Skip to main content
UNC Libraries

Teaching with Mass-Market Paperbacks

Frankenstein.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. New York: Lion, 1953

Introduction

This Omeka exhibit highlights selected works from UNC-Chapel Hill’s mass-market paperbacks collection, and is intended to help instructors learn how to incorporate mass-market paperbacks into their classroom. Containing roughly 850 volumes, the mass-market paperbacks collection is part of Wilson Special Collections Library's Rare Book Collection and consists of popular print novels, serials, and short story collections published between the 1930s and the 1990s. This collection contains works from a variety of genres, including everything from mass market versions of the works of George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway to exploitation novels and murder mysteries.  

This digital resource includes images of some of the works in our collection, collections of a few of the most popular genres used for teaching with this collection, and teaching guides for instructors looking to incorporate this collection (and others like it) into the classroom. It also includes information on the history of mass-market paperbacks and their publishers, as well as links to other helpful resources related to mass-market paperbacks.

All items courtesy of the Mass-Market Paperback Collection, Rare Book Collection, The Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.



Created by Ashley Werlinich, Research and Instructional Services. Reviewed by Emily Kader. Last updated April 27, 2021.