Harlequin Canadian Paperback Originals Part II

The mass market paperback was invented for one reason - to make money selling cheap editions of already published books. To date, aside from modern romance novels, that's pretty much still true. But there is that enticing subset of mass market paperbacks called the paperback original. See, for example, science fiction, mystery and western.

Even the early Harlequin Books published PBOs, 24, or 5% of a total 477 titles, between 1949 and 1959, fifteen fiction and nine non-fiction. Here are two of the novels.

Joy Brown was an editor at Harlequin. E(dmund) B(oyd) Osler was a well know Manitoban.

Harlequin 72 - September 1950

Harlequin 72 back

Harlequin 261 - December 1953

Harlequin 261 back

Export Canadian Paperback Originals - Part V

In part IV of this series of posts I discussed three News Stand Library books published by Toronto's Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd. I identified them as paperback originals which turns out to be wrong. Each of them had been published earlier under different author names. My thanks to Kenneth R. Johnson who saw the errors and took the time to let me know about them. Kenneth is the creator of the best Peggy Gaddis bibliography (a challenging task) and the fascinating The Digest Index.

Lust for Love (NSL 151) by Donna Simpson was first published as by Wright Williams (Wallace E. Watkins) as an unnumbered Stork Original Novel in 1949 by Star Publications Inc. of New York.

Everybody Loves Irene (NSL 152) by George Tremblay was first published in 1950 as by Wright Williams by New York's Quarter Books Inc. as Quarter Book 62.

Suzy Needs a Man (NSL 153) by Martha Knowles was first published as by Joan Sherman (Peggy Gaddis) as an unnumbered Exotic Novel in August 1950 by New York's Astro Distributing Corp.

Here are two Export books that I know to be PBOs. They are the two anthologies that Export published. Neither has a credited editor. Comments on the Kinsey Report is not a reprint of the more famous Signet version published earlier in 1948. Here are the contents:

7-22 COMMENTS ON THE KINSEY REPORT John R. Christie;
23- 28 MECHANICS OF SEX Marion Edwards;
29-36 STUDY OF THE SEX GLANDS Dr. D.A. Downing;
37-41 BIOLOGICAL NERVOUSNESS IN MAN Dr. Thomas Brooks;
42-47 WHY SOME MEN ARE IMPOTENT;
48-50 FIRST AIDS TO THE IMPOTENT Stephen G. Low;
51-53 EXHIBITIONISM;
54-58 MISTAKEN MALES;
59-65 WHAT IS SEX ATTTRACTION?;
66-74 SEX SECRECY IS NO ANSWER Joseph Lander, M.D.;
75-83 THE SANE WAY IN SEX TEACHING Frances Bruce Strain;
84-92 YOUTH LOOKS AT SEX Grace Verne Silver;
93-97 SEX AND THE CHILD Herman H. Rubin, M.D.;
98-103 MEN ARE MONAGAMOUS Lawrence Gould;
104-108 BLAME THE MAN;
109-114 HAS WOMAN A MYSTERIOUS INFLUENCE OVER MAN? Charles Lewis;
115-122 THE LOVE RIGHTS OF WOMAN Havelock Ellis;
123-130 HOW TO COMBAT THE SEX CRIME WAVE Charles Harris.

The stories in Spicy Detective Stories have been reprinted from the May 1937 issue of the American pulp of the same name. So while the contents are not original this is the first time in book form. Contents of Spicy Detective Stories (notwithstanding the front cover there are nine not eight Spicy Stories):

5-24 Silk Stocking Clue by N. Wooton Poge;
25-40 Murder Debt by Ellery Watson Calder;
41-58 The Thin Dame by Robert A. Garron;
59-78 Gypsum Blizzard by Robert Leslie Bellam;
79-96 Lady Dick by Arthur Wallace;
97-118 Case of the Limber Corpse by Cary Moran;
119-136 Death in the Third Act by Ken Cooper;
137-144 Killer’s Rights by Colby Quinn;
145-160 Star Witness by Peter Grant.

News Stand Library 5 - undated but 1948

News Stand Library 5 back

News Stand Library 123 - August 1950

News Stand Library 123 back



Export Canadian Paperback Originals Part IV

Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd published 55 paperback originals in 1949, 1950 and 1951. Taking into account known pseudonyms there are 44 named authors plus two anonymous editors of collections. Only 13 of the 44 have been identified. The remaining 31 authors make their only appearance in an Export book. I can find no other books they wrote or anything about them.

Here are the last three PBOs from the anonymous authors published in January 1951.

News Stand Library 151

News Stand Library 151 back

News Stand Library 152

News Stand Library 152 back

News Stand Library 153

News Stand Library 153 back

Export Canadian Paperback Originals Part III

Export Publishing Enterprise Ltd published 55 paperback originals in 1949 and 1950. Taking into account known pseudonyms there are 44 named authors plus two anonymous editors of collections. Only 13 of the 44 have been identified. The remaining 31 authors make their only appearance in an Export book. I can find no other books they wrote or anything about them.

Here are three of these authors from October 1949.

News Stand Library 77

News Stand Library 77 back

News Stand Library 78

News Stand Library 78 back

News Stand Library 79

News Stand Library 79 back

Export Canadian Paperback Originals Part II

In an earlier post I began the discussion of Canadian paperback originals (PBO) by noting how few were published by Harlequin Books and Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd (White Circle) - 4.0% and 2.3% respectively.

I also noted how many PBOs Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd published - 55 of 166 (33%.) Here we'll look at three PBOs from an author who has no biography - Rose Carrol (sometimes Carroll). This is not uncommon for Export authors as a surprising number exist only as names on Export books, very likely unacknowledged pseudonyms. 

The Restless Dead is a collection of 14 stories advertised as "true". The fact that one of the stories is Charlotte Perkins Gilman's famous "The Yellow Wallpaper" makes that claim a bit suspect. Export has "The Yellow Wall Paper" by Charlotte Perkin [sic].

News Stand Library 112 - June 1950

News Stand Library 112 back

Sex Life Among Savage People has a "prelude" by T. L. Kennedy (no hint who he/she is) and a bibliography, the only Export book to have one. Some chapter titles are "Orgiastic Licence", "Course of Savage Romance", "Love Magic".

News Stand Library 124 - August 1950

News Stand Library 124 back

Tawny Witch is the only novel by Ms. Carrol.

News Stand Library 146 - October 1950

News Stand Library 146 back

Harlequin Canadian Paperback Originals Part I

There is a group of five books published by Harlequin Books in 1952 and 1953 that state "An original title - not a reprint" on the cover. With the exception of a couple of later books Harlequin did not advertise its few paperback originals. These appear to be exceptions to the rule - or are they?

The books were published by New York's Hanro Corporation in late 1951 and early 1952 under the Phantom Books imprint:

Love Me and Die!       Phantom 504 (1951)
Crime On My Hands    Phantom 506 (1951)
Hunt the Killer           Phantom 507 (1951)
Naked Fury               Phantom 509 (1952)
Wake up to Murder     Phantom 513 (1952)

The Harlequins are all copyright Harlequin and don't mention Hanro but, given the dates on the Hanro editions, the Harlequin editions are clearly not originals. Perhaps Hanro and Harlequin acquired the rights to publish in the US and Canada respectively at the same time but Harlequin just took longer. Harlequin then wasn't technically acquiring "reprint" rights.

Day Keene is a pseudonym for Gunard Hjerstedt (1903 - 1969). Keene became an actor in repertory theater in the early 1920’s. When his actor friends decided to try film, he instead turned to writing, and during the 1930’s was a principal writer for the “Little Orphan Annie” radio show, as well as contributing to the pulps. After he moved to the west coast of Florida, he began writing paperback originals in the late 1940’s, mostly fast-paced crime stories. By the 1960’s, he had abandoned mysteries for mainstream novels.

Carl Hodges (1902 - 1966) was a contemporary of Keene.

Harlequin 167 - May 1952

Harlequin 167 back

Harlequin 168 - May 1952

Harlequin 168 back

Harlequin 182 - August 1952

Harlequin 182 back

Harlequin 185 - August 1952

Harlequin 185 back

Export Canadian Paperback Originals Part I

Paperback Originals (PBOs) were uncommon in the world of mass market publishing until the 1950s. Here we'll start to look at the three largest Canadian publishers and their PBOs. Harlequin Books and Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. were typical reprint publishers. From 1949 to 1959 after which they published only romances Harlequin issued 481 titles, 19 (4.0%) of which were PBOs. Collins had 429 titles during its 10 year run of the White Circle imprint. Only 10 (2.3%) were PBOs.

Export is a different story. Of Export's 165 titles, 55 (33.3%) were PBOs. There were no PBOs for the first year after Export started the News Stand Library imprint up to #52, then 32 in the next 43 books. I suspect this shift resulted from Export finding it cheaper and perhaps easier to deal with Canadian authors willing/needing to sell a novel for $400 with no royalties than contracting for reprint rights with American publishers. Based on the way they handled the author below Export did not spend a lot of time getting a book out the door.

Here is one PBO from Export - The Pillar of Fire by H. Gordon Green. Green wrote for newspapers and magazines and worked many years at the Family Herald, first as fiction editor then as editor, ending his career as a teacher. In a letter many years later Green complained about his treatment by Export:

"[I] agreed to sell [to Export] the mss’s condensation [sic] rights for $400.00, and I was horrified when the paperback came out to see how the original had been murdered. Only about half of the original was used [and] I look back on my dealings with them with no pleasant memories."

Other than the recent edition of Montreal Confidential this is the only Export PBO to be honoured with a new edition. In 1953 Brunswick Press of Fredericton published an unabridged trade paperback version (some 105% larger) under the even more pretentious title The Praying Mantis. This edition does not mention the Export edition and notes that the book was “An Avery Hopwood Award Winner.” The Export edition also states that The Pillar of Fire is the “Winner of the HOPWOOD MAJOR AWARD for Fiction.” This award is part of The Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Awards Program administered by the University of Michigan. Students at the University are eligible for one of a number of awards. The manuscripts they submit are not necessarily published. Export, by abridging more that half of the book, did not publish the manuscript that won the award, the only award connected with an Export book.

News Stand Library 131 - September, 1950