Harlequin Authors Part VIII

The first post in this series was about James Hadley Chase (1906 - 1985). Given that he was the most popular Harlequin Books author with 24 titles (of 481 through 1959) it's time for another. Here are three books from 1951.

Chase's real name was Rene Brabazon Raymond. George Orwell defended Chase and his first novel, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, in his essay "Raffles and Miss Blandish" (Horizon Magazine, October 1944), writing that "it is not, as one might expect, the product of an illiterate hack, but a brilliant piece of writing, with hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere."

The Dead Stay Dumb was first published by Jarrolds (London, 1939). The other two were published by Robert Hale in 1950.

Harlequin 124 - July 1951

Harlequin 124 back

Harlequin 130 - September 1951

Harlequin 130 back

Harlequin 135 - October 1951

Harlequin 135 back

Harlequin Authors Part I

Harlequin Books published 497 books between 1949 and 1959. After 1959 only ten Harlequins were non romance. There were 20 reprints leaving 477 titles representing 252 authors. Taking into account pseudonyms four had more than 9 titles with James Hadley Chase at the top with 24. Here we'll look at his first book as well as the sequel.

Chase's most famous (and infamous) novel was his first of over 80 - No Orchids for Miss Blandish published in 1939 by Jarrolds of London. In the next 70 years the book was retitled, revised, bowdlerized and censored by publishers and modified by the author to produce at least five versions. It also has been filmed twice - a low budget British in 1948 and under the title The Grissom Gang in 1971, directed by Robert Aldrich.

The Harlequin edition is one of the modified ones originally published by Jarrolds in 1942. There is a Harlequin reprint with April and June 1951 dates and one with April, May and June dates. I don't know if there is a printing with April and May dates only.

The sequel is The Flesh of the Orchid, first published in 1948. The Harlequin edition was reprinted in June 1951.
 

Harlequin 108 - April 1951

Harlequin 108 back

Harlequin 111 - April 1951

Harlequin 111 back

Collins White Circle Authors - Part VI

In the last Collins White Circle authors post I noted that there were 142 authors published by Collins in the WC imprint - 153 if you ignore pseudonyms. Seventy-eight authors had just one book published. In this post we'll look at one of these authors who used a pseudonym - James Hadley Chase. Actually Chase is a pen name - his real name was Rene Brabazon Raymond.

Chase's most famous (and infamous) novel was his first of over 80 - No Orchids for Miss Blandish published in 1939 by Jarrolds of London. In the next 70 years the book was retitled, revised, bowdlerized and censored by publishers and modified by the author to produce at least five versions. It also has been filmed twice - a low budget British in 1948 and under the title The Grissom Gang in 1971, directed by Robert Aldrich.

The only Chase book published by Collins was More Deadly than the Male under one of his little used pseudonyms Ambrose Grant. The original edition was published in London by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1946. The White Circle edition dates from 1948 and has a photo cover - one of 34 Collins produced.

It is interesting to contrast this single White Circle edition with the 24 published by Harlequin from 1951 to 1958. Sixteen were under the Chase name and eight under another pseudonym, Raymond Marshall. Keeping the WC edition company below is three Harlequins.

White Circle 355

Harlequin 135 - 1951

Harlequin 245 - 1953

Original title - The Fast Buck

Harlequin 267 - 1954