 "Walk
Hard--Talk Loud"
by Len Zinberg
Lion Books, 1950
original publication 1940
The back cover reads:
"He took a whipping left to the body, and backed away. And the voice, cruel
and harsh, came to him, 'That's it! In the guts! Niggers can't take it
in the belly.'
Boxing racketeers, loose-hipped blondes, chiselers--these
were all part of Andy Whitman's life--and so were jim-crow hotels, cops,
tenements, and hatred. For Andy Whitman was a Negro trying to make a living
in the toughest racket in the world, the prize ring. Tried to make a living--until
the crooks and the vultures moved in, and then Andy Whitman started to
run away. But he couldn't, not when a filthy white world hemmed him in
and tore him to shreds and spilled his red, red blood on the canvas of
his life. Then it was too late to run..."
Walk Hard-Talk
Loud is featured this week for a few reasons. First off, it's pulp
fiction where the main character is black--a rare thing in the golden age
of tawdry paperbacks. Andy Whitman is a noble character but a bit obsessed
on "breaking the chains that bind him." Through boxing he is able to break
through a few social and racial barriers, but still he sees the cruel,
racist world close around him. As pulp fiction goes, this is actually a
well written and intriguing book. Now, for the part that is a bit troubling.
One, going solely on the name of the author, it seems pretty obvious that
this book was written by a white man trying to imagine how difficult a
black man's life would be. It's a nice attempt, but the authenticity just
isn't there. This seems to be a typical problem when pulp writers try to
write outside their experience. When writers try to fake their way through
something, it shows. Second, it's seems the boxer on the cover was
originally white, but painted brown/black to match the subject of the story.
I wouldn't be surprised if this cover was also used for some other boxing
pulp paperback.
One of the most interesting
things about collecting and reading tawdry paperbacks are the mixed messages
they give. They were written for a quick buck and sometimes that shows,
but other times some really profound things are said between the lines.
This books, for example, tries to paint the fight for race equality as
honorable, yet this message is undercut by the lack of a true black presence
within the whole creative/marketing process.
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