An undistinguished collection. No originals, no Canadian authors and 10 books from the queen of soft core mid-century romance - Phoenix Press of New York. I don't know anything about the owners or employees of Derby.
Lush Lady by Gail Jordan (pseudonym for Peggy Gaddis [1895 - 1966]) was first published by Phoenix Press in 1949. Gaddis has too many other pseudonyms to list.
Highway Jane by Gordon Semple (pseudonym for William Arthur Neubauer [1916 - 1982]) was first published by Phoenix Press in 1949 as Passion's Highway. The author also wrote as William Arthur, Ralph Carter and Norman Bligh.
Borrowed Husband by Florenz Branch (pseudonym for Florence Stonebraker [1896 - 1977]) was first published by Phoenix Press in 1949 as Borrowed Love. The author also wrote as Thomas Stone.
Derby 10
Derby 10 back
Derby 11
Derby 11 back
Derby 12
Derby 12 back
Thanks for the look at Derby and their building as Sam's. What a great little story.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure who the owner might have been, but in looking in to the comic books from back then I've come across the name of the president of Derby (aka Modern Distributors Ltd.) at that address, one M. J. Geller. If that helps you any.
jim from mississauga
Glad you enjoyed the series. Some of these small Toronto bases publishers either didn't provide an address or just a PO Box. So it was a bonus to be able to track Derby to the old Sam store. Thanks for the information - this is very interesting. I'll see if I can dig further and can add a part V to the series.
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