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dell Mapbacks. Show all posts
Harlemisms from New York Confidential Mapback Book Speak like an (Urban) Native
CLICK TO GET HEP, JACK
I have written about Mapbacks before, those beautiful mystery books from the 1950s which always had a map on the reverse indicating the scene of the crime and spots where certain events took place. I've collected them several times over my life, and finding them is still one of the most beautiful cheap hobbies around. There was one anomaly in the series.
Number 1534 was not a mystery, but an actual guide book to the city which never sleeps, and it was a guide book which held back little. From "Party Girls" to "Where Men Wear Lace" it was, I am sure, a well-thumbed book in 1951.
Alas, nearly everything in it is gone now. Yet it still remains one of the most valuable little documents of a world now gone, and one could do worse than bring back the wonderful "Glossary of Harlemisms" in back, Jack.
More New York City Mapbacks HERE
New York Confidential! The Big City After Dark by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer. Dell Paperback 1951 (Mapback) Collection Jim Linderman
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