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Cabinet 5: Holledge & Others

James Holledge, Torture of the Swastika. 1st ed. London ; Sydney: Horwitz, 1963. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9611.H578 T67

____, Torture of the Swastika. 2nd ed. London ; Sydney: Horwitz, 1965. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9611.H578 T67 1965

____, Fall of the Roman Empire. 1st Horwitz ed. Sydney: Horwitz, [1964]. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9611.H578 F34

James Holledge was adept at consolidating real-life experiences and historical facts (recent and past) into scintillating reads. And Australians (and New Zealanders, thanks to distributors Gordon and Gotch) soaked up books on Nazi war crimes, the brutality of the Japanese during World War II, sex crimes, drug lords, murders, and scandals. The demand for such books (Holledge wrote 45 non-fiction books for Horwitz) certainly reflected aspects of Australasian culture, those main-stream and extreme.

Holledge’s Fall of the Roman Empire is certainly not Gibbon, and his Torture of the Swastika was popular enough to get a second printing. The first edition (priced 4 shillings) art work is by the Australian artist Col Cameron. It is said to be his finest Horwitz cover.

James Holledge, Torture of the Swastika. 1st ed. London ; Sydney: Horwitz, 1963. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9611.H578 T67

____, Torture of the Swastika. 2nd ed. London ; Sydney: Horwitz, 1965. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9611.H578 T67 1965

____, Fall of the Roman Empire. 1st Horwitz ed. Sydney: Horwitz, [1964]. Pulp Literature Special Collections PR9611.H578 F34