Avon Books in Canada Part II

Part I described the introduction of Avon paperbacks into Canada in late 1941. Here I'll skip ahead a decade to a short lived series of Avon titles that were renumbered for the Canadian market. 

There are 62 titles starting at C751 and ending at C812, 58 of which I have identified. Most have no print date but the few I've seen that do are spring 1953. I'm guessing the series ran from 1952 to 1953. They sold for 35 cents.

The US numbers range from 300 to 526. There are also four titles from Avon's Eton subsidiary in the series.

Here are a few examples.

Avon (Canadian printing) C757

(US printing number 366)

Avon (Canadian printing) C769

(US printing number 474)

Avon (Canadian printing) C775

(US printing number 481)

Avon (Canadian printing) C762

(US printing number 455)

Heed the Thunder

I haven't published a post about Toronto paperback publisher Export Publishing Enterprises in a while. But a couple of recent bookseller listings for one of Export's books has inspired.

Export's primary imprint was "News Stand Library". Between May 1948 and January 1951 Export published 159 News Stand titles. Number 54 is Jim Thompson's Heed the Thunder, his second book, originally published in 1946 (New York: Greenberg).

Thanks to Thompson's reputation the two listed copies are expensive - here at $500CAN (this bookseller happens to be a 5 minute drive from our house) and here at $442CAN. This is one of the few Export titles still in print and is abridged at 160 pages (the Amazon listed edition in print is 352 pages). 

In common with many of Export's books there are different states for the book. One has red brown inner covers and the other brown. Cover art by D. Rickard.

News Stand Library 54 June 1949

Whispering City

The latest title in Montreal publisher Vehicule Press's Ricochet imprint has just been published.

Whispering City was first published in 1947 as a paperback original by Global Publishing Company in Pickering, Ontario, a city just east of Toronto. The publisher was Horace Brown who was also the author. It is a novelization of a movie which takes place in Quebec City that was released in both French and English. 

The new edition has an introduction by series editor Brian Busby and the original foreword by the author. Unable to be reproduced are three photos from the movie on the inside covers and back cover. Also unseen is a "Camera Quiz" from the original edition. This is a set of 12 photos from the movie with captions and the reader is invited to put them in their correct order after reading the book.

Global Publishing -1947

Global Publishing - back

Vehicule Press - 2023

Vehicule Press - back

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

156 and Counting

The British North American Act, enacted March 29, 1867 by the British Parliament, provided for Confederation of the three British North American colonies, Canada (Upper and Lower), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Now much amended as the Constitution Act, 1867, it was proclaimed into law on July 1, 1867 and Canada was born. The first official birthday celebration was in 1868, July 1 being named Dominion Day in 1879 and Canada Day in 1982.

Star Weekly Novels were distributed with the Toronto Star every Saturday for 36 years. But they were not the only novel inserts in Canadian newspapers. Montreal's The Standard also brought novels into mid-century English language Canadian homes, competing with bookstores, commercial book clubs and the local newsstands, drug and cigar stores. Romance, crime, Westerns, historical, thrillers, all available. Here are some examples.

The Standard Book of the Week - June 4, 1960

The Standard Book of the Week - July 26, 1947

The Standard Book of the Week - May 10, 1947