Beaver Publications Part VII

In my last post on early Canadian mass market publisher Beaver Publications I discussed the armed forces editions of Beaver's three books. Each book also had an illustrated cover version which are very uncommon. But I have just recently found one of them: Rendezvous in Vienna was published with two different illustrated covers.

In these earliest mass market paperback days in Canada distribution had to be spotty. Especially for a Hamilton based publisher. There are more armed services editions to be found than the illustrated versions which were presumably sold in bookstores or, perhaps, on newsstands.

The editions are identical except for the covers. I don't know anything about the artist "Globe" but his name can be found on the odd Canadian pulp from the early 1940s.

 

May 1941 

 

May 1941 back

 

May 1941

 

May 1941 back

Gisele Lepin Returns

Thanks to Vehicule Press Gisele Lepin, like a breath of cool clean air, returns. Originally published by Export Publishing Enterprises in 1949 the Vehicule Press edition of Sugar-puss on Dorchester Street has a lovely adaptation (by J. W. Stewart) of the original artwork by D. Rickard (note initials on the window). Actually its the art on the Canadian edition. There was a further edition for the American market with artwork by Sid Dyke. And yet a third version on the DJ that is found on the American edition. Will Straw, who introduces the Vehicule edition, talks about buying the American edition in the mid 1980s.

 

Vehicule Press - 2013

 

Vehicule Press back

 

News Stand Library 84 - November 1949

 

News Stand Library 20A - February 1950

 

News Stand Library 20A DJ

Beaver Publications Part VI

I've done a few posts on the first mass market paperback publisher in Canada - Beaver Publications of Hamilton, Ontario who published three books in 1941. Recently I came across something that I hadn't known about Beaver. I did know that they issued two versions of each of the books - illustrated and unillustrated covers. I speculated that the unillustrated were published for the armed forces. 

Below is the proof of that - a box with the three books designed to be a gift for a member of the armed forces. It includes a gift card. There is also a brown box version. One of the books in the box is Cherchez la Femme?

 

Export Publishing Enterprises Artists Part VII

Very few of the covers of early Canadian paperback publisher Export Publishing Enterprises were signed. Here is one artist who remains anonymous.

News Stand Library 52 - June 1949

 

News Stand Library 53 - June 1949

 

News Stand Library 74 - October 1949

News Stand Library 75 - October 1949

James Bond and Harlequin

Between 1953 and 1957 the Canadian paperback publisher Harlequin Books issued eleven books described as "Harlequin-Pan" editions. The Pan in the description is Pan Books in London. From 1955 until at least the 1970s Pan Books had the exclusive British paperback rights to Ian Fleming's James Bond series and between 1955 and 1957 Pan published three Bond books - 

Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker

Any one of the the three might have been a Harlequin-Pan edition. Alas no. Instead we have five from Edgar Wallace, three from Agatha Christie and three from other authors. Pity.

The only one of any interest is A. C. Doyle's The Lost World. 

Harlequin 238 - July 1953

Harlequin 238 back

Pan 100 - 1950

Pan X236 (16th printing) - 1964

Pan X236 (16th printing) back

Evangeline and Evelyn

It's a helluva story. So thought Henry Longfellow whose 1847 poem Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie was a best seller. Ninety-six years later Canadian novelist Evelyn Eaton published her The Sea is So Wide. Both use the 1755 expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia as a background to lost love.

An early (circa 1851) English edition of Evangeline joins a Harlequin edition of The Sea is So Wide published 101 years later. Surprisingly both remain in print.

Harlequin 170 - May 1952

Harlequin 170 back

The First White Circle Reprints Part III

In the first of this series of posts I listed the first ten White Circle reprints from 1943 published by Toronto's Wm Collins Sons & Canada Co. Here is one of the two that had a total of four printings.

White Circle L - 1942 

White Circle 106 - 1943

White Circle 106 - 1944

White Circle 106 - 1945

The First White Circle Reprints Part II

In the last post I listed the first 10 reprints from Wm Collins & Sons Co Canada Ltd in their White Circle paperback series. The last one in the group is below along with the first 1942 printing.

White Circle A2 - 1942

White Circle 110 - 1943

White Circle 110 - 1945

The First White Circle Reprints Part I

After publishing its first 50 White Circle paperbacks in 1942 with classic text only British covers, Wm Collins & Sons Co. Canada decided, in order to compete with the American books coming into Canada, that the covers needed to be more distinctive. Joining new releases were 10 reprints in spring 1943 of 1942 books. Here is the list with the 1942 printing's number. The first four books were not reprinted again.

101	The Stoat	D
102	Death Leaves No Card	K
103	U-Boat in the Hebrides	B1
104	The Bell of Death	E
105	Mr. Mortimer Gets the Jitters	P
106	Wanted for Murder	L
107	Death Before Honour	C
108	Doorway to Danger	R
109	Spades at Midnight	I
110	Belt of Suspicion	A2

White Circle 101 - 1943



White Circle 102 - 1943

White Circle 103 - 1943

White Circle 104 - 1943

146 and Counting

The British North American Act, enacted March 29, 1867 by the British Parliament, provided for Confederation of the three British North American colonies, Canada (Upper and Lower), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Now much amended as the Constitution Act, 1867, it was proclaimed into law on July 1, 1867 and Canada was born. The first official birthday celebration was in 1868, July 1 being named Dominion Day in 1879 and Canada Day in 1982.

Here are some early efforts by Harlequin Books in Lower Canada. 

Patricia et le noveau medecin was Pat Witney, R.N. (Harlequin 347). Le destin d'une infirmiere was published as Harlequin 580 Nurse Nolan, originally Dear Tiberius (Mills & Boon) and Une infirmiere au Tyrol was Harlequin 556, Staff Nurse in the Tyrol.

Harlequin 347f - 1960

Harlequin 347f back

Harlequin 602f - 1961

Harlequin 602f back

Harlequin 604f - 1961

Harlequin 604f back

Superior Publishers - Part I

Toronto's Superior Publishers was a publisher of very cheaply produced digests from the mid to late 1940s. Just after the war they produced books for the English market. One is below.

Superior's address was 2382 Dundas Street West, now an used car lot.

The Outlaw of Eagle's Nest - no date [C. 1946]

The Outlaw of Eagle's Nest back

Wm Collins and the Second World War

One of the fascinating book collecting avenues is paperback editions that were published exclusively for the armed forces in the second world war.

British publishers including the Scottish-British publisher Wm Collins & Sons with their White Circle Pocket Library series brought out services editions. The Canadian subsidiary did not but did ask that books make their way to the forces. Here are some examples.

White Circle Services Edition -1945

White Circle Services Edition back

White Circle 58 - 1943

White Circle 58 back

The British Publishers Guild S227 - 1946

The British Publishers Guild S227 back