Wholesale Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats

Paperback, 336 Pages: Girl Gangs, Biker Boys, and Real Cool Cats is the first in-depth account of how postwar youth culture was captured and exploited in pulp fiction. As teens shaped new styles in music, fashion, and rebellion, pulp fiction followed closely, sensationalizing their lives for mass audiences. From 1950s delinquent gangs to beats, bikers, skinheads, and punks, these lurid paperbacks reflected society’s anxieties as much as the subcultures themselves. Featuring 400 full-color covers—many never reprinted—and over 70 author interviews, biographies, and essays from 20+ critics and scholars across the U.S., U.K., and Australia, the book digs into how these novels were written, published, and received. Works by Harlan Ellison, Lawrence Block, and long-forgotten authors are all explored. A must for fans of pulp, retro style, and subcultural history. Contributors include Nicolas Tredell, Stewart Home, Clinton Walker, Mike Stax, Molly Grattan, and many more.