Newspaper Novels Part VII

The three front covers in my last post are from The Philadelphia Inquirer's Sunday novel insert. They share three characteristics: a man and a woman, the woman is looking away and the man is looking at the woman. Tension in the air. The woman has doubts and the man is concerned. What about the rest of the Inquirers that I own? Here is an inventory.

• one woman, no man       6
• more than one woman, no man     4
• one woman and one man     19
• one woman, two or more men      7    
• more than one woman, one or more men      3

Thirty-two have one woman. All the rest have at least two women including four where the women have equal status and three with the focus on one woman. The message is clear. Women were the likely readers of the inserts. Further evidence is Book of the Month Club 1947 readership which was 65% women, 35% men. This remains the case today generally although there is not as large a difference.

Here are three women only covers.

January 24, 1943 - Ladies in Boxes by Gelett Burgess (Alliance Book, 1942)

November 28, 1943 - The Quiet Lady by Norman Collins (Wm. Collins, 1942 as Anna)

May 23, 1943 - Air Force Girl by Renee Shann (Carlton House, 1942)

                 The Philadelphia Inquirer - January 24, 1943

The Philadelphia Inquirer - November 28, 1943

The Philadelphia Inquirer - May 23, 1943

Newspaper Novels Part VI

In 1940 the population of the US was 131.7 million in 34.9 million households (1940 census). Pennsylvania's population was 9.9 million, second in the country after New York and the estimated number of households was 2.67 million using an average of 3.7 people per household. Based on 1938 and 1944 data I estimate Sunday circulation of The Philadelphia Inquirer was around 1.05 million in 1940 for a yearly total of 54.6 million. Some of that circulation was likely in other states like New Jersey and New York but, assuming all in Pennsylvania, an amazing 40% of households received the Sunday edition.

In 1940 the Book-of-the-Month Club (BOTMC) sold 3.79 million books to 404.5 thousand subscribers. BOTMC had 67% of the book club market (in 1947) so the total book club sales was close to 5.65 million books.

This means that the Inquirer Sunday insert "Gold Seal Novel" in 1940 reached 10 times as many Pennsylvania households as the book clubs' entire US sales. How many more were actually read is anyone's guess. Here are three more from 1941.

July 27, 1941 - Only Love Lasts by Rosamond Du Jardin (first published ?)

May 4, 1941 - Women Will Be Doctors by Hannah Lees (Random House, 1940)

October 5, 1941 - A Star For Susan by Frances Shelley Wees (Macrae-Smith, 1940)

The Philadelphia Inquirer - July 27, 1941

The Philadelphia Inquirer - May 4, 1941

The Philadelphia Inquirer - October 5, 1941

Newspaper Novels Part V

I have 40 of approximately 700 of The Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday novel inserts. In that small sample there are 15 artists whose work is seen on the front cover and inside. One colour predominates, the images have a weighty look and, with five exceptions, the front cover art is not combined with text. This contrasts with the look of the Canadian Star Weekly novel inserts from those years. Well into the 1950s the Star Weekly covers looked like this example (artist William Book) regardless of the genre.

One of the artists is Miriam Troop (1917-?) whose work is also seen on two 1940 Saturday Evening Post covers at the young age of 23.

The Philadelphia Inquirer - June 27, 1943

The Philadelphia Inquirer - November 7, 1943

The Philadelphia Inquirer - December 14, 1941

Star Weekly - May 8, 1943

Newspaper Novels Part IV

Part III discussed my estimate of the surprising number of copies of novels that were published by The Philadelphia Inquirer as Sunday inserts over 14 years - 700 million. I use an estimate of 1,000,000 average circulation for the Sunday edition to arrive at that figure. This is based on actual figures that range from 1.035 million in 1938 to 1.093 million in 1947.

I have identified 430 of the estimated 700 Inquirer issues. There are 295 authors in that group with Georges Simenon first with 19 titles and Ben Ames Williams and Faith Baldwin second with five. How many of these authors are around (i.e. in print) today? Simenon certainly is - all 75 of his Maigret novels are  available from Penguin. Rex Stout, Stefan Zweig, Agatha Christie and F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby - May 23, 1937) are four more obvious ones. It takes some research to find others. I would guess a few dozen at most.

Here are three authors who are among the roughly 270 forgotten.

October 12, 1941 - Our Second Murder by Torrey Chanslor (Frederick A. Stokes, 1941)

May 11, 1941 - Little Hercules by Francis Wallace (M. S. Mill, 1939)

August 24 1941 - Hometown Angel by Reita Lambert (Macrae-Smith, 1940)

The Philadelphia Inquirer - October 12, 1941

The Philadelphia Inquirer - May 11, 1941

The Philadelphia Inquirer - August 24, 1941

Newspaper Novels Part III

Continuing the story from part II here are three more weekly newspaper novel supplements from The Philadelphia Inquirer, all from August 1941.

The Inquirer (1829-), as far as I can tell, published the Gold Seal Novels on Sunday from May 1934 to September 1949 with no issues from May 1946 to April 1948 - approximately 700 issues. I have been able to identify 430 of them. During these years Sunday circulation was likely averaging close to a million copies per week, again, based on what I can find on line. This means around 700 million copies of the novels were sold by this one newspaper alone.

What was the impact of this on the publishing world? For example, what were the royalty terms for the publisher/author and what did booksellers think of this competition? I can find no answers to these and other questions.

August 3, 1941 - Sinfully Rich by Hulbert Footner (Harper and Brothers, 1940)

August 17, 1941 - A Face For a Clue by Georges Simenon (Artheme Fayard, 1931 as Le chien jaune)

August 31, 1941 - Mooney Moves Around by Kerry O'Neil (Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939)

Philadelphia Inquirer - August 3, 1941

Philadelphia Inquirer - August 17, 1941

Philadelphia Inquirer - August 31, 1941

Newspaper Novels Part II

In part I I introduced mid-century weekly novel newspaper inserts. I recently picked up 40 examples from The Philadelphia Inquirer who published around 700 from 1934 to 1949. Unlike some of their US competitors who used Canadian produced supplements the Inquirer's were unique. Here is one example - Georges Simenon's A Crime in Holland from November 30, 1941.

The insert is 20 pages (including front and back covers) with the cover and internal illustrations by Ben Dale (1889-1951) and an advertisement on the last page. The novel is quite short yet approximately 29% abridged for the insert. The dimensions are 27 1/2mm (10 7/8") x 36mm (14 1/4").

Simenon (1903-1989) was the most popular Inquirer author with at least 20 novels.

The Philadelphia Inquirer - November 30, 1941

Newspaper Novels Part I

Recently I did a series on the Star Weekly Novels which were published from 1938 to 1973 as inserts in the Saturday Toronto Star, one of 21 US and three Canadian  newspapers with novel inserts that I've so far identified. 

There is very little information on these inserts on-line but I've cobbled together lists totaling 2750. An early guess is 10,000 to 12,000 were published. The dates so far are 1919 to 1973. At least nine US newspapers used inserts produced in Canada, just changing the newspaper name on the first page.

Here are three US examples. The Philadelphia Inquirer Gold Seal Novel was published from 1934 to 1949 and, unlike the Long Island Sunday Press Sunday Novel, is an original novel insert.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, November 2, 1941 - The Affair of the Circus Queen by Clifford Knight, illustrated by Harry Weinert

The Philadelphia Inquirer, Sunday, August 10, 1941 - A World in Spell by D. E. Stevenson, illustrated by Harry Weinert

Long Island Sunday Press, Sunday, November 13, 1949 - Lord of Atlantis by John Russell Fearn, illustrated by William Book. First published as Toronto Star Weekly Complete Novel, October 8, 1949

The Philadelphia Inquirer - November 2, 1941

The Philadelphia Inquirer - August 10, 1941

Long Island Sunday Press - November 13, 1949