Canadian Quick Readers Part III

Continuing this series of posts on the Quick Reader imprint published in Canada in 1944 and 1945. Here and here is the background.

One unanswered question is how may of the 49 titles published in the US were published in Canada? A list at the back of #105 (Laugh Your Head Off!) has 25 books from #104 to #133. Note that while this is an early number, titles with much later numbers are listed for sale. The books were either published out of sequence in Canada or reprinted. Also note the new price - 10 cents - down from 15 cents.

Here are two more titles, both anonymously edited original collections.

105  Laugh Your Head Off!. A collection of six stories.

127 Celebrated Stories Made Into Movies. A collection of four stories.

Quick Reader 105

Quick Reader 127

Quick Reader 105

Canadian Quick Readers Part II

Here I introduced an odd imprint that was printed and sold in Canada from 1944 to 1945. The American parent, based in Chicago, published these books from 1943 to 1945 but the Canadian subsidiary wasn't incorporated until July 26, 1944.

Here are three more Canadian Quick Reader editions. None have a publication date but state on the title page that they are copyrighted in the "Dominon [sic for first two] of Canada".

119 A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. First published 1859. Gone is the famous opening.

122 The Curve of the Catenary by Mary Roberts Rinehart. First published in Pictorial Review, June 1916 (first part of three), then in The Mystery Book (Farrar and Rinehart, 1939).

128 Cat and Mouse by Hugh Pentecost. Pseudonym of Judson Phillips. First published in Cosmopolitan, November 1941.

Quick Reader 119

Quick Reader 121

Quick Reader 128

Quick Reader 128

Canadian Quick Readers Part I

This blog is sub-titled "Canadian Paperbacks" but the long title should be "Canadian Paperbacks Published by Canadian Companies". In competition with the pure Canadian books were Canadian editions of books published in the US and Britain. Typically the plates would be sent to the Canadian subsidiary with books then printed, bound and distributed to Canadian newsstands, drug and cigar stores and department stores. Here is an odd example of this.

Quick Readers were 49 small (3" x 4 1/2") books published by Royce Publishers of Chicago from 1943 through 1945. There were collections of short stories but also a number of novels, including Jane Eyre, Crime and Punishment, Wuthering Heights and The Way of All Flesh. The books were 128 pages long and usually had illustrations. At 128 small pages you can imagine how much A Tale of Two Cities or Gulliver's Travels were abridged! They sold for 10 cents.

The Canadian editions were copyrighted in the Dominion of Canada and published by Royce Publishers (Canada) Limited at 40 Lombard Street in downtown Toronto. All the examples I've seen are identical to the American edition except the price is marked 15 cents on the inside front cover. I know of Canadian editions from the beginning of the series to near the end so it is likely that all 49 were published in Canada.

Here are four examples (doesn't Count Bruga look like the actor Paul Bradley who played Joey in the 1970 Canadian movie Going Down the Road?).

Quick Reader 118

Quick Reader 107

Quick Reader 117

Quick Reader 109