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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, writer and screenwriter comics, working in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn (New York). He made his fortune with Al Fagaly partner by creating a comic strip called '' There oughta be a law. '' Shorten Fagaly was the screenwriter and cartoonist. Looking for an investment in the financial results of his comics, Shorten decided to become editor paperbacks. He wanted to inspire Beacon Books of the publishing house '' Universal Distributing '', specialized in publishing books cheap, easy to carry and telling dramatic or erotic romances, with suggestive artistic and blankets for a male audience. Thus he created in 1957 the publishing house '' Midwood Books '' named after its neighborhood Brooklyn. At the time, the publishing house address was 505 8th Avenue in Manhattan. His first batch was naturally editions of paperback books '' There oughta be a law '' and an unnumbered book series of the same style as Beacon. With the release of the number '7' 'in 1958, began the emergence of authors and artists recognized later as apparentenant to the publishing house. '' Midwood 7 '' was written by Loren Beaucham (aka Robert Silverberg) and coverage was made by Rudy Nappi. '' Midwood 8 '' was written by Sheldon Lord and converture was Paul Rader. Shorten Harry quickly took his manuscripts of the agency '' Scott Meredith Literary Agency '' in Scott Meredith, who also provided the manuscripts' nightstands. '' He had his cover illustrations via the '' Art Balcourt Service '', the same agency that provided blankets for Beacon. Although nobody at Midwood knew it at the time, several writers were providing books for 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 have written most of the first 40 issues of Midwood. This group of five authors have stabilized Midwood until Shorten be able to have stable and 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. It was somehow unlike other New York publishers, as Bennet Cerf Random House. But Shorten knew what would the average American reader. His books were bright, colorful, eye-l'oeil and above all catchy. That's why artists like Nappi, Rader and Robert Maguire were significant to the success of Shorten. The blankets were selling 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 the areas of women, the target audience of Midwood and Beacon were men. This was due to their covers. It is emphasized that novels whose titles connotation lesbians were obviously read by readers; while the authors were frequently men using a female pen name, such as Barbara Brooks, Jill Emerson and Kimberly Kemp; publishers were men and the public also targets men. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Midwood Books」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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