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Cabinet 2: Australian Pulps

Alan Hopgood, Alvin Purple. Sydney: Scripts, 1974. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9612.H665 A48 1974

Re-configured Alvin Purple from the original 1974 publication

In 2006, 80 Design students from the University of Otago were asked in an assignment to closely examine 10 selected titles from the Pulp Fiction Collection in Special Collections. Choosing one title, they had to write out the first three pages of the text, take note of the blurbs, the publisher devices (if any), the images, and any distinguishing features of the publication. Using this information, they had to design their own book jacket.

On display is just one result: a re-configured Alvin Purple from the original 1974 publication. Alan Hopgood is credited with the text, but like so many pulp writers, it is a pseudonym for Carl Ruhen, who, while writing for Horwitz, used other names such as Peter Brand and Wolf Dietrich.

Alan Hopgood, Alvin Purple. Sydney: Scripts, 1974. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9612.H665 A48 1974

[Anon], The Pyjama Girl and Other Bizarre Australian Crimes. London ; Sydney: Horwitz, 1962. Pulp Literature Special Collections HV6535.A8 P94