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Willeford, Charles (author)
Walter Popp (artist)
Honey Gal
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N.p. N.p. 1958. Original artwork by Walter Popp for the 1958 paperback original, "Honey Gal" by Charles Willeford.
A similar painting, or perhaps an early version of this one, was submitted by Popp for the 1953 paperback original, "The Lusty Land." In the earlier painting, the woman being pursued around the hay bale is a caucasian. In this one, she is an African-American. The difference is significant: in "Honey Gal," Willeford chose to make his female protagonist a modern "victim" in a surreal, existential version of the segregated American South. The typically evasive cover blurb reads, "He was white, she was beautiful--and bad / A starkly naked novel of sin and segregation."
Willeford's original title for the book was "Nigger Lover," rejected out hand by the publisher. His second submitted title, "The Black Mass of Brother Springer," was restored to the book in the Black Lizard edition published over 30 years later. Under any title, a novel considered to be one of his finest and most subversive efforts.
All original artwork associated with vintage paperbacks is scarce, and this is only one of two we have ever seen for a Charles Willeford novel.
Included with the painting is a Fine copy of the first edition of Honey Gal, and a Very Good plus first edition copy of The Lusty Land.
24 x 14.5 inches, executed in oil on board-mounted canvas, with evidence of the artist's original paint mixing at the right and left margins. Colors extremely bright and vibrant, Near Fine overall. [Book #125828]
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