Gold star for Gold Medal

Very interesting argument for the cultural significance of Gold Medal Books -- those original paperbacks that came out in the early '50s. They were hardly the first lurid cheapies nor were they the first big-selling paperbacks. But it may "not be an overstatement to assert that Gold Medal had a greater impact on the content and form of American fiction-writing than any other postwar book publisher. ... get a gander at some of the writers Gold Medal put into print: Elmore Leonard, Peter Rabe, Kurt Vonnegut, Day Keene, Jim Thompson, William Goldman, John D. MacDonald, Louis L'Amour, David Goodis, Richard Matheson, Charles Williams, and John Faulkner (William's brother)."