The Air at the Top of the Bottle

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Strange Paperbacks

October 6th, 2011 · 2 Comments

People like strange things; and publishers in the ’50s and ’60s were happy to provide an apparently endless string of strange paperbacks.  Some of the following are reprints from Fate magazine; some are from Ace Books’ “Strange Facts” series.  Many seem to have had the same cover design (please click for enlargements).  For less than a dollar, you could feast upon strangeness.

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(Posted by Doug Skinner)

Tags: Books · Education · Forteana · Literature

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Lisa // Oct 6, 2011 at 9:22 pm

    This reminds me very much of the Indian “World Famous” series- “mini-encyclopedias of mass appeal”. I only have one: World Famous Retorts and Repartees, but the series ranges from World Famous Crazy Despots and World Famous Drug Mafias to World Famous Medicines and Therapies and World Famous Stories of Metals. You can find them all at leading bookshops and railway bookstalls throughout the country, apparently.

  • 2 Doug // Oct 6, 2011 at 11:21 pm

    I just did a search; one of the series is “World Famous Strange Mysteries.” That’s the best of both.