Perry Mason Part III

In Parts I and II of this Perry Mason series I've discussed the nearly 900 Pocket Book printings of the 82 PM novels. There were, of course, many other publishers of the PM books - Penguin and Pan in the UK, Ballantine in the US and smaller publishers. But, with one exception, the covers on all of these editions never showed Perry Mason. The one exception is an odd Australian hybrid of two publishers. Described as "published by Penguin Books ... in conjunction with Horwitz Publications", the seven PM novels have Penguin text and Horwitz covers. 

Perry Mason aka Raymond Burr is seen on five of the books and one has Paul Drake aka William Hopper. There is one Horwitz Gardner book that has Burr on the cover and is advertised as a Perry Mason story. But it isn't. It is TCOT Smoking Chimney.

Below is one of the Raymond Burr covers plus an earlier edition from UK publisher British Publishers Guild. 

Penguin/Horwitz H965 - 1961

British Publishers Guild 418 - second printing 1952

Mrs Robinson

"I feel funny coming into a dark house," she said.

"But its light in there now."

The Graduate

One of my favourite movies, and books. Added bonus is the first Penguin printing has a special feature - a dust jacket added when the movie came out.

The first six or seven years of Penguins had dust jackets. Then a few dozen in the late forties and early fifties. This is the only one I know of from the sixties.

 

Penguin 2693 - 1967

 

Penguin 2693 back

 

Penguin 2693 dust jacket

 

Penguin 39th - no date

 

Penguin 39th 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

Animal Farm Part I

In my first Orwell post I highlighted his most famous book. Here's the next most famous. Three editions from Penguin - the first, the latest and one in between. The last two have supplementary material.

Penguin 838 - 1951

Penguin 838 back

Animal Farm - 1989

Animal Farm 1989 back

Animal Farm - 2013

Animal Farm 2013 back

Dust Jackets Part I

One of my collecting interests is vintage paperbacks with dust jackets. Britain leads the way with Penguin alone publishing some 400 books with jackets between 1935 and 1940. There were also a few dozen in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

In the US there are scattered examples from half-a-dozen publishers. Here are three examples - two from Penguin and one from Bantam who published 27 in the late 1940s.

Penguin 260 DJ - 1940

Penguin 260 DJ back

Penguin 67 DJ - 1936

Penguin 67 DJ back

Bantam 26 DJ - March 1946

Bantam 26 DJ back

Bantam 26

Bantam 26 back

Nineteen Eighty-Four Part I

I posted twice to this blog last year. The reason? Nothing to say. As my legion of followers know (hi Brian), this has been a very narrowly focused blog. I've decided to open up the blog to all books that interest me, aside from the Canadian paperbacks that are the topic of my main blog Fly-by-Night.

I'll start with one of my top half dozen favourite novels - Nineteen Eight-Four. There have been dozens of paperback editions since it was first published in 1949, with Penguin leading the way. Here are three editions from Penguin - the first from 1954, an imaginative reworking from 2013 and a Times promotion from 2009.

Penguin 978 - 1954

Penguin 978 back

Penguin - 2013

Penguin - 2013 - back

Penguin - 2009

Penguin - 2009 - back