Crow Part I - Al and Morris (1)

A recent post (thanks for the compliment) at Vintage Sleaze has inspired me to start a series about the 24 books published by Alval Publishing of Toronto in 1949 and 1950 as Crow Editions.

I'll start with 2 of the 20 Crow books which connect two classic publishers from the 1940s and 1950s - Canada's Al Valentine and American Morris S. Latzen. Valentine was Alval's owner and Latzen was the owner of a number of companies which published digests in New York from 1948 to 1957. One of them was Astro Distributing Corporation, the name seen on issues 11 through 18 of an 18 book series. Three other companies are the named publisher on the first 10 issues (thanks to Kenneth Johnson and his invaluable Publishers Index of digests for this information).

Book 24 (May 1949), Overnight Girl, by Joan Sherman was first published as Overnight Cabin (New York: Godwin, 1935). It is first seen under the new title in 1948 as book 31 (an incorrectly numbered 13) in the Astro series. Sherman is a pseudonym of Peggy Gaddis. I haven't seen the Astro edition but the Crow edition is likely cut as are two other Crow editions that I discussed here and here. As with every Crow the book has 160 pages.

Like many of the Crow editions the artwork is cribbed from the Astro edition.

Crow 24 -May 1949

Crow 24 back

Astro 31 (13) - 1948

Book 25 (July 1949), Reckless Maiden, by Peggy Gaddis was first published as One More Woman (New York: Godwin, 1935) as by Joan Sherman. It is next seen as Shameless Virgin and a new author in 1948 as book 14 in the Astro series. I haven't seen the Astro edition but the Crow edition is also likely cut.

Crow 25 - July 1959

Crow 25 back

Astro 14 - 1948

Handy Library - an Early Imprint

Here we're looking at the first Canadian digests in the modern (1935 on) paperback era. Published by Al Valentine's Adam Publishing Company in October 1941 the Handy Library imprint lasted two issues. Valentine was the publisher of pulps, some of which are listed on the back cover of Handy Library 1.

Both books are paperback originals with cover art by Wilf Long. Here is a cover by Long for one of Valentine's pulps - Uncanny Tales.

Handy Library 1

Handy Library 1 back cover

Handy Library 2

Uncanny Tales Vol. 2 No. 14 - February 1942

Collins White Circle Artists Part XI - George Menendez Rae 1

George Menendez Rae was an artist better known in his early career as a Canadian comic book artist. He also worked on pulps and books, including two covers for the White Circle imprint published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. Both books are 1948 and signed "G. M. Rae". Also presented in an earlier example of his work on the Canadian pulp Uncanny Tales published by Al Valentine.

White Circle 338

White Circle 342

Uncanny Tales Vol 2. No. 17 - May 1942

Travellers Pocket Library Part II

In Part I of the Travellers story I discussed the series and whether it might have been published in Canada. I also showed three of the six books in the series. Here I'll show the other three and make a few more comments. The three other books are:

Books 100 to 104 have similar design features on the front cover and spine. Book 105 doesn't exist and 106 has important differences. The book number appears to be handwritten, the text feature at bottom right is gone and the spine has differences. In fact book 106 has features identical to those of another publisher, Alval Publishers of Canada. Compare Travellers 106 with Alval's Crow Pocket Edition 27 Published in July 1949. Alval is Alexander Valentine of Toronto - more on him later.

The artist is the same and the author name is written in the same hand. Even the title is a "Crow" type title.

So what does any of this mean. One interpretation is that the first five Travellers were published by persons unknown (Canadian?) and Valentine tried to continue the series, mistakenly thinking that there had been a number 105. What the books stated publisher, Ward-Hill of New York, has to do with any of this a question that likely will never be answered.