Westerns Part III

In the first part of this series of posts I gave some detailed statistics on the distribution of westerns for the three large early Canadian paperback publishers. In summary there were 126 titles from a total of 1071 published from 1942 to 1959 - 12%. But 104 of those were published in the eight years 1947 to 1954.

My grandfather (1892 - 1972) enjoyed westerns but I've never read one. The few times I've looked in the western section at the local Indigo/Chapters my eyes glazed over with all the Louis L'Amour and a couple of other authors. But two westerns have recently been published that I'm going to read. One from a Canadian publisher, House of Anansi Press, and one by Mary Doria Russell.

Here's one of six of Harlequin's 73 western titles that was reprinted. The first printing's cover was first seen on the 1952 Quinn Publishing digest edition - Handi-Book Western 137. The first edition is New York: Phoenix Press, 1949.

Harlequin 158 - March 1952

Harlequin 158 back

Harlequin 360 - May 1956

Harlequin 360 back