A Glasgow Gang Observed - James Patrick

EYRE METHUEN

LONDON, UK

FIRST PRINTING 1973

(A PAPERBACK ISSUE WAS ALSO ISSUED SIMULTANEOUSLY)

FRONT COVER COURTESY OF THE DAILY RECORD

BACK COVER COURTESY OF ALLAN THOMPSON

During the course of his first year as a teacher at an approved school in Scotland, James Patrick became acquainted with 'Tim', a Glasgow boy of sixteen. Following a suggestion - half invitation, half challenge - to come and see for himself how the boys spent their weekend leaves, he agreed to do so. The only possible way for him to do this was to masquerade as a friend of Tim's from the approved school and join the 'Young Team', the gang of which Tim was the 'leader-aff'.

In the course of a dozen weekend excursions, spread over four months, James Patrick donned his disguise, met up with the gang and watched them at close quarters. This book offers more than a frighteningly authentic picture of the behaviour, speech patterns and attitudes of young teenagers alienated from conventional adult society. It brings to life many of the members of the gangs and their family background. We see them at a party, playing football and just talking. We meet 'the King', the leader of all the local gangs.

The result of the author's hazardous double game is a real contribution to the understanding of juvenile gang behaviour - relating it not only to the past history of Glasgow but also to comparable and contrasting types of behaviour in Britain and America. In concluding that the gangs in Glasgow provide an outlet for pathological behaviour, the author underlines the importance of a full and proper understanding of the gang sub-culture on the part of those institutions, such as the approved schools and the courts, which have to deal with them.

Down These Mean Streets - Piri Thomas

"A stunning autobiography of corruption and innocence"

BARRIE & JENKINS 

LONDON, UK

FIRST PRINTING 1970

JACKET DESIGN BY BARRY MARTIN

DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS is the document of one man's journey from childhood to maturity; it is at once moving and terrifying, shocking and tender, touching and stunning.

Piri Thomas, son of Puerto Rican parents - one dark, one white - was born in New York's Spanish Harlem and grew up in those "mean streets." From the time that he first ran away from home at the age of fourteen, the author records the sometimes poetic, sometimes brutal story of his life.

In Spanish Harlem Piri Thomas did not so much grow up as erupt into manhood, through street fights, gang rumbles, drugs, homosexuality, petty thievery, girls, hospitals, the merchant marine, illegitimate parenthood, and ultimately an attempted robbery of a New York nightclub, the shooting of a Policeman, and a long prison sentence.

Finally, in that world of isolated conflicts and constant threars from guards and fellow prisoners alike, the man emerges, through various influences and experiences, with a clearer understanding of himself and a knowledge of those streets through which he has moved to maturity.

But Piri Thomas's memoir is not merely his story - for shooting through these pages are figures that create a vigorous yet brooding world of family gaiety, sudden pain and sorrow, violent impulses and aching wonder: his brothers, sisters, and parents, his friends, the people of the streets, and those of the prion. 

The language is the most corrupt of the city and also that of the most innocent reaches of the human heart, and it reveals overwhelmingly a man's deep masculine integrity and his need to understand himself and why he does what he does.

Tough Town - Jack Karney

"SEX, SIN and CRIME In an EAST SIDE SLUM"

Brutal! Shocking! Piercingly honest! - BOSTON HERALD

PYRAMID BOOKS 31

SECOND PRINTING FEBRUARY 1952

FIRST PUBLISHED IN HARDBACK BY WILLIAM MORROW & CO 1946 AS "THE RAGGED EDGE"

the ragged underbelly of Manhattan...

This was Marshall Place, where brothels and dope were as common as pushcarts and peddlers, and the kids were only one step ahead of the Police.

A desperate world of poverty and frustration that led lovely, red-haired Trina to a terrible maturity; that turned slick, fast-talking Blackie into a big-shot gangster, that made Dave, the dreamer, vow to clean up "the whole stinking mess."

Here is a story that might have been taken out of today's headlines; the grim and gutsy truth about hopped-up juvenile gangs, back-room abortions, and pool-room politics. It is one story you won't be able to put down.

The Mugger - Ed McBain

BOARDMAN 254

LONDON, UK 1959

COVER ART BY McLOUGHLIN

THE MUGGER

The mugger waited in the shadows watching the girl -a pretty one this time. Alone. Her handbag looked heavy. The set-up was perfect. He moved towards her so softly, so quickly, she didn't have time to scream. His arm went around her throat and he dragged her into the alley.

"Don't make a sound," he said, pressing her against the brick wall. Then he crashed his fist into her face. He grabbed her handbag and ran- into the night where a team of determined police were methodically hunting him down.

With Sirens Screaming - Ernest Booth

"They paid the price of a premarital indiscretion"

PYRAMID BOOKS 121

NEW YORK, USA

PRINTED 1954

ABRIDGED

JAIL-BAIT

They were young.

They were alone in the night.

Lost in the fury of their passion, they committed an act that condemned them to a nightmare of shame and legal persecution.

WITH SIRENS SCREAMING 

is the shocking story of reckless teen-agers driven by a merciless penal code into a world of vicious crime.

I'll Fix You - Hal Ellson

A realistic novel of Juvenile Delinquency

PEDIGREE BOOKS 

UK

FIRST PRINTING 1958

From the Reviews of

Hal Ellson's Books

"Mr. Ellson, who has worked as a recreational therapist with juvenile delinquents is undoubtedly telling an authentic story...Morbidly fascinating and shameful piece of social history."

-New York Herald Tibune

"A hard, fast, tough, tight-fisted novel...For strong stomachs and those who like their reading terse and breathless."

-Virginia Kirkus Review

"The results of adult callousness towards children...are depicted with shocking impact...Duke is a powerful condemnation of a society that robs children of their youth."

-Justice

"It is a surprise to come across so excellent a book as DUKE...Such a book depends of course on one thing, namely truth-the authentic truth of real conditions, the psychological truth of individual reactions, the artistic truth of presentation and the moral truth of facing evil that exists right under our noses."

-Dr. Frederic Wertham, the noted psychiatrist in American Journal of Psychotherapy

Reefer Madness

 

REEFER MADNESS

TREVOR L. HUGHES

ZEPHYR PUBLICATIONS

1989-1997

Pretty cool 'dope' fanzine from the people at Hawkfrendz, it ran to 11 issues in total, 10 issues for Volume 1 and just the single issue for Volume 2. Features lots of vintage comic strips, cover art and other 'dope' related features, this is well worth picking up if you see it.