African American Life, Struggle, and Representation in Five Pulp Novels, 1960s-70s

Pulp, Black

Archive

African American stories in pulp novels, 1960s-70s archive of a five pulp novels. These novels offer a revealing insight into how Black history, pain, and agency were packaged and consumed during the Civil Rights and post-Civil Rights eras. The archive includes titles by both African American and white authors, blending fiction and nonfiction narratives in formats that frequently reached audiences far beyond academic or literary circles.

[1] Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones. The Adventures of the Negro Cowboys. New York: Bantam Pathfinder, 1965.
This illustrated nonfiction paperback foregrounds the often-overlooked role of African Americans in the history of the American West. “From Bose Ikard and Cherokee Bill to Deadwood Dick—here is the real story of some of the finest men of the Old West!” Co-authored by Philip Durham and Everett L. Jones, both UCLA faculty members, the book was one of the earliest popular efforts to correct the erasure of Black cowboys in American mythos. The Pathfinder series sought to bring academic research to popular audiences, and this title exemplifies the genre's revisionist push during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. Illustrated with period photographs, it emphasizes both the skill and heroism of Black cattle drivers and gunfighters.

[2] Mary Elizabeth Vroman. Esther. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Gold Medal, 1963.
One of the few pulp novels by a Black woman author of the period, Esther centers on a Black nurse navigating love and prejudice in a segregated Southern hospital. Vroman, who had earlier written the widely acclaimed short story “See How They Run,” draws from her own teaching and social work experience in the South. The novel dramatizes interpersonal and institutional racism with a sensitivity unusual for mass-market paperbacks of the era, as seen in the tagline: “The revealing novel of prejudice, love and bigotry in a small southern hospital.” A rare and important entry in the pulp canon by a Black woman writing about Black womanhood from the inside.

[3] Robert Ruark. Uhuru. Greenwich, CT: Crest Book, 1962.
Originally published in 1962, Uhuru—Swahili for “freedom”—is a sprawling colonial melodrama set during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. Ruark, a controversial white American journalist, continues the themes of racial unrest and colonial guilt begun in Something of Value (1955). This edition touts its bestseller status with a stark red cover: “Six months on the best-seller list. A massive, explosive novel, a high voltage shocker.” Though problematically exoticizing, the novel reflects Cold War-era American anxieties about decolonization and Black self-determination abroad. Its mass-market reach ensured that many Americans encountered African independence struggles through pulp dramatization.

[4] Ernest J. Gaines. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. New York: Bantam Books, 1972.
A landmark work of historical fiction presented as oral history, Miss Jane Pittman spans over a century of African American life, from slavery to the Civil Rights era. Gaines, one of the most celebrated Black novelists of the 20th century, structures the narrative as a testimonial by a 110-year-old Black woman in Louisiana. The mass-market edition features a photograph of Cicely Tyson from the 1974 CBS television adaptation, emphasizing the book’s crossover into mainstream consciousness. This paperback edition helped solidify Gaines’s status as a leading literary voice, while also bringing a sophisticated, historically grounded narrative into the hands of a general readership.

[5] MacKinlay Kantor. Beauty Beast. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Crest, 1963.
By the Pulitzer Prize-winning white author of Andersonville, Beauty Beast is billed as “From the publishers of Mandingo,” suggesting a similarly lurid tale of interracial lust and violence in the antebellum South. While the plot centers on a forbidden romance between a white woman and a Black man, it traffics in highly racialized and sexualized pulp tropes. Though steeped in sensationalism, such works reflect mid-century white American fascinations and fears surrounding Black masculinity and white femininity, particularly in the wake of Civil Rights challenges to segregationist ideologies.

Light wear and rubbing to wrappers, especially along spine ends; creases to Uhuru cover, small tear to lower joint of Esther; all bindings firm and pages clean. Very good condition overall.

Item #22058

Price: $185.00