Leisure Books

In all my years of collecting horror paperbacks, I have always had a soft spot for Leisure Books. One of the most popular articles on my personal website is an article called 1980s Pulp Horror: The Lurid Days of Leisure. My first recollection of reading a title published by Leisure was during an extended visit to my grandmother’s house as a teenager. I was bored and she knew it. She also knew I loved to read. One day she came back to the house with a paper bag full of paperbacks. The first one I chose to read was Late At Night by William Schoell. I loved it. And so it began, my ongoing hunt for Leisure Books.

I once tried to dig a little deeper into the history of the publishing label.

Some of the earliest books I have seen with the Leisure Books name were published in the mid-1970s.

They had a men’s action series called The Sharpshooter written by Bruno Rossi. I discovered The Sharpshooter series at Canton Trade Days, a massive flea-market here in Texas. An old cowboy had huge tables full of paperbacks. They were all westerns and action novels; unfortunately, they all looked like they had been carried in said cowboy’s saddle bag through a rainstorm. The men’s adventure novels published by Leisure back then had advertisements in the end pages for other books. These were of a slightly different flavor — “true confession” erotica.  I tend to wonder if Leisure began as a porn publisher and then branched into more mainstream fiction. It’s just speculation of course. I’d love to talk to someone who worked for the company back in the 1970s and hear the story.  The earliest Leisure horror novels I’ve come across so far are Golem by Barbara Anson (1978) and Black Fire by James Tarabilda (1980).  At the time, Leisure was an imprint of Nordon Publications. Sometime between 1981 and 1982, Leisure became an imprint of the Dorchester. About that time the Leisure cover art took a distinct turn toward the seriously awesome.

As I became more of a serious collector, I started to buy every Leisure horror novel I came across, including books with the BMI imprint. This quickly became unmanageable, not because of the Leisure titles alone, but because I bought every horror title I came across published in the 1980s and ’90s. This resulted in bookcases in every room of the house (not a bad thing, unless you were my wife or kids), but every bookcase was overflowing. Some of you may be grieved to know I sold off roughly 30 to 35 large boxes of paperbacks over a period of 5 years. I had to specialize. I began to focus on two things — only my favorite authors, and only books I actually wanted to read. So, my scans represent what I have left. My #horrorinthewild series on Twitter helps with the urge to buy everything. This way I still have a record of them, which proves useful in compiling more definitive documentation on what was published by whom.

Years ago online, someone posted a list of Leisure horror titles. Based on what I’ve seen in the wild, I knew that list was not complete, but it was a good start. The source website, Gotham Guardian, has since disappeared. Fortunately, I saved the list, and updated it as I came across books that were not listed. That list is posted in the expandable section below. Note that many of these titles were later published under the BMI imprint, but those with the Leisure logo are the true first editions. If readers have updates to share, please let me know in the comments, and I will update when time allows.

Click the link below to expand the list of titles, organized by author.

These cover scans are from the library of Christopher Fulbright. Please note that Realms of Night has an eBay page with monthly horror auctions. Follow our page and save us as a favorite seller for updates.

Photos of Leisure titles spotted in the wild are posted below the scan gallery.

Scans of Leisure Titles

Photos of Leisure Titles Spotted in the Wild