Armed Services Editions Part I

I've recently been picking up some of the 1322 books published from September 1943 to June 1947 by Editions for the Armed Services, Inc. A couple of new books, American Pulp by Paula Rabinowitz and Molly Guptill Manning's When Books Went to War have reignited my interest in this fascinating series.

The books were published in series each month, the first being A-1 to A-30. Each book in this first series had a print run of 50,000.

Thirteen of the first fourteen series were listed in YANK The Army Weekly with the "A" series in the October 23, 1943 issue at page 21. Each book was briefly described. Here are the descriptions for three of the books.

A-1 The Education of H*Y*M*A*N* K*A*P*L*A*N* by Leonard Q. Ross (pseudonym for Leo Rosten) - Hyman Kaplan's adventures in the English language at Mr. Parkhill's class in the American Nights Preparatory School for Adults in New York. Funny as hell.

 

ASE A-1 September 1943

 

ASE A-1 back

 

A-2 Report from Tokyo by Joseph C Grew - Our former ambassador to Tokyo gives the inside dope on Japan and explains why the present Jap ruling class must be wiped out to ensure a lasting peace.

ASE A-2 September 1943

 

ASE A-2 back

 

A-9 Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck - Lusty, poetic and sacrilegious tales of the paisanos of Monterey, Calif., by one of America's top writers.

 

ASE A-9 September 1943

 

ASE A-9 back

Pocket Books at 75

Last June Pocket Books celebrated the 75th anniversary of mass market publishing in North America. The ad in the June 19th NY Times, promoting the first 10 Pocket Books, read:

"Today is the most important literary coming-out party in the memory of New York’s oldest book lover. Today your 25 cent piece leaps to a par with dollar bills….These new Pocket Books are designed to fit both the tempo of our times and the needs of New Yorkers….Never again need you say “I wish I had time to read” because Pocket Books gives you the time….The books you have always meant to read “when you had time” will fill the waits with enjoyment."

I'm surprised by how little press the anniversary received. Pocket Books has done next to nothing to promote, aside from a logo noting the event. Perhaps their embarrassed by the quality of the product. Below is an example. Horrible book. The acknowledgements section names 46 people that helped produce the book. At least Gertrude remains.

Interesting to note that the price of paperbacks has gone up 40 fold in 75 years while the average hardcover's price is up only 10 fold.

 

Pocket - June 2014

 

Pocket June 2014 back

 

June 2014 logo

 

Pocket 16 - September 1939

 

Pocket 16 back

 

Pocket 33 - January 1940

 

Pocket 33 back

 

Pocket 1939 logo

Nineteen Eighty-Four Part II

In July 1950 The New American Library of World Literature (NAL) published the first American paperback edition of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. In 2014 NAL published the 129th "printing" of this book. An amazing record of an average of two "printings" every year for 64 years.

I put the word printing in quotes because the 129 versions are not technically all printings of a single edition. Because the book was reset over the years there are a number of editions each with one or more impressions adding up to 129. Below are printings one and fourteen of the first edition as well as the 129th "printing". I don't know which edition this is. This last version has an afterword from Erich Fromm which first appeared in 1961 with the first printing of the "Signet Classics" edition.

Signet 798 - 1st printing July 1950

 

Signet 798 back

 

Signet S798 - 14th printing May 1956

 

Signet S798 - back

 

Signet - 129th - 2014

 

Signet 129th - back

Dust Jackets Part IV

In 1942 Penguin began publishing in the USA. By 1948 the Penguin US effort had stalled and The New American Library of World Literature (NAL) took over. Six of the original Penguin USA titles were later released with dust jackets, some by NAL under the new Signet imprint.

The last post in this series had the third of the six, here is the first.

Penguin USA 503 (fourth printing) - March 1946

Penguin USA - 503 (fourth printing) back

Penguin - 503 (fourth printing) dust jacket - March 1946

Penguin 503 (fourth printing) dust jacket back

Appointment in Samarra Part I

One of my favourite novels is John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra (Harcourt, Brace, 1934). Penguin has just published a lovely trade edition, 69 years after their first edition. There have been many other editions but, not surprisingly, Penguin's are the prettiest.

Penguin 472 - 1944

Penguin 472 back

Penguin 2013

Penguin 2013 back

James Salter Part I

This past Saturday was the 60th anniversary of the signing of the truce that ended hostilities for the Korean War. James Salter was a jet fighter pilot in the war and his first novel, The Hunters (Harper, 1956), is about the lives and loves of American fighter pilots during the Korean War. Amazingly 57 years later Salter has just had his latest novel, All That Is,  published to generally very favourable reviews.

Salter rewrote The Hunters in 1997. There is also a Robert Mitchum 1958 film version which I can recommend.

The Great Gatsby Part I

The Great Gatsby has been published in "I don't know how many" editions. Has anyone done a bibliography of all Gatsby editions?

On a  recent trip to Chapters (the Standard Oil of the Canadian booksellers world) I counted eleven different versions. Here are two recent editions that are not the run of the mill. The first is from Pulp! The Classics, an imprint of Harpenden's Oldcastle Books. It is one of eight pulp versions of classics published in 2013. Two nice touches are numbering of the books and a yellow edge stain.

The next is a 2013 french version from Paris's Pocket. The single word title caught my attention.

PTC 102 - 2013

PTC 102 back

Pocket - 2013

Pocket back