Above: Full view of cover painting

Above: The image as it appeared as cover of Illicit Pleasure

Above: Framed and silk lined behind glass in antique wide profile handsome frame

A lurid and genre defining erotic paperback book cover for the 1950 Quarter Books Publishing Company title “Illicit Pleasure” written by Peggy Gaddis. The artwork is unsigned with verso information by our colleague Fred Taraba with affirmation that this work was done by Rudy Nappi. This is an inspired subversive image with our cover girl Linda Blaine showing her “body that could make even the most confirmed woman-hater sit up and beg…” Though the plot of the novel centers around office romances, here our golddigging heroine is imagined enticing an impressionable military recruit to take notice of her dangerous curves down at the pier.

Above: Detail

Above: View before framing

Above: Detail

Above: Verso view before framing

Above: Attribution by Fred Taraba on verso naming artist Rudy Nappi

Peggy Gaddis was a pseudonym used by Peggy Dern, Gaddis produced an amazing number of books under her name and pseudonyms over a thirty year career. Along with scandalous pulp fiction romance potboilers such as “Illicit Pleasure” Gaddis’s name became nearly synonymous with the subgenre of naughty nurse titles.

Above: Title Page of Illicit Pleasure

Above: Back Cover

This original paperback cover painting is beautifully framed and silk matted behind glass. A copy of the printed book is included in the sale.

Above: Frame profile corner view