White Circle Twins Part I

Many of the paperbacks published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co Canada in their 1940s White Circle imprint were also published in the US. One example is Edgar Lustgarten's (1907-1978) first novel One More Unfortunate. First published as A Case to Answer in the UK (London, 1947), the American edition was renamed.

The first American paperback edition is distinguished by being one of 27 books published by Bantam from 1945 to 1949 with a dust jacket. Interesting how the DJ version cover has the same scene as the White Circle edition. Both are tamer than the original Bantam cover.

 

White Circle 374 - 1948

 

White Circle 374 back



 

Bantam 360 - February 1949

 

Bantam 360 back

 

Bantam 360 Dust jacket

The Great Gatsby Part I

I've just reread one of my half-dozen favourite novels - The Great Gatsby. With the fifth filmed version in the news I thought it time to post a bit about the book, much as I have with The Time Machine.

This early article about the new movie discusses why the four films to date have failed to do justice to the book. I've seen the last two versions and all I can say is good luck to Baz and company (Daisy's hair still blonde).

The first edition (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925) is one of the highlights, if not the highest, of modern first edition collecting. And there have been interesting editions since. One of the most interesting is a five part serialization in 1926 in The Famous Story Magazine (April, Volume III, No. 1 through August, Volume IV, No. 2). Twenty years later the first mass market version was published by Bantam Books. Later printings have an added dust jacket with Ladd on the cover.

The Famous Story Magazine #7 - Volume III, No.1 - April 1926

Bantam 8 - November 1945

Bantam 8 back

Export's News Stand Library US Series Part VII

Continuing our look at the 28 books Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd published for the American market, here are 2 of the 20 with dust jackets plus a DJ example from an American publisher. The imprint was News Stand Library and both are paperback originals published in January 1950.

News Stand Library 16A

News Stand Library 16A with dust jacket

News Stand Library 17A

News Stand Library 17A with dust jacket

Bantam 75 - January 1947

Bantam 75 with dust jacket

We're #1

In a post a few days ago I showed that King's Enemies by J. M. Walsh was the first White Circle published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. The White Circles ended in 1952 but one Canadian paperback publisher from the 1940s is still with us - Harlequin. I thought it would be interesting to compare the number 1 Harlequin with the number ones of a few American paperback publishers from the 1940s and early 1950s - companies that still exist, at least as imprints of global media companies. The first company is Bantam Books.

The first 20 books published by Bantam Books, Inc. were released on January 3, 1946. Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi is #1. Today Bantam Mass Market is an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., which is owned by Bertelsmann AG. Random House ranked fifth in the publishing world in 2006 with sales of € 1.83 billion.

Bantam 1 front and back

A. A. Wynn, Inc. had been publishing first magazines and then books for more than 20 years when it published its first Ace Books in September 1952. Ace #1 is Samuel W. Taylor's Grinning Gismo and Keith Vining's Too Hot for Hell. Today Ace is an imprint of The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., the American operating company of the Penguin Group which is owned by Pearson PLC.  Pearson PLC ranked first in the publishing world with sales of € 4.55 billion in 2006.

Ace 1 front and back

The third American publisher is Ballantine Books, Inc. which published its first four books on November 10, 1952. Executive Suite by Cameron Hawley is #1. Today Ballantine Books is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., which is owned by Bertelsmann AG.

 

Ballantine 1 front and back

Harlequin # 1 from May 1949 is The Manatee by Nancy Bruff. Today Harlequin Enterprises is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Canadian media company Torstor Corporation.

Harlequin 1 front and back

Export's News Stand Library US Series Part III

Continuing part I here are two more of the 20 dust jacketed books Export published for sale in the US.

I mentioned in the first part that Export was unique in their use of DJs among Canadian and American mass market publishers. I know of no other Canadian paperbacks from this era with jackets. Such major US publishers such as Ace, Avon and Popular never used jackets while Dell and Ballantine had one each. Pockets Books and Penguin US had four and six respectively. The closest US publisher to Export was Bantam who published 27 jacketed books. But these were spread over four years and 300 books. Seventeen were used to change the look of books already published by Bantam. Ten were used to disguise as Bantams books from companies Bantam had bought. The DJ for the last Bantam book below was used on four other Bantams with title and author change but same illustration.

News Stand Library 9A with DJ

News Stand Library 9A w/o DJ

News Stand Library 7A with DJ

News Stand Library 7A w/o DJ

Bantam 9 with DJ - 1945

Bantam 9 w/o DJ

Bantam 149 with DJ - 1948

Book under Bantam 149 DJ