Frankenstein Editions Part I

Next in a series of classic text editions.

Frankenstein is almost 200 years old and has seen English language versions too many to numerate. Here are two recent editions plus one from New York's Lion Books. It is the 1831 version as are London publisher's Vintage and the Pulp! The Classics from Harpenden's (UK) Oldcastle Books.

 

Lion 146 - 1953

 

Lion 146 back

 

PTC009 - 2014

 

PTC009 back

 

Vintage - 2015

 

Vintage back

Hyde Editions Part I

One of my collecting interests is the many editions of titles that continue to be published. An example is Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. First published in 1886 every year brings new editions. Here are two from 2014 plus an edition from Boston's Bailey & Co. published in 1887. This is number 20 in their New England Series and includes four other Stevenson stories.

London publisher's Vintage edition has five other stories while the Pulp! The Classics edition from Harpenden's (UK) Oldcastle Books has none.

 

Bailey - 1887

 

Bailey back

 

PTC-115 - 2014

 

 

PTC-115 back

 

Vintage - 2014

 

Vintage back

The Unnatural Son - A Lost Mark Twain?

Complete, unexpurgated. A Royal Books Giant Edition from New York publisher Universal Publishing and Distributing Corporation. Matched with A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. The Unnatural Son - a lost Mark Twain?

No. Pudd'nhead Wilson disguised, sort of.

 

Royal Giant 28 - 1953

 

Royal Giant 28 back 

 

The John Harvard Library - 2015

 

The John Harvard Library back

Armed Services Editions Part III

Part I of this series introduced the Armed Services Editions published as a cooperative effort by American publishers under the auspices of the Council on Books In Wartime. There was another Armed Services Editions series associated with Pocket Books Inc.

At least 57 books were published by a company called Readers' League of America Inc, a New York publisher. I haven't been able to find any information about Readers' League.

An example is The "Canary" Murder Case by S.S. van Dine. The pictures below show the differences in the covers. Other differences are:

1) on the title page the publisher is changed from "POCKET BOOKS INC. [logo - Gertrude] NEW YORK, 20. N.Y." to "ARMED SERVICES EDITION | READERS' LEAGUE OF AMERICA | NEW YORK, N. Y."

2) on the copyright page of the ASE the printing history has been removed.

Pocket 248 - November 1943

Pocket 248 back

Pocket [248] ASE - no date

Pocket [248] ASE back

Armed Services Editions Part II

As I mentioned in the first post in this series the US Army magazine Yank The Army Weekly listed thirteen of the first fourteen series of the Armed Services Editions. Here are three more of those books with the original comments from the editors of Yank. The first book from the November 19, 1943 issue, the next two from the May 21, 1944 issue.

B-52 Rome Haul by Walter D. Edmonds - Historical novel centered around the great days of the Erie Canal.

ASE B-52 - October 1943

ASE B-52 back

G-189 Kamongo by Homer W. Smith - A scientist writes of lungfish and the human mind.

ASE G-189 - March 1944

 

ASE G-189 back

G-191 Little Caesar by W. R. Burnett - An old Chicago gangster story that's still good
reading.

ASE G-191 - March 1944

 

ASE G-191 back

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