Canadian Best-Seller Library Part VI

In an earlier post in this series I listed all 46 titles published by McClelland & Stewart in their 1960s Canadian Best-Seller Library series and here I listed the 15 fiction titles. That leaves 31 non-fiction titles. Here's the book with the best title.

Lady Chatterley, Latterly was first published in 1963 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart). O'Hearn (1910 - 1969) was a well known Montreal journalist. The book has the advantage of being designed by Frank Newfeld with illustrations, including the cover, by Ed McNally.

CBL 31 - 1967

CBL 31 back

Canadian Best-Seller Library Part V

In the last post in this series I listed all 46 titles published by McClelland & Stewart in their 1960s Canadian Best-Seller Library series. Here are the 15 fiction titles, a largely undistinguished lot. Two hockey novels, yet another Leacock anthology, and a mixed bag of historical and adventure titles. The only one I've read is Mordecai Richler's The Incomparable Atuk. The other two I might read are William Weintraub's first novel Why Rock the Boat? (1961) and another one from 1961 - Splash One Tiger. Although the blurb is not a help - "... the skilled and courageous pilot who lost his baby-fat in the Spitfires."

CBL 7 Richler, Mordecai           The Incomparable Atuk 1965
CBL 10 Creighton, Luella          High Bright Buggy Wheels 1965
CBL 12 Denison, Merrill            Klondike Mike 1965
CBL 15 Marika, Robert A          Stranger and Afraid 1966
CBL 17 MacMillan, Don             Rink Rat 1966
CBL 21 Macfarlane, Leslie         McGonigle scores! 1966
CBL 24 Young, Scott               The Flood 1967
CBL 25 Roy, Katherine             Lise 1967
CBL 27 Irwin, Grace                 Least of all Saints 1967
CBL 34 Ludwig, Jack                Confusions 1967
CBL 36 Childerhose, R. J.          Splash one tiger 1967
CBL 41 Leacock, Stephen         Laugh with Leacock: an anthology 1968
CBL 42 Creighton, Luella          Turn east, turn west 1968
CBL 43 Weintraub, William        Why Rock the Boat? 1968
CBL 45 Green, H. Gordon          A Time to Pass Over 1968

Canadian Best-Seller Library 36 - October 1967

Canadian Best-Seller Library 36 back

Canadian Best-Seller Library Part IV

Here is the list of McClelland & Stewart's Canadian Best-Seller Library series published from 1964 to 1968. Two of the 38 authors also had books published by Harlequin Books. I discussed one in part II. The other author is Gordon Sinclair. Bright Path to Adventure was published as Bright Paths to Adventure in 1945 by McClelland & Stewart and his first book, Foot-loose in India, by S. B. Gundy in 1932.

One look at photograph of Sinclair and it's clear the Robert Taylor look-a-like on the Harlequin cover is not him.

CBL 1 Newman, Peter C. Renegade in Power: The Diefenbaker Years
CBL 2 Berton, Pierre The Big Sell
CBL 3 Green, H. Gordon + Frank Selke Behind the Cheering 1964
CBL 4 Newman, Peter C. Flame of Power
CBL 5 Minifie, James M. Peacemaker or Powder-Monkey: Canada's Role in a Revolutionary World
CBL 6 Lynch, Charles China: one fourth of the world
CBL 7 Richler, Mordecai The Incomparable Atuk
CBL 8 Berton, Pierre Klondike: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush
CBL 9 Mowat, Farley People of the Deer
CBL 10 Creighton, Luella High Bright Buggy Wheels
CBL 11 Hutchison, Bruce The Unknown Country
CBL 12 Denison, Merrill Klondike Mike
CBL 13 Hamilton, Robert M. Canadian Quotations & Phrases: Literary and Historical
CBL 14 Berton, Pierre Just Add Water and Stir
CBL 15 Marika, Robert A Stranger and Afraid
CBL 16 Holt, Simma Terror in the Name of God
CBL 17 MacMillan, Don Rink Rat
CBL 18 Sinclair, Gordon Foot-loose in India…
CBL 19 Lambert, Richard Stanton Exploring the supernatural; the weird in Canadian folklore
CBL 20 Hiemstra, Mary Pinder Gully Farm
CBL 21 Macfarlane, Leslie McGonigle scores!
CBL 22 MacKay, Douglas The Honourable Company: A History of the Hudson's Bay Company
CBL 23 Boliska, Al The World's Worst Jokes
CBL 24 Young, Scott The Flood
CBL 25 Roy, Katherine Lise
CBL 26 Berton, Laura Beatrice I Married the Klondike
CBL 27 Irwin, Grace Least of all Saints
CBL 28 Desbarats, Peter The State of Quebec
CBL 29 Berton, Pierre Adventures of a Columnist
CBL 30 Bishop, William Arthur The courage of the early morning
CBL 31 O'Hearn, Walter Lady Chatterley, Latterly
CBL 32 Robertson, Terry The Shame and the Glory: Dieppe
CBL 33 Allen, Robert Thomas When Toronto was for kids
CBL 34 Ludwig, Jack Confusions
CBL 35 Mowat, Farley The Regiment
CBL 36 Childerhose, R. J. Splash one tiger
CBL 37 Berton, Pierre Fast Fast Fast Relief
CBL 38 Clark, Gerald Canada: The Uneasy Neighbour
CBL 39 Penfield, Wilder No Other Gods: The Tender Story of Two Lovers Destined to Found a Nation
CBL 40 Hobson, Richmond P., Jr. Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy
CBL 41 Leacock, Stephen Laugh with Leacock : an anthology of the best work of Stephen Leacock
CBL 42 Creighton, Luella Turn east, turn west
CBL 43 Weintraub, William Why Rock the Boat?
CBL 44 Penfield, Wilder The Torch: Love, Treachery, and a Battle For Truth in Ancient Greece
CBL 45 Green, H. Gordon A Time to Pass Over
CBL 46 McGoey, John H. Nor Scrip Nor Shoes

Harlequin 288 - March 1954

Harlequin 288 back

CBL 18 - 1966

CBL 18 back

Canadian Best-Seller Library Part III

In part II I discussed a title that was published by Harlequin Books and later by McClelland & Stewart in its 1960s paperback Canadian Best-Seller Library series. Here is another example of one published in the CBL series and by an early Canadian paperback publisher.

Klondike Mike by Merrill Denison was first published by William Morrow in 1943. The White Circle edition arrived in 1949 from Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada and was reprinted in 1950. Silently abridged, about one-third has been cut.

White Circle CD431 - 1949

White Circle CD431 back

CBL 12 - October 1965

CBL 12 back

Canadian Best-Seller Library Part II

The recent news about the end of McClelland & Stewart (now owned by the largest book publisher in the world) started me thinking about early M&S paperback series. I introduced the 46 book Canadian Best-Seller Library series in part I. Only fourteen of the books are fiction but one of them had been published by Harlequin Books.

Rink Rat by Don MacMillan was first published in 1949 by J.M. Dent (Canada). Harlequin's edition came out in 1950 and was reprinted in 1951 and 1957, the second time with the new number 408 but same cover.

Here is a connection to Rink Rat by the author of a recent Harlequin novel about hockey.

Harlequin 78 - 1950

Harlequin 78 back

CBL 17 - June 1966

CBL 17 back

Canadian Best-Seller Library Part I

This blog is subtitled "Canadian Paperbacks of the 40s and early 50s" but books from the 60s and 70s will find a home here from time to time. A couple of recent posts included books from the New Canadian Library series published by McClelland & Stewart from 1958 to 1978. The series was one of a number of series that M&S published to feature Canadian writing. The original NCL series had 152 books. After a three year hiatus the series started up in 1981 and continues to this day. Among the other series that M&S published was the 46 book Canadian Best-Seller Library (CBL) from 1964 to 1968. Three-quarters were non fiction (with iconic Canadian writers such as Pierre Berton, Peter Newman and Farley Mowat).

Some of the fiction were recycled as part of the NCL including one of the two books described here.

The Incomparable Atuk was Mordecai Richler's fifth novel, published in 1963, four years after The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. The American title is Stick Your Neck Out. Unlike any of his previous novels, Atuk is a broad satire on Canadian celebrity and culture. As a recent Richler biography says "Richler exposes all the pettiness and smallness of the cultural scene as he saw it, hanging out to ridicule the pretensions and absurdities patently obvious in the cultural nationalism of the day" (M. G. Vassanji, Mordecai Richler, Toronto: Penguin, 2009, p. 26). M&S published the first paperback edition in 1965 as CBL 7, then again as NCL 79 in 1971.

Leslie McFarlane has almost certainly had more of his books sold than Richler. Under the publishing house name Franklin W. Dixon he wrote 21 of the Hardy Boys adventures. His hockey novel McGonigle Scores! was published as CBL 21 in 1966 as a paperback original.