Abridged, Expurgated, Revised, Bowdlerized - Part I

Expurgate – remove matter thought to be objectionable from a book etc.
Abridge – shorten (a book, film etc.)
Bowdlerize – remove improper or offensive material from (a text)
Revise – examine or amend (text)

No matter how you say it (all definitions from the 2008 edition of the Colour Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English) the text is shifted and sifted. Here we'll be looking at how the publishers of Canadian paperbacks in the 1940s and early 1950s changed the source texts for their books. The recent examples from a modern Harlequin show that, not surprisingly, the practice hasn't disappeared.

We'll start at the top - Export Publishing Enterprises Ltd. and their 166 titles published between mid 1948 and early 1951. Export acknowledged two titles as "abridged" and one as "revised". The two abridged were Heed the Thunder by Jim Thompson (New York: Greenburg, 1946) and Dangerous Escapade by J. A. Park (London: Fortune Press, 1933 as Strange Occupation). The revised book is Her Mother's Lover by Peggy Gaddis (New York: Godwin, 1936 as Two Women).

Why only these three were acknowledged will never be answered when it's clear that many of Export's books were abridged - sometimes to extraordinary and bizarre degrees. Here are four books picked at random. Unlike Harlequin these abridgements are not an effort to clean up the text - they are all about fitting the book into the 160 pages of the Export edition. I can't imagine the original publisher and author either knowing about or agreeing to these cuts.

Desperado’s Showdown by William Hopson (New York: Phoenix Press, 1948 as NP Puncher) was abridged approximately 25% with three chapters excised and many of the rest losing anywhere from a paragraph to two or three pages. Even the back cover blurb was abridged from the Phoenix Press original.

News Stand Library 120

Nightfall by David Goodis (New York: Julian Messner, 1947) was abridged approximately 15%. All the chapters were kept but most lost anywhere from a few paragraphs to five pages. Some rewriting was done to bridge the excised passages.

NSL 39

Hope of Heaven by John O'Hara (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1938) was modified in an odd way. The final one page chapter was dropped. The rest of the book is uncut.

NSL 18

The Children by Howard Fast (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947) was abridged approximately 10%. All the chapters remain but starting with chapter 9 anywhere from a few paragraphs to two or three pages are cut. The Export edition is 128 pages but the text could have fit comfortably in 160 pages without cuts.

NSL 8

Collins White Circle Artists - Part VI

I've mentioned in a few posts that Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. published 459 books in their White Circle imprint from 1942 until 1952. Three books (50, 51 and 99) had a new cover when reprinted and two books had the same cover (210 and 532 which was a new edition of 210). So there were 461 covers in the imprint. Fifty-two were text-only covers and 33 were photo-only covers, leaving 376 that were illustrated. The artist is known for approximately 1/3 of the illustrated covers.

To date I've noted the work of four artists for the imprint and in this post I'll start commenting on the unknown artists. The first one is the artist on the best known WC cover, I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane. Some others he/she did are easily identified.

White Circle CD384

White Circle 344

White Circle CD360

White Circle CD365

White Circle CD366

White Circle CD371

White Circle CD381

White Circle CD383

Collins White Circle Artists Part V - Isobel McQuire

Many of the artists for paperbacks of the 1940s and 50s remain anonymous. Or just a name with no personal information known. One the goals of this blog is to present the work of the artists, anonymous or otherwise.

So far I've posted information on three Collins White Circle artists - Margaret Paull, York Wilson and John Fernie. Each of these artists will need more than one posting. But the fourth Collins artist will only need one.

Isobel McQuire was an early assistant to Margaret Paull. This from an article about Paull in the Canadian trade magazine Quill & Quire, September 1944, p.70. The article has her name as McGuire but the covers pretty clearly have "McQuire". The article mentions that she was also a graduate of the Ontario College of Art.

She did five White Circle covers, signing as "I. McQuire" or "IM" - the first dated 1944, the rest 1945.

White Circle 205

White Circle 205

White Circle 216

White Circle 217

White Circle 242

White Circle 243

Canadian Paperback Guides

It will not be a surprise to hear that most of the information for this blog comes from the books themselves. Without the book in hand this blog wouldn't be possible. But one of the challenges of collecting Canadian paperbacks from this era is the lack of an accurate and complete public guide to the books.

To fill the gap I've been preparing guides that provide cover images and bibliographic data for Canadian publishers. Each listing has a bibliographic description of the title and copyright pages, a collation of the pages and notes on when first published, author pseudonym, artist if known and other information about the book.

Below are two examples of listings from the guides - one for an obscure publisher (Pocket Library of Best Sellers) and one for a large publisher (Collins White Circle). I would happy to email the guides as a Word document to anyone interested. I just need name, email address and the publishers in which you're interested.

102 Legion of Lost Souls and other stories of strange loves

“Thrill to the Lusty Fever of Exciting Love” | LEGION OF LOST SOULS | And Other Stories of Strange Loves | Edited By | LEONA S. RICHARDS | Author of the Best Seller “No Bed of Her Own” | [drawing of man and woman] | CONFESSION STORIES | NO. 102 | POCKET LIBRARY OF BEST SELLERS | 131-137 Yonge St. - Toronto

CONFESSION STORIES NO. 102 | LEGION OF LOST SOULS | Copyright by Leona S. Richard | POCKET LIBRARY | OF BEST SELLERS | Copyright, 1947 | Fireside Reprint Editions Copyright, 1947, By The Macfadden Estate | Copyright, 1948, By Exotic Books Publishing Co. | STRANGE CRAVING | LEGION OF LOST SOULS | DERELICTS OF PASSION | I LURED THE PLAYBOYS | MY HOUR OF SHAME | DANGEROUS PARADISE | All the characters in this story are fictitious and if the names of | any actual persons occur, it is by sheer coincidence. | Printed in Canada

[1-2] 3-128

Note: First published? See Triangle Pocket Library listing for Confession Stories No. 101.


58 The Bloody Tower

THE BLOODY TOWER | by | JOHN RHODE | [ornament: fountain] LONDON 48 PALL MALL | WM. COLLINS SONS & CO. LTD. | GLASGOW, TORONTO, SYDNEY, AUCKLAND

COPYRIGHT CANADA 1943 BY | WM. COLLINS SONS & CO. CANADA LTD. | PRINTED IN CANADA 

[1-4] 5-192

Note: First published London: Wm. Collins, 1938. Pseudonym of Cecil John Charles Street. Also wrote as Miles Burton.



 

Export and Books in Print! - Part III

I had just finished looking at the books Export Publishing Enterprises published that are or might be in print when my favourite blog The Dusty Bookcase found another one. Montreal Confidential by Al Palmer has just been published by Vehicule Press of Montreal. It was originally published in September 1950 by Export as News Stand Library 134. This edition was dedicated "For EDDIE QUINN the noblest Hibernian" and comes in four variants of which I'm aware.

The first two have the same back cover but different coloured inner covers - one blue, one black. The third and fourth have a reset back cover and the same two colours but the pattern on the inner cover in inverted. The original art still exists - in Palmer's archives at Concordia University.

Palmer was a newspaperman for many years in Montreal and one of his buddies put a couple of free plugs in his column.

The first was “[d]on’t expect to see Al Palmer around these parts for a long time to come. His new book, Montreal Confidential, hit the news stands yesterday. It tells a lot of stories about what made the wheels click in this town in Al’s day, and it names names.” (“Fitz”, “On And Off The Record”, Montreal Gazette, September 21, 1950 p. 11). A few weeks later an update, “Al Palmer’s Montreal Confidential the fastest selling two-bitter ever to hit Montreal news-stands. Predictions are 25,000 copies plus locally, a record. Sales in the hinterland also good.” (“Fitz”, “On And Off The Record”, Montreal Gazette, October 3, 1950 p. 18.)

NSL 134

Variant 1 back cover

Variant 2 back cover