• Becattini, Alberto.
  Glamour International 25
  (1998)
  A 108 page 12" x 12" softbound magazine-book devoted to "Crimes 'n' Gals in the USA", featuring a pictorial history of women in crime fiction. Sections devoted to newspaper comic strips, comic books, pulp magazines and paperbacks. The paperbacks section contains reproductions of around 170 American paperbacks covers, and features work by Robert McGinnis, Robert Maguire, Barye Phillips, Rudolph Belarski, Ronnie Lesser and Mitchell Hooks.
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• Carr, Nick,
  The Other Detective Pulp Heroes
  Chicago: Tattered Pages,1992
  Paperback
  Short descriptions of forty detectives are featured, with plenty of pulp illustrations. Lists of character appearances are also an important part of the book. An indispensible reference book for many of the little-known detectives, as well as some of the better known.
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• Cook, Michael L.,
  Monthly Murders: A Checklist and Chronological Listing of Fiction in the Digest-Size Mystery Magazines in the United States and England
  Greenwood Press, 1982.
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• Cook, Michael L. and Stephen T. Miller,
  Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Fiction: A Checklist of Fiction in U.S. Pulp Magazines, 1915-1974
  Garland Publications, 1988. 2 vols.
  One impressive resource. Covers over 4000 US, British, and Canadian magazines--professional and amateur, fiction and non-fiction, including indexing information, title(s), number of issues, publisher and editor, price, size, and current publication status. Useful in any library supporting serious study of pulp fiction..
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• Cook, Michael L.,
  Mystery, Detective and Espionage Magazines
  Greenwood Press, 1983.
  ..
• Flanagan, Graeme
  The Australian Vintage Paperback Guide
  New York: Gryphon Books, 1991.
  Written by our pal Graeme, and packed with 50 pages of rare cover reproductions and some great info about the authors, etc, but basically a listing of paperbacks printed in Australia from about the 50's to late 60's. As always with a Gryphon book, don't expect top of the line production values, but do expect enough trivia to make a collector geek's head spin like 78.  Gryphon boasts it's "the ONLY book on the topic."
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• Goulart, Ron.
  The Dime Detectives: A Comprehensive History of the Detective Fiction Pulps
  New York: The Mysterious Press, 1988.
  No false advertising here. This is the single best reference volume on the pulps available, with more info on more dicks than you can shake a roscoe at....
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• Gruber, Frank
  The Pulp Jungle.
  Sherbourne Press, 1967.
  A fond collection of reminisces of Gruber's years as a pulp writer. Gruber, one of the most prolific crime fiction authors, wrote more than 250 stories for over 40 pulp magazines, as well as tons of novels, screenplays and television scripts.
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• Haining, Peter,
  The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines...Buy this book
  Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2001.
  A richly-illustrated, highly personalized account of the pulps. Not a scholarly essay, not by a long shot, but a passionate labour of love, from a fan, and for fans. Haining's scattershot approach, though, hits the mark far more often than he misses, and the numerous cover shots, many from Haining's own collection, are to die for. Recommended.
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• Lovisi, Gary,
  The Dames, Dolls and Delinquents: A Collector's Guide to Sexy Pulp Fiction...Buy this book.
  

  Iola, Wisconsin, Krause Publications, 2009
  World-renowned paperback junkie and expert Gary Lovis takes us on atour of pulp fiction babitude with an astounding array of close to 700 full-color covers. But it's also a valuable collectors' guide, featuring plenty of info to help with pricing and identification, including title, author, cover artist, publisher, date. Helpfully divided into such categories as "Sultry Streetwalkers" and "Deadly Femme Fatales," bad girls never looked so good.
  
  

• Nolan, William F.
  The Black Mask Boys...Buy this book
  New York: The Mysterious Press, 1985.
  Excellent anthology of stories by the Black Mask's best writers (Hammett, Chandler, Cain, Nebel, Daly, etc.) plus short critical essays on each author and bibliography. Extra bonus points for comprehensive list of other detective pulps.
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• Robinson, Frank and Lawrence G. Davidson.
  Pulp Culture
  New York: Collector's Press/St. Martin's Press, 1998.
  Filled with tons of great reproductions of covers from the pulp era. Most are NOT hard-boiled or detective-related but who cares with a book that's this much fun? This book is a blast and a half. Now if only it weren't so pricey...
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• Server, Lee
  Danger Is My Business....Buy this book
  San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1993
  Its subtitle reads "An Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines: 1896-1953," and that's about the best way to describe this fascinating, wide-ranging look at he pulps. With illustrations to die for, this is one of the very, very best books on the subject. Recommended.
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• Server, Lee
  Encyclopedia of Pulp Fiction Heroes....Buy this book
  Checkmark Books, 2002
  More than 200 entries on pulp fiction writers over the last 100 years, from the weird (Jackie Collins?) to the expected suspects. Lots of crime guys: Chandler, Hammett, James M. Cain, Paul Cain, Bruno Fisher, Ross Macdonald, Chester Himes, Charles Willeford, Frank Kane, Henry Kane, Don Pendleton, Jim Thompson, Ernest Tidyman, and many more, including H.P. Lovecraft, Louis L'Amour, Ian Fleming, Mario Puzo, Jacqueline Susann, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, John Faulkner and Achmed Abdullah. Tons of photos, too.
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• Silke, Jim, and R.A. Maguire,
  Dames, Dolls, And Gun Molls ....Buy this book
  Dark Horse, 2009.
  A long overdue tribute by art historian Jim Silke to legendary pulp artist Robert A. Maguire who created gorgeous cover images for more than a thousand books pulp mags, and worked for virtually every mainstream publisher in the U.S. He evidently never met a dame who didn't want to strip down for him and pose with a gun.
  
  
• Strange, Carolyn, and Tina Loo,
  True Crime True North: The Golden Age of Canadian Pulp Magazines ..Buy this book
  Vancouver, B.C.: Raincoast Books, 2004.
  A wry, affectionate look at the glory days of Canadian pulp magazines -- that brief but heady period when war-time restrictions opened the doors for enterprising Canadian publishers to strut their stuff, gleefully delivering cheap, fast thrills in the guise of "true facts from official files." Sure, plenty of the facts were wrong -- or reworked to make for a better story, but this was true Canadian pulp in all its cheeky glory, simultaneously claiming a sort of moral high ground and playing to the lowest common denominator. Generously embued with sample covers, advertisements and inside illustrations, and intelligently and compellingly written, it's a fascinating look at an almost-forgotten period in Canadian and pulp history.
  
  
• Traylor, James, ed.
  Dime Detective' Index
  Pulp Collectors Press, 1986.
  This book supposedly contains lists by table of contents, by author, by character and even biographies for some authors, but I haven't tracked down a copy yet....

Thanks to Randal Brandt and Monte Herridge for their contributions to this page.