leatherette

Many attempts have been made to supply a material to take the place of leather on cheap books, but hitherto nothing has been quite successful. … Such a material has apparently appeared in the form of "Leatherette," which is a kind of felted paper, very tough, the same colour throughout, and which may be grained to imitate leather; indeed, the imitation is so close, both in appearance and in feel, that only a practised eye can perceive that it is not leather.

The NYU tarts and the club slime, the art holes and the once-a-week bridge-and-tunnel leatherettes, the spikes and the usual dregs and walking garbage, Eel was giving them all the hiss.