Hugh Garner and Export

Hugh Garner was a Canadian author who had three paperback originals published in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The link provides an entertaining short history of his relationship with publishers and mentions the novels - Cabbagetown and Present Reckoning from Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. and Waste No Tears from Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd.

Here are a couple of letters about Export from the Queen's University Garner archives. They speak for themselves but I can't help but note that Garner expected that he might not recognize his own book on the newsstand and wanted to know the title and name under which it was published. Hard to imagine an author today being comfortable with anything like that.

There were two issues of Waste No Tears - one for the Canadian market and one for the American. The only difference between the books is the spine where the Canadian has the number 116 and distribution code MDS and the American has 27A and KD. The book is available through book dealers but be prepared to spend some money. A nice copy is selling for $500 from a Toronto dealer. The Canadian issue is much rarer than the American.

News Stand Library 27A

News Stand Library 27A back