What’s a Gold Medal Book?

The kids call them pulps. Some call them sleaze. I call them textbooks. Fawcett Publications started printing these paperbacks in 1950 just like GM cranked out cars. Clank, clank, clank. They had a gimmick, you got a helluva story wrapped in a work of art. What’s better than that? They’ve been long gone for decades, and your friend, C.D. Baxter, is looking to raise these books up from the literary ash bin in order to appreciate the golden age of paperback publishing.

What’s to Learn?

You ever been down and out? Every had lust so you’d kill just for a sniff? How about dreaming of hitting the big time? Or maybe you just want to keep your head above the steady flow of 21st century bullshit that looks to drown out your desire for grit, grime, and grease from mid-century America. If any those apply, then this content is for you.

It’s time to reconsider lessons from criminals, cowboys, degenerates, floozies, fighters, thugs, gangsters, killers, and creeps. A Gold Medal library is a yellowed vault chocked full of wisdom. Let your pal C.D. Baxter crack it open for ya.

What Am I Covering?

I’ve got a tall order. You’ll encounter some reviews of books and their cover art. We’ll also be looking at some history, but not so much about the Fawcett Publishing. That’s a little too boring for me. Why not try to analyze some these books in their historical context? You never know, you might just learn something.

Who Is C.D. Baxter?

Who’s asking? Don’t worry about who I am. Let’s leave it at this, I know a thing or two about the heyday of the United States in the 20th century, and damned little about the present. A typewriter sits on my desk next to an overflowing ashtray. Get the picture? Put a hashtag on that.

What Am I Selling?

Nothing. Not a god damn thing. This is free content, so if you don’t like it, beat it! My Gold Medals are my babies and I’m not looking to sell them either.