There are nearly 650 posts on this blog. Unsurprisingly, given the blog's masthead, the vast majority are about Canadian paperbacks from the 1940s and 1950s. What isn't explicitly said is that these books are unique offerings from Canadian publishers, not Canadian printings of US or UK published editions.
I've done a few posts about these other Canadian paperbacks, but here is a first in-depth look at Avon Books.
On
November 21, 1941 the first twelve Avon Books went on sale in the US. Two weeks
later, in the December 6, 1941 issue of Publishers Weekly (PW), the
“new, fast-selling Avon Pocket-Size Books” are advertised for sale. Readers
learn that the “entire first edition was sold out!” and a second is now in
preparation. The advertisement doesn’t mention where the books are sold but
part of that first sold-out edition may have been in Canada.
Avon
Pocket-Size Books arrived in Canada at the same time they were first seen in US
bookstores, department stores, drug stores, cigar shops and news stands. An
advertisement in the Canadian equivalent of PW, Quill & Quire
(Vol. 7, No. 11, December, 1941), announced that the Canadian branch of British
publisher Longmans, Green “takes great pleasure in announcing that they have
been appointed [Avon’s] exclusive Canadian representatives.” The US editions
did not have a cover price but the Canadian advertisement notes they will sell
for 39¢. Avon joined Pocket Books, whose agent was also Longmans, Green and had
been selling in Canada for two years, as well as Penguin and Wm. Collins’s
White Circle imprint from the UK.
In these early years the Avons sold in Canada were imported US editions so there is no way to distinguish them from copies sold in the US. Here are a few examples.
Quill & Quire Vol. 7 No. 11 - December 1941, page 27
Avon 4 - later printing 1943
Avon 11 - 1941
Avon 24 - 1943
