Heed the Thunder

I haven't published a post about Toronto paperback publisher Export Publishing Enterprises in a while. But a couple of recent bookseller listings for one of Export's books has inspired.

Export's primary imprint was "News Stand Library". Between May 1948 and January 1951 Export published 159 News Stand titles. Number 54 is Jim Thompson's Heed the Thunder, his second book, originally published in 1946 (New York: Greenberg).

Thanks to Thompson's reputation the two listed copies are expensive - here at $500CAN (this bookseller happens to be a 5 minute drive from our house) and here at $442CAN. This is one of the few Export titles still in print and is abridged at 160 pages (the Amazon listed edition in print is 352 pages). 

In common with many of Export's books there are different states for the book. One has red brown inner covers and the other brown. Cover art by D. Rickard.

News Stand Library 54 June 1949

Export and Books in Print! Part II

In Part I of Export and Books in Print! I discussed four of the very few Export titles that are in print or ever likely to be in print. Here are the last three.

The first two are by well known noir authors David Goodis and Jim Thompson.

The most recent edition of Goodis's Nightfall is Lakewood, Colorado: Millipede Press, 2007. This edition also has an introduction by Bill Pronzini and a Goodis short story "The Blue Sweetheart". Export published its edition in April 1949. There are three versions of which I'm aware. No priority. The first has a dark blue cover and spine with the inner covers a dark red. The second has a lighter blue-gray cover, light green spine and slightly different red inner covers. The third has the cover and spine of the second but with blue inner covers.

News Stand Library (NSL) 39 first version

NSL 39 second version

Millipede Press

The current edition of Heed the Thunder by Jim Thompson is New York: Vintage Books, 1994.

NSL 54

Vintage Books

The final in print work is a short story - Charlotte Perkin Gilman's "The Yellow Wall Paper". In June 1950 Export published this in the collection The Restless Dead edited by Rose Carroll. She is referred to as Charlotte Perkin in the Export edition. There are many editions in print.

NSL 112 (Carroll on title page)

Studio Publications Part I

Studio Publications was a short lived but interesting Toronto company that published 14 paperbacks in the early 1950s. I'll be looking at Studio over a few posts.

The only book in the series with either a printing or copyright date is 107, a paperback original, with a 1952 copyright date.

The first four books (1 - 4) are similar in a number of ways. Each has an illustrated cover, 160 pages, a 35 cent price and were published earlier by another Toronto publisher - Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd.

The artists on the Studio editions are unknown as are those of NSL 36 and Torch 3. D. Rickard is the artist for NSL 80 and NSL 54.

Book 1, Shack-up Girl (New York: Herald, 1946 as Limbo City) by Edwin B. Self. Published by Export under its original title as News Stand Library (NSL) 36 in 1949. Export also published a different Shack-up Girl by Perry Lindsay (Peggy Gaddis) as NSL 48.

Studio 1

NSL 36

Book 2, Furnished Room (New York: Star Guidance Inc., 1950 as Passionate Lover as Stork Original Novel 5) by Gail Jordan (Peggy Gaddis). Published by Export as Shotgun Wedding as Torch 3 in 1950. For some inexplicable reason the Studio edition is identical to the Torch edition except the first paragraph in the book is gone from the Studio edition.

Studio 2

 

Torch 3

Book 3, Sordid Affair  by Fay Raymond. Published by Export as Detour, a paperback original, as NSL 80 in 1950.

Studio 3

NSL 80

Book 4, Sins of the Fathers (New York: Greenburg, 1946 as Heed the Thunder) by Jim Thompson. Published by Export under its original title as NSL 54 in 1949. These editions were discussed in my earlier post about Jim Thompson in Canada.

 

Studio 4

NSL 54

Jim Thompson in Canada

The name Jim Thompson is well known to collectors of paperbacks and readers of crime fiction. Before turning to crime stories Thompson wrote a couple of novels. One of them, Heed the Thunder, was published as a Canadian paperback by Export Publishing Enterprises as News Stand Library #54 in June 1949. This was Export's only book by Thompson and predated any of his paperback originals in the US. The signed art is by D. Rickard.

Next to publish was Toronto's Studio Publications in 1952 as #4 in their 14 book Studio Pocket series. The name was changed to Sins of the Fathers. Thompson's name appears only on the spine as James Thompson. The artist is unknown.