Twenty-five of the 28 were new editions of books first published by Export in their first series. The first five were reprints of American books while the remaining 20 were either new editions of Export paperback originals or, in one case, a reprint of a Canadian publisher's book.
So this means that Export had exported five American copyrighted books into the US. It's obvious from looking at the books that this was in contravention of Export's contracts with the American publishers for reprint rights in Canada. For each of the books Export crudely disguised the copyright that had been printed on the Canadian series editions. In the first four books the copyright was blacked out although it can just barely be read. In the fifth book the copyright notice was deleted. Here are the five books with information for the US edition and then the original Canadian edition. If different the first edition cover is also shown.
NSL 1A (June 1949) and 20 (January 1949)
NSL 2A (June 1949)
NSL 13 S (November 1948)
NSL 3A (title change) (June 1949)
NSL 13 (October 1948)
NSL 4A (June 1949)
NSL 32 (March 1949)
NSL 5A (title change) (June 1949)
NSL 52 (on spine, 5A error on cover) (June 1949)
I wonder which edition of Each Night a Black Desire came first. Given NSL's overall clumsiness, it's hard to imagine someone actually noticing and correcting the misspelt author's name.
ReplyDeleteI've always been curious about James Nablo. So very little has been written about the man - and it seems that he disappeared from view after having written his war novel.
Must add that the two NSL covers for The Long November pale beside the 1952 Signet... which is a thing of gritty beauty.
Good question. All the US editions are published after or in the same month as the Canadian. In Bentz's case 32 is March 1949 and 4A is June 1949. So Export did correct an error. They did this surprisingly often with these later editions.
ReplyDeleteI'll update post with publishing info.
Mr. Nablo deserves a post. Couldn't ask for two different approaches to paperback publishing - NAL and Export. Covers one example.
You've inspired me to go on the hunt information about Mr Nablo - and to order a copy of his novel, which seems to have disappeared during one of my many moves. Interesting to note that The Long November seemed to have had some success: a couple of printings of the Dutton hardcover, followed by NSL and Signet/NAL paperbacks, after which... nothing (or so it appears).
ReplyDeleteThe two Dutton printings have quite different covers.
ReplyDeleteThere was another printing in 1957 by an odd outfit called Double Flame Books. There is an intriguing possible connection of some sort to Export that I'm going to look into.