After my post about Orrie Hitt the other day, I received an email from someone who knew the Hitt family quite well. Here’s an excerpt from that message, quoted with permission:"I don't know which daughter you heard from, but I grew up and graduated with one of them. We were friends for years and I was in her home many, many times. I remember her 'dad' sitting at the kitchen table, cigarette in his mouth, with the old typewriter in front of him. I and her other friends never thought a thing about it and we had no clue as to what he was doing. It wasn't till our latter teens did we find out what he was doing and then we went on a search of his books... we found them in one store, in the back, and no we didn't, nor could we buy them. I asked my mother about it and she had some of his books which I secretly confiscated and read.. wow, was that an eye opener.
I think, due to the small town, his occupation was not a topic of discussion and was kept low key. I don't think I ever said anything to his daughter, my friend, nor did anyone else. It didn't matter that he wrote racy books, we were all just friends growing up in small town USA."
The description of Hitt’s working methods matches what we’ve heard from other sources, and I love the image of the teenage girls trying to find his books.
I’ve illustrated this post with another Hitt cover scan I found on-line. Man, I want to read HOT CARGO right now. It looks like it could have come right out of a SPICY ADVENTURE pulp and reminds me a little of Robert E. Howard’s Wild Bill Clanton stories.
6 comments:
James, I have that book. I think George Kelley sent it to me after I'd showed some interest on Hitt - well, it might've been in Rara-Avis. I haven't read it yet, though. The cover is great.
I'll probably have to break down and order this one sooner or later, but I think I'll read the ones I've already ordered first, though. A lot of those Beacon Books had wonderful covers.
Definitely a cool cover. I've heard his name but have never read anything by him that I remember.
Btw, just finished "Death Valley Vengeance" and enjoyed it very much.
Do you have any idea who the artists were for these covers?
A dealer listing on ABE says that the cover for SHABBY STREET, from my previous Orrie Hitt post, is by Walter Popp. A listing for HOT CARGO says the cover for it is possibly by Warren King. I'm not familiar enough with the work of either artist to say yea or nay on the question. Paul Rader also did some covers for Beacon, but neither of those look like his work to me. According to Lynn Munroe, Beacon was bad about not giving any credit to their cover artists, so a lot of the info is just lost now, and we can only make guesses based on the style. A shame, because they're nice covers.
I've had this one on the shelves for many years. I guess I should take it down and read it Real Soon Now.
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