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Cabinet 9: Romance

Maysie Greig, Girl without Money. London ; Melbourne: Horwitz, 1960. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9610.G73 G57

Gilbert Anstruther, To Hell With Love. Sydney: Horwitz, [1963]. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9640.A578 T6

Robert Close, Love Me Sailor. London ; Sydney: Horwitz, 1962. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9610.C56 L68 1962

If there was a competition for most hilarious pulp cover, the winner would surely be To Hell with Love [1963], written by the Australian Gilbert Anstruther, who also wrote The Wench was Wicked. 

Anstruther must have enjoyed penning sentences such as ‘The fiery South American beauty clad only in a wrist watch, stared calmly at John’s wife as she walked in to interrupt their cosy scene’ in this humorous romance.

Maysie Greig (1901-1971), a prolific female romance novelist, published up to six books a year, one of which was Girl without Money (1960). Happy endings abound in her stories, because she believed ‘that happiness is the greatest virtue in the world and misery the greatest sin’.

The 1945 edition of Love Me Sailor got Robert Close (1903-1995) three months imprisonment (he served only 10 days), a fine of £150, and his novel banned as obscene. When a femme fatale arrives on board, there then begins a gradual disintegration of shipboard authority and morale. Lives are lost; the romance depicted shallow. This unabridged version was issued by Horwitz in 1962.

Maysie Greig, Girl without Money. London ; Melbourne: Horwitz, 1960. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9610.G73 G57

Gilbert Anstruther, To Hell With Love. Sydney: Horwitz, [1963]. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9640.A578 T6

Robert Close, Love Me Sailor. London ; Sydney: Horwitz, 1962. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9610.C56 L68 1962