It's a guess, but I imagine the first author is today one of the two or three least read recognizable SF authors. The House That Stood Still by Canadian born A. E. van Vogt (1912 - 2000) was published in 1950 (New York: Greenberg). The Harlequin edition has one of their most misleading covers, but at least Harlequin kept the title unlike Galaxy Publishing Corporation with their The Mating Cry in 1960. It has even been seen in a pulp - Detective Book Magazine of all places.
Harlequin 177 - June 1952
Harlequin 177 back
Beacon 298 (Galaxy Novel 44)
Harlequin 205 - January 1953
Harlequin 205 back
Harlequin 173 - June 1952
Harlequin 173 back
Though I've not read The House that Stood Still, I'm willing to bet that a good number of readers were disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded that Anna was one of the two titles that were considered, but rejected, for the Harlequin Vintage Collection.
Going by editor Marsha Zinberg's description, I would have bought the novel... but then it would have been bowdlerized.
I had forgotten about "Anna" being considered for the Vintage Collection.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read "The House that Stood Still" either - I wonder what scene in the book is the inspiration for the covers on these editions?
I have a photocopy of the hardbound version of Anna Luhanna published in the UK in 1946. The story appears to be set in the Crane Lake, Minnesota region, part of which is now in Voyageur National Park and the Boundary Waters/Quetico wilderness of the Minnesota/Ontario Border Lakes canoe area. The writer may have been a summer employee at Nelson's Resort which is still operating on Crane Lake. The Indian and Metis components would have been based on Ojibways of Lac La Croix Band in Ontario and Bois Forte Band in Minnesota.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Very intersting background for an obscure novel.
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