Federal Publishing Part II

In addition to the four paperbacks discussed in part I Federal Publishing published two 64 page magazine size books. Illustrated Big Book 1, Wicked Women of Canada by Carl Bonner, has a 1950 copyright date. Carl Bonner is a pseudonym for Thomas P. Kelley, the "king" of Canadian pulp. The inside back cover advertises the second Illustrated Big Book - The Price a Man Will Pay by Beth Brown.

Collins White Circle Artists Part IX - Margaret Paull (3)

Continuing with my series (part I and part II) on Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd.'s White Circle artist Margaret Paull here are covers 13 through 20 of her 67 signed covers. All are 1944.

White Circle 88

White Circle 89

White Circle 90

White Circle 92

White Circle 94

White Circle 95

White Circle 96

White Circle 97

Collins White Circle Authors Part V

In the first four parts of this series on Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd.'s White Circle authors I've mentioned there were 153. This is not strictly correct. There were 153 author names but thanks to pseudonyms the number of authors drops to 142. In this post we'll look at two authors who used pseudonyms. Artists where known are in brackets.

Edwy Searles Brooks had 24 books published by White Circle - 17 as Berkeley Gray and seven as Victor Gunn. Only Peter Cheyney (24) and Charles Horace Snow (31) had as many or more (see part I of this series). Here are four of his books published over a number of years that show the change in cover styles.

White Circle 105 - 1944 reprint

White Circle 344 - 1948

White Circle 205 - 1944 (Isobel McQuire)

White Circle CD 436 - 1950 (John Fernie)

Maysie Greig had 12 books published by Collins - seven published under her real name and five as Jennifer Ames. Here are three of her books.

White Circle 260 -1946

White Circle 312 - 1947  (photograph)

White Circle CD 417 - 1949

Abridged Expurgated Revised Bowdlerized - Part II

In part I of this series of posts I discussed Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd.'s approach to abridging their books. Here is an example from another publisher of the era - Alval Publishers of Canada Ltd. of Toronto and their Crow imprint. Twenty-four (numbers 21-44) books were published in this series.

Many of the books had recently been published as paperback digests by Astro Distributing Corporation of New York. For example Crow 28, Party Wife, had been published by Astro as Confessions of a Party Wife, number 11. The Astro book was published in 1948 and the Alval book in July 1949. The book was originally published as Love Must Be Gay (New York: The Macaulay Company, 1935).

The Astro edition states that "this book has not been abridged or condensed in any way." The Alval edition makes no such claim for a good reason - approximately 45% of the book has been cut. The Astro edition has 24 chapters. The Alval edition eliminates chapters 21 and 22 and cuts most chapters in the last half of the book anywhere from 50% to 75%. The first half is relatively untouched. One gets the sense that the editor of the Alval edition realized half way through the text that he needed to get busy to fit it into 160 pages and started cutting everywhere. It is hard to imagine the book making much sense in the last 80 pages.

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. Note the minimalist approach to the car. Also the young Mrs. in the Crow edition appears to have her eyes completely closed. Many of the covers on Crow books are done in the same way.

Crow 28

Astro 11

The Beginning of Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd.

In an earlier post I talked about the end of Export in December 1950. Here is a brief introduction to the beginning of Export.

Three Toronto businessmen, Stanley Schrag, Frank Steele and Martin Kastner started Export in 1946. For a couple of months they tried to find a name that was acceptable to the Federal Department of Secretary of State. Names like Canada Periodicals Limited and Associated Magazine Publishers Limited were either already in use or close to names in use. Finally Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd. was accepted with November 20, 1946 as the date of incorporation.

The first books published by Export were two "Thrilling Novels" for the post war UK market. As far as I know these are the only books. Below is a bibliographic description of both books with the title page, collation, contents, binding and notes. Note the books are printed in 1946. Given that Export didn't know that its name was approved until November , 1946 this printing date is puzzling.

CIMARRON | BEND | By L. W. Emerson | Copyright, 1946 | A THRILLING NOVEL

Collation: pp. [1-4] 5-127 [128]; 175 x 120 mm.

Contents: p. [1] title; [2] A THRILLING NOVEL | Published by EXPORT PUBLISHING ENTERPRISES LIMITED | TORONTO, Canada | Exclusively for | T. A. & E. PEMBERTON LIMITED, | 11 BLOSSOM STREET, | Manchester, England. | All characters and situations in this book are fictional, | and any resemblance to actual persons or occurrences is a | coincidence. | PRINTED IN CANADA, 1946; [3] CIMARRON | BEND; [4] advertisement; 5-127 text; [128] advertisement.

Binding: Four stapled signatures of 16 leaves each. Inside covers have advertisements.

Note: First Published New York: The Macaulay Company, 1936.

I Found | Cleopatra  | By Thomas P. Kelley | Copyright by the author | A THRILLING NOVEL [Kelly on front cover and spine]

Collation: pp. [1-4] 5-126 [127] [128]; 175 x 117 mm.

Contents: p. [1] title; [2] A THRILLING NOVEL | Published by | EXPORT PUBLISHING ENTERPRISES LIMITED | TORONTO, Canada | Exclusively for | T. A. & E. PEMBERTON LIMITED, | 11 BLOSSOM STREET, | Manchester, England | All characters and situations in this book are fictional, | and any resemblance to actual persons or occurrences is a | coincidence. | PRINTED IN CANADA, 1946; [3] I Found | Cleopatra; [4] advertisement; 5-126 text; [127] advertisement; [128] blank.

Binding: Four stapled signatures of 16 leaves each. Inside covers have advertisements.

Note: Originally published in the American pulp Weird Tales as a four part serial from November 1938 to February 1939. It was reprinted as a three part serial in the Canadian pulp Uncanny Tales from July to September 1941. The Export edition is abridged.