Tuesday 28 June 2011

Harlequin-Pan Editions Part I

In 1947, two years before Harlequin Books began publishing, Pan Books of London started its paperback series. Coincidentally Pan published the same number of books as Harlequin in its first year, 25. In 1953 Harlequin started publishing books in association with Pan. There were 12 (but see below) by the time the series ended in 1957. With one exception Pan also published an edition. The second and third were The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Son of the Gods by Rex Beach. The Lost World has two variants, one with the phrase "A Harlequin Book" on the back cover and one with "A Harlequin-Pan Book". Son of the Gods also has both variants.

The Lost World Pan edition is 100. There isn't a Son of the Gods Pan edition. Son of the Gods is also unique in that the phrase "A Harlequin-Pan Book" is not on the front cover and no notice of the arrangement with Pan on the copyright page as there is with the other 11 books. I suspect that the variant of Son of the Gods with the Harlequin-Pan notice on the back cover is an error. The Lost World is 238, Son of the Gods 241. Covers with the preprinted phrase used for The Lost World may have been inadvertently used for Son of the Gods before the error was caught. At any rate here are the books.

Harlequin 238 - July 1953

Harlequin 238 back

Harlequin 238 back variant

Harlequin 241 - August 1953

Harlequin 241 back

Harlequin 241 back variant
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2 comments:

  1. TikitSunday 6 November 2011 at 08:16:00 GMT-4

    Thanks for the plug for my website for PAN Books at www.tikit.net. I was fascinated to see you have a 12th Harlequin title with a PAN connection albeit maybe an incorrect one. Now the challenge is to find 'Son of the Gods' Harlequin 241 from 1953 with PAN on the back. I've been down the list of sellers on Abebooks but drawn a blank so far but half the fun is the challenge to find a particular edition. Keep up the good work, Tim K

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  2. bowdlerSunday 6 November 2011 at 12:05:00 GMT-4

    You're welcome.

    Some of the Harlequin variants such as the "Pan" Son of the Gods may be very uncommon. If it is an error it obviously wasn't caught before at least one copy was distributed. How many others we'll never know.

    Good luck with the search. If you do find one please let me know.

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