Midwood Books
Midwood Books was an American publishing house active from 1957 to 1962. Its strategy focused on the male readers' market, competing with other publishers such as Beacon Books. The covers of many Midwood Books featured works by famous illustrators of the era, including the prolific Paul Rader.
Novels from Midwood Books were written by many well-known authors, most writing under pseudonyms. Among these were Lawrence Block, Donald Westlake, Robert Silverberg and Richard Geis.
In 1964, Midwood merged with Tower Books of the World Publishing Company to form one subsidiary called Midwood Tower and another named Tower Comics.
History
Harry Shorten was a writer and screenwriter as well as a comics writer, working in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn, (New York). He made his fortune with partner Al Fagaly, by creating a comic strip called "There oughta be a law." Shorten provided the scripts, Fagaly the art.
Looking for an investment in the financial results of his comics, Shorten decided to become editor of paperbacks. He wanted to follow the example of publishers Beacon Books,and Universal Distributing, which specialized in publishing cheap, lightweight books telling dramatic or erotic romances, with suggestive covers, for a male audience. Thus he created in 1957 the publishing house "Midwood Books", named after its neighborhood in Brooklyn. At the time, the publishing house address was 505 8th Avenue in Manhattan. His first batch was naturally, paperback collections of "There oughta be a law" comic strips, and an unnumbered book series in the same style as Beacon. With the release of the number '7' 'in 1958, began the emergence of authors and artists recognized later as appurtenant to the publishing house. Midwood #7 was written by Loren Beaucham (aka Robert Silverberg), and the cover was drawn by Rudy Nappi. Midwood #8 was written by Sheldon Lord, and the cover was by Paul Rader. Harry Shorten quickly began soliciting manuscripts from the agency Scott Meredith Literary Agency, run by Scott Meredith, who also provided manuscripts for the Nightstand imprint. He obtained his cover illustrations from the Art Balcourt Service, the same agency that provided covers for Beacon.
Although nobody at Midwood knew it at the time, several writers were providing books for both Midwood and Nightstand, but under different pen names. For example, Loren Beauchamp (Robert Silverberg) become Don Elliott a year later at Nightstand, Sheldon Lord (Lawrence Block) becomes Andrew Shaw. Some writers, like Alan Marshall, Clyde and Al James Allison, wrote under the same name for both publishers.
Only five people wrote most of the first 40 issues of Midwood. This group of five authors stabilized Midwood, until Shorten was able to have a stable of recurring writers, such as March Hastings, Dallas Mayo, Kimberly Kemp , Joan Ellis, Jason Sloane Hytes and Britain.
As a publisher, Harry Shorten did not have the required knowledge of literature or good books, unlike other New York publishers, as Bennet Cerf and Random House. But Shorten knew what would entice the average American reader. His books were bright, colorful, and eye-catching. Artists such as Nappi, Rader and Robert Maguire were significant to Shorten's success.
The covers sold the books: Midwood's novels were not great literature, but were generally very entertaining. Many pages contained sex scenes, described as pornographic, full of insinuations and veiled references. Although romances and melodrama s were of more interest to women, the target audience of Midwood and Beacon was men. This was apparent from their covers.
It is plain that novels whose titles had strong connotations of lesbians were obviously read by readers; however, the authors were frequently men using a female pen name, such as Barbara Brooks, Jill Emerson and Kimberly Kemp; publishers were men, and the target audience was also men.
See also
Sources
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