Abridged Expurgated Revised Bowdlerized - Part IV

In the second post in this series I discussed one of the Crow books from Toronto's Alval Publishing. Here is another example of an abridgement effort from Alval.

Week-end Girl by James Clayford (pseudonym of Peggy Gaddis) was first published as Lovers No More by Godwin (New York, 1934) as by Joan Sherman. The new name and author were first seen in 1948 when published by Astro Publishing Corporation of New York as #2 in its two book digest reprint series. Next up was Alval's edition under the same names in July 1949 as Crow 26. A final edition was published in 1950 under a new name, Beach Party, by New York's Star Guidance, Inc. as Venus Books 104. The author name was changed for a third time as well to Peggy Gaddis.

The Astro edition is described as "slightly revised" from the Godwin edition. The Crow edition, based on information on the copyright page, uses the Astro edition. But it's not all there. The Crow edition is approximately 30% shorter with chapters 15, 19 and 20 gone and other chapters cut. As usual no mention of the abridgement is made.

One last interesting comparison is the cover. The Alval edition is a direct copy of the Astro edition (artist - Rodewald) by a less talented artist.

Astro 2

Astro 2 back

Crow 26

Crow 26 back

Export and Peggy Gaddis - Part II

In part I of Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd and Peggy Gaddis I presented the first 6 of 13 books written by Gaddis and published by Export. Here are the next four. As an added attraction I've shown their publishing history. The information is largely provided by Kenneth Johnson's Bibliography supplemented by my research.

The seventh Gaddis book is Sin and Shackles as by Gail Jordan. Originally published as Love Slave by New York's Phoenix Press (1949) it was reprinted in 1949 under the original title by Century Publications of Chicago as Century Book 119.

News Stand Library 103 - April 1950

Next is the first Export book under Gaddis's real name - Playboy Doctor. This one is a mystery. I can find no earlier publishing history.

New Stand Library 130 - September 1950

The second Export under her real name is Her Mother's Lover. The 1936 first edition is Two Women from Godwin Publishers of New York. The Export edition notes that the story has been "slightly revised".

News Stand Library 149 - November 1950

Finally we have Men Call Her Tramp as by Joan Sherman. First published in 1950 by Falcon Books of New York as Men Call Her “Tramp” as an unnumbered Exotic Novel. Then by New York's Hanro Corporation in three editions: as A Lover for Anne by Sylvia Erskine (revised), Carnival 906 and as Farm Hussy by Sylvia Erskine, Carnival 929 (reprinted Carnival 938). The Carnival books are circa 1953/1954.

New Stand Library 156 - January 1951

Exotic Novel

Export and Peggy Gaddis Part I

Export published the work of 114 authors of full length books. This has to be qualified by noting that only known pseudonyms are accounted for. There were also three collections.

Export's most published author was Peggy Gaddis. Gaddis produced an amazing number of books under her name and pseudonyms over a thirty year career. Many were republished with up to three different titles. The link above is to an excellent site where most of this bibliographic nightmare is sorted out.

Export published thirteen of her books under her name and four pseudonyms. I'll present the first six here. NSL 17 was published in 1948, the rest in 1949. The only signed art is 17 - Sid Dyke. D. Rickard is the artist on 35.

NSL 17

NSL 22

NSL 24 ("Terry" s/b "Perry")

NSL 28

NSL 35

NSL 48

30 in 30

This is my thirtieth post in November. If I keep this up book and film deals are in my future. I see George Clooney playing the lead and a part will have to be found for Meryl Streep. Perhaps the ghost of my first grade teacher.

30 in the newspaper world means end of story. That suggests showing the end of two of the Canadian publishers honoured in this blog.

The first is Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd who published 156 of their News Stand Library (NSL) imprint but the last one is 157. In common with just about everything else about Export the numbering of the NSL imprint is complicated. The first two books were unnumbered. Then books 3-95 were published except see the next paragraph. There is no 96-99. Then 100-157 but there are three sets of books published with the same number - 150, 151 and 152. So 157-4+3 = 156.

Two more complications. There is an unnumbered book, Better Your Bridge by Charles Platt, which is usually slotted between books 18 and 20 because there is no 19. There are also two numbers which I consider one. Both are the same book The Long November by James Benson Nablo. The first is "13 S" and the second is "R/15". Book 13 is another title. So 13 S is the first printing of The Long November. There is no number 15 and since Export usually designated a reprint with an "R" in front of the number, I believe R/15 is the second printing of The Long November. So the sequence is 13, 14, 13 S and R/15, 16, 17, 18, [19], 20 and so on. Maybe the the "5" in "15" was misread as an "S" during preparation of the book and somehow attached to "13". We'll never know.

After that lengthy introduction let's look at the last Export book which is The Private Life of a Street Girl! by James Clayford, a house pseudonym. Here the author is Albert Quandt. The NSL edition was published in January 1951. The book was first published as Ecstasy Novel 4 by Publishers Productions Inc. of New York in May 1950. The NSL edition's art by "WES" is tame compared to its Ecstasy Novel inspiration.

NSL 157

Ecstasy Novel 4

The last White Circle published by William Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. was C.D. 545X in early 1952. However this was only the 459th book in the series. Numbers 73, 100, 119-199, 209, 212, 430 and 543 were not used - for a total of 87. And there are two books with number 527. So 545-87+1 = 459.

C.D. 545X was The Devil Man by Edgar Wallace, originally published in 1931 by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. of London. This was the second edition of the book in the White Circle imprint - the first was 255 in 1946. Both have uncredited art.

White Circle 255

White Circle C.D. 545X

The third major Canadian publisher, Harlequin, has not had a "30" yet.

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

Two Canadian Pirates

Here are two Canadian paperbacks from the late 1940s or early 1950s that are pirated versions of American books.

The first Canadian pirate is God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell - stolen from the New American Library (NAL) Signet edition first published by NAL's predecessor Penguin US. The pirate is published by Anglo-American Publishing Co. Limited. There is no publisher address but the book states "Printed in Canada 1948". All the publisher identifiers on the original cover have been removed but, except for the title and copyright pages, the book is a duplicate of the NAL edition.

The second pirate is not so obvious. A new title and cover help disguise White Heat by Joan Sherman (pseudonym of Peggy Gaddis). The legitimate edition was published as Lulie (Handi-Book Romance 91) by Quinn Publishing Company, Inc. of New York in 1949. This edition has four pages with title, copyright etc. and then text from page 5 to 122. The pirated edition, referred to as Bizarre Books No. 1, has no preliminary pages and starts with the same page 5 and ends on the same page 122. The title/copyright/publisher information is on the inside front cover where there is a line that says "Restyled into Another Sell-Out Edition" for the publisher, The Trade-Mark Pocket Library at 28-20 Wellington St. West in Toronto. Note the two quotes from non-existent newspapers/magazines - "Fleshpots and Sinners..." from the London Literary Chronicle (!). The cover is in the running for the "ugliest Canadian paperback cover of all time".

The pirate's dimensions are smaller because the pages of the Quinn edition have been trimmed. Clearly the cover and first four pages of the Quinn edition have been removed, the pages trimmed and the White Heat cover glued on.