LA Bantam 26
LA Bantam 26 back
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
LA Bantam Illustrated Covers Part III
Here are the seventh of nine illustrated covers seen on Bantam Publications books. There are two copies of The Blue Geranium and other Tuesday Club Murders. On the first the laminate covering the card stock can be seen. This is the only illustrated Bantam I've seen with laminate on the back cover. The other copy has only the ghost of laminate remaining. The effect of the laminate on the image is very clear.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
LA Bantam Back Covers
Anyone reading this blog knows that Bantam Publications books come in many variants. Making sense of them bibliographically is a challenge as the text is always identical and only the last book, Red Threads, has printing information.
One important difference between variants is the back cover where all of the books, excepting the last one, have house ads for Bantam. There were four different ads. Can they help sort out the variants? Perhaps. I haven't seen all of the books and their variants but here's some preliminary analysis.
The first ad appears only on books 1 to 20 which, based on other information, I believe were published before books 21 to 28. The text cover versions of books 21 to 28 have either ads 2 or 3. However some variants of books 1 to 20 also have either ads 2 or 3. The illustrated cover versions of books 21 to 28 have ad 4 only.
The difference between ads 2 and 3 is one more book (Spanish Cape Mystery) is listed in ad 3. The same books are always listed in the ads. Note that the lists include a selection of books from 1 to 28. In ad 4 the other books in the illustrated series are listed, leaving out the book in which the ad appears.
One conclusion from this is that books 1 to 20 with ad 1 were the first published. Then some or all of books 1 to 20 were republished with ads 2 and/or 3 at the same time as the text versions of books 21 to 28. Finally the illustrated versions of books 21 to 28 were published. I'll leave the speculation there for now.
One important difference between variants is the back cover where all of the books, excepting the last one, have house ads for Bantam. There were four different ads. Can they help sort out the variants? Perhaps. I haven't seen all of the books and their variants but here's some preliminary analysis.
The first ad appears only on books 1 to 20 which, based on other information, I believe were published before books 21 to 28. The text cover versions of books 21 to 28 have either ads 2 or 3. However some variants of books 1 to 20 also have either ads 2 or 3. The illustrated cover versions of books 21 to 28 have ad 4 only.
The difference between ads 2 and 3 is one more book (Spanish Cape Mystery) is listed in ad 3. The same books are always listed in the ads. Note that the lists include a selection of books from 1 to 28. In ad 4 the other books in the illustrated series are listed, leaving out the book in which the ad appears.
One conclusion from this is that books 1 to 20 with ad 1 were the first published. Then some or all of books 1 to 20 were republished with ads 2 and/or 3 at the same time as the text versions of books 21 to 28. Finally the illustrated versions of books 21 to 28 were published. I'll leave the speculation there for now.
ad 1 - LA Bantam 2
ad 2 - LA Bantam 18
ad 3 - LA Bantam 25 - text variant
ad 4 - LA Bantam 27 illustrated variant
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
LA Bantam - 10 cents Revisited Part I
I've discussed LA Bantam's 10 cents price in a couple of posts (parts I and II) and don't have anything to add about LA Bantam. But I thought it would be interesting to see other examples of publishers selling paperbacks for less than the standard 25 cents.
The best known American example is Dell Publishing Company, Inc. of New York and their 10 cents series from 1951. They were described by the publisher as "a pocket-sized book at a price of 10 [cents] each." The trim size was equal to Dell regular books but the page count was considerably less at 64 pages. The 36 book experiment shows that even a large successful publisher couldn't sell profitably at 10 cents. But at least by clearly marking the books as 10 cents Dell didn't make the same mistake as Bantam.
The best known American example is Dell Publishing Company, Inc. of New York and their 10 cents series from 1951. They were described by the publisher as "a pocket-sized book at a price of 10 [cents] each." The trim size was equal to Dell regular books but the page count was considerably less at 64 pages. The 36 book experiment shows that even a large successful publisher couldn't sell profitably at 10 cents. But at least by clearly marking the books as 10 cents Dell didn't make the same mistake as Bantam.
Dell 10 cent 18
Dell 10 cent 18 back
Dell 10 cent 36
Dell 10 cent 36 back
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Red Arrow Book Club
As far as I know the Red Arrow Books "Book Club" version of its thirteen books are unique among early American mass market paperback publishers.
Books 1 to 12 came in two other versions and one book, the unnumbered The Unspeakable Gentleman, is seen only in the Book Club version. For the two Book Club books with multiple versions that I've seen the only difference is the covers. Examples of the front and back covers are below. The spine has the same title and author but not the number or logo that the other versions have. The Book Club inside covers are red with the logo and blank white on the other versions. With one exception all the pages, including the title, copyright and text, are identical. The exception is Captain Nemesis where the Book Club version has the logo on the title page and the regular version doesn't.
The Book Club is not advertised in any Red Arrow books that I've seen and I have not been able to find out anything about it. The type only version of the first 12 books were published in the fall of 1939. See here for the Publisher's Weekly ad. The last unnumbered book has a 1940 date. Perhaps all the Book Club versions were created in 1940.
Books 1 to 12 came in two other versions and one book, the unnumbered The Unspeakable Gentleman, is seen only in the Book Club version. For the two Book Club books with multiple versions that I've seen the only difference is the covers. Examples of the front and back covers are below. The spine has the same title and author but not the number or logo that the other versions have. The Book Club inside covers are red with the logo and blank white on the other versions. With one exception all the pages, including the title, copyright and text, are identical. The exception is Captain Nemesis where the Book Club version has the logo on the title page and the regular version doesn't.
The Book Club is not advertised in any Red Arrow books that I've seen and I have not been able to find out anything about it. The type only version of the first 12 books were published in the fall of 1939. See here for the Publisher's Weekly ad. The last unnumbered book has a 1940 date. Perhaps all the Book Club versions were created in 1940.
Red Arrow 6
Red Arrow 10
back of all Book Club editions
Saturday, September 11, 2010
LA Bantam and Red Arrow - A Shared Author
The two early short-lived mass market paperback publishers that share this blog also share one author - Agatha Christie. With the 120th anniversary of her birthday just four days away this is a good time to compare her treatment by these two publishers.
It is not surprising Christie is the one author shared by the two publishers. Generally accepted as the second best selling author of all time (behind Shakespeare with an estimated 2 - 4 billion books sold) Christie's books are among the earliest published by the early mass market publishers. The early Dell version of The Tuesday Club Murders is below.
The LA Bantam is a collection of five stories chosen from an original 13 that were published as The Thirteen Problems in England and as The Tuesday Club Murders in the US in 1931. The Red Arrow is a novel originally published in 1934 as Lord Edgware Dies. Later that year it was published in the United States as Thirteen At Dinner. Both examples below are the text only covers. They exist in illustrated versions also.
It is not surprising Christie is the one author shared by the two publishers. Generally accepted as the second best selling author of all time (behind Shakespeare with an estimated 2 - 4 billion books sold) Christie's books are among the earliest published by the early mass market publishers. The early Dell version of The Tuesday Club Murders is below.
The LA Bantam is a collection of five stories chosen from an original 13 that were published as The Thirteen Problems in England and as The Tuesday Club Murders in the US in 1931. The Red Arrow is a novel originally published in 1934 as Lord Edgware Dies. Later that year it was published in the United States as Thirteen At Dinner. Both examples below are the text only covers. They exist in illustrated versions also.
Red Arrow 1 - 1939
Bantam 26 - 1940
Dell 8 - 1943
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
LA Bantam - Illustrated Covers Part II
In part I I discussed the nine illustrated covers that Bantam produced for books 21 through 28 plus A1. Books 21 to 28 also came with type covers.
Here are three more of the illustrated covers. The only signed cover art is seen here - Nobody Heard the Shot. Note a feature that is common to the covers. The front cover and spine were laminated for better wear but the laminate has often lifted to some degree. The addition of the laminate also caused some deterioration to the colours.
The lifting of the laminate is also found in early Pocket Books. See the example below.
Here are three more of the illustrated covers. The only signed cover art is seen here - Nobody Heard the Shot. Note a feature that is common to the covers. The front cover and spine were laminated for better wear but the laminate has often lifted to some degree. The addition of the laminate also caused some deterioration to the colours.
The lifting of the laminate is also found in early Pocket Books. See the example below.
Bantam 22
Bantam 25
Bantam 27
Pocket Books 11
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