“Max Gareth” was actually Stuart James, the author of FRISCO FLAT, which I posted about a couple of months ago. CARNIVAL GIRL may be his first novel. It was published in 1960 by Chariot Books, and a more mysterious publisher you’re unlikely to find. There’s no address in the book, not even a city, and just a simple book number on the spine. Chariot Books, whoever they were, published more than a hundred books in the early Sixties, but the only author names I recognize are Arthur Adlon and John Burton Thompson, both of whom wrote for several other softcore sleaze publishers. It must have been a pretty low-budget operation.
But that doesn’t mean the books they published were all bad. CARNIVAL GIRL is
actually a well-written coming-of-age story for the most part, albeit a very
violent and lurid one at times. The protagonist is a beautiful 18-year-old girl
named Norma who runs away from home in New Jersey due to an abusive stepfather and
winds up having to hitchhike across the country. She doesn’t have a real
destination, just a desire to head west. She winds up getting a ride with a
trucker who seems decent at first but winds up raping her, taking her virginity.
Then she encounters a traveling carnival and finds a home there, befriending
several of the performers and getting a job dancing (stripping, actually) in
one of their shows. A romantic triangle soon develops between Norma, the
drummer who provides music for the show she’s part of, and a young motorcycle
daredevil who’s also part of the carnival.
In general, I like carny novels. Fredric Brown’s MADBALL is excellent. CARNIVAL GIRL isn’t at that level, but James spins a fast-moving, compelling tale that has a literate, well-written style and lots of interesting carnival background. The characters and plot are standard, early Sixties sleaze/soap opera. There’s a crime/noir element farther along, but it never really fits into that category as many of the other softcore novels from that era do. For what it is, it’s a very readable, entertaining yarn. Clearly, Stuart James was a natural storyteller. I have several more of his books and plan to read them soon.
5 comments:
Due to the fact that most of the authors are unknown to me (except Frank Belknap Long a long term frienf of H.P. Lovecraft and the famous Horrie Hitt who wrote in the adults only genre, (Many of such writers were hacks, using thin plots as an excuse to throw tits & ass between covers for a quick buck) and to the kind of titles they show I'd say that the novels are sleazy or porno ones.
The only fly in the milk is H.G. Wells' "The Invisible man".
Best,
Tiziano Agnelli
I've find these infos about one of the authors.
Tyrone C. Barr
(? -? ) UK author. His sf novel, Split Worlds (1959; vt The Last 14 1960), sees 14 crew members of a Space Station survive the extermination (by suicide) of everyone on Earth. Eventually they must land and breed and start again, though quarrelling furiously, in a fantastically transformed world. [JC]
Split Worlds (London: Digit, 1959) [pb/Stewart]
The Last 14 (New York: Chariot Books, 1960)
The only clue to the proprietorship of CHARIOT BOOKS is on the indices of THE NEW CHARIOT BOOKS (circa 1963). Here it is identified as TUXEDO BOOKS, which was actually a sort of reincarnation, as TUXEDO had ceased publishing in 1962. Their novels were repackaged as RENDEZVOUS READERS and TWILIGHT READERS (in late 1962- early 1963), apparently by a shady distributor called "L.N. Magazine Distributors" out of Long Island, NY. This company had disyributed TUXEDO BOOKS as well as EPIC BOOKS (ART ENTERPRISES).
I suspect that comic book artist, L.B. Cole (who rendered the covers for the repacks) was a partner in this enterprise---which soon evolved into the pirate operation known as PIONEER PUBLISHING, which likewise gave little or no attribution (their name and address was rubber-stamped onto the flyleaves of a few titles, suggesting falsely that they were located in Las Vegas). Cole denied association with these books, though his artwork has since been positively identified.
I would guess that the original owners of TUXEDO (whom I have tentative recognised as SHULSINGER BROS. PUBLISHING AND LINOTYPING, occupying the same address as TUXEDO BOOKS) also produced the first run of CHARIOTS. I believe they sold their assets to L.N. in 1962, after which L.N. used their name and address as a subterfuge.
Thanks for this info, John. I find all this behind-the-scenes stuff fascinating.
Cutting Edge Books has republished the book in ebook and soon in trade paperback. We have also re-released Stuart James' other titles -- FRISCO FLAT, JUDGE NOT MY SINS and BUCKS COUNTY REPORT. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B08QYPYCDX/lg-facebook-cuttingedge-20
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