This spring and summer, the University of Houston Libraries invites you to explore the colorful, fascinating, and sometimes overlooked world of paperback books in a new exhibition at M.D. Anderson Library. Penguins, Pulps, and Pretty Ladies: A History of Paperbacks will be on view on the 1st floor of the library from April 26th through the end of the fall semester.
Beginning with the dime novels of the nineteenth century and continuing through the pulp fiction of the nineteen-fifties and on into the present, paperback books have provided a sanctuary for material that was purely entertaining or outside the mainstream of society. Westerns, romances, detective stories, science fiction, and queer fiction have all found a home within the covers of paperbacks. In opposition to this trend, highbrow publishers such as Penguin and Vintage have used the paperback format to make quality literature available to the masses.
Penguins, Pulps, and Pretty Ladies was curated by Julie Grob, Digital Projects and Instruction Librarian for Special Collections, with University of Houston student Carolina Faustch. For more information, please contact Julie Grob at by e-mail at jgrob@uh.edu or by phone at 713-743-9744.