In the United States the first paperbacks were called Dime Novels and were published in the 1800's. Then in the mid 1930's Penguin published paperbacks with their distinctive orange/blue/green, white and black covers containing the title and no pictures. In 1939 Penguin opened an office in the U.S. run by Ian Ballantine. In 1945 He and Bennett Cerf founded Bantam Books. Then in 1950 Ian Ballantine founded Ballantine Books. Pocket Books published the first mass market paperback in 1938. What was most notable about their books were the attractive, colorful, eye-catching, and sometimes lurid covers which were possible due to the improvements in color printing technology. The paperback industry was still fighting an image problem as people still connected them to the familiar pulp magazines or digests of that time period. A few number of these early books even had dust jackets to make them more presentable to the public.

World War II brought a boon to the paperback industry. G.I's in war time preferred them over hardcover books. They were cheap, easy to carry, and could be easily discarded. They preferred action packed novels and in the 1940's the hardboiled detective genre became the most popular. Covers became more lurid, sexy, racy and suggestive.

In 1949 Fawcett, under the Gold Medal imprint, began to publish PBO's or Paperback Originals. Other publishers - Dell, Avon, Graphic, Ace and Harlequin - also began to publish their own Paperback Originals,  In the 1950's genres - crime, science fiction, teen rebellion, juvenile delinquency, drugs, movie tie ins, titillating sex, and soft porn - also began to be published.