David Goodis had a good reputation as a paperback writer from
all I heard. As for how Fawcett felt about congressional
hearings, of course they were worried. When one book was
judged offensive the whole shipment was sent back. I was told
by Dick Carroll, then editor, that if I wrote about
homosexuality I was not to appear like an advocate. There
were not to be happy endings. Either the gay woman became
straight or she was judged abnormal and unhappy. That was in
the very early 50's. Later that was relaxed. Vin Packer/Ann
Aldrich
Jay Gertzman <
jgertzma@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Dear Ms Meeker: While at Gold Medal, did you hear
anything positive or
> negative about the crime novelist David Goodis? He
did _Street of No
> Return_, _Cassidy's Girl_, _Down There_, _Fire in
the Flesh_, _Street of
> the Lost_. His _Cassidy's Girl_ (1951)sold over 1
million copies. He may
> have been mentioned as a successful "paperback
original" writer. And as
> an eccentric.
>
> Do you remember any specific instructions Gold Medal
writers may have
> received as a result of the 1951 Gathings
Congressional Committee
> investigation into the influence of paperbacks or
young people, or on
> the effect of "lurid" paperbacks on the "spread" of
pornography or even
> communism? The committee's hunt for scapegoats and
easy explanations of
> juvenile delinquency made headlines, as did the
Kefauver Committee
> hearings a few years later. I wonder if the Gold
Medal executives were
> concerned, or merely happy for the publicity,
regarding these
> committees.
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