The 1950s through the 1970s saw an explosion in paperback publishing. It wasn’t the vanity house routine of nowadays but involved actual publishers who paid modest advances, possessed a distribution network and the hope of eking out a profit. Sticking It to the Man is a collection of essays and interviews that examine certain sectors of that pulp fiction industry, especially novels dealing with crime, the Vietnam War, African Americans, gays and militant politics. The title is a bit misleading: As some of the essayists concede, the era’s pulp writers often took the side of the Man and the novels of Chester Himes revealed complicated attitudes about black cops, their white superiors and the community they patrolled. Included in Sticking It to the Man is a provocative interview by Milwaukee writer Eric Beaumont with author Nathan Heard. The collection is a fascinating look at how society was represented by writers working below the radar of the literary establishment.
