Newspaper Novels Part IV
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
26m ago
Part III discussed my estimate of the surprising number of copies of novels that were published by The Philadelphia Inquirer as Sunday inserts over 14 years - 700 million. I use an estimate of 1,000,000 average circulation for the Sunday edition to arrive at that figure. This is based on actual figures that range from 1.035 million in 1938 to 1.093 million in 1947. I have identified 430 of the estimated 700 Inquirer issues. There are 295 authors in that group with Georges Simenon first with 19 titles and Ben Ames Williams and Faith Baldwin second with five. How many of these authors ..read more
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Newspaper Novels Part III
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
3d ago
Continuing the story from part II here are three more weekly newspaper novel supplements from The Philadelphia Inquirer, all from August 1941. The Inquirer (1829-), as far as I can tell, published the Gold Seal Novels on Sunday from May 1934 to September 1949 with no issues from May 1946 to April 1948 - approximately 700 issues. I have been able to identify 430 of them. During these years Sunday circulation was likely averaging close to a million copies per week, again, based on what I can find on line. This means around 700 million copies of the novels were sold by this one newspape ..read more
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Newspaper Novels Part II
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
5d ago
In part I I introduced mid-century weekly novel newspaper inserts. I recently picked up 40 examples from The Philadelphia Inquirer who published around 650 from 1934 to 1949. Unlike some of their US competitors who used Canadian produced supplements the Inquirer's were unique. Here is one example - Georges Simenon's A Crime in Holland from November 30, 1941. The insert is 20 pages (including front and back covers) with the cover and internal illustrations by Ben Dale (1889-1951) and an advertisement on the last page. The novel is quite short yet approximately 29% abridged for the ins ..read more
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Avon Books in Canada Part III
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by bowdler
2M ago
In part II I introduced a short-lived (1952-3) series of paperbacks from Avon Canada. Here's more about them. The early numbers (at least to C762) in the series do not have a price on the covers. Later books have the price (35 cents) on both covers. All titles have “Printed in Canada” on the back cover and the copyright page. The Canadian subsidiary of American News Corporation (474 Wellington Street West in Toronto), the owner of Avon, is the distributor. The number on all books is on the top left front cover and lower spine. Avon (Canadian printing) C788 (US printing numbe ..read more
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Avon Books in Canada Part II
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
2M ago
Part I described the introduction of Avon paperbacks into Canada in late 1941. Here I'll skip ahead a decade to a short lived series of Avon titles that were renumbered for the Canadian market.  There are 62 titles starting at C751 and ending at C812, 57 of which I have identified. Most have no print date but the few I've seen that do are spring 1953. I'm guessing the series ran from 1952 to 1953. They sold for 35 cents. The US numbers range from 300 to 526. There are also four titles from Avon's Eton subsidiary in the series. Here are a few examples. Avon (Canadian printing) C757 ..read more
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Heed the Thunder
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
2M ago
I haven't published a post about Toronto paperback publisher Export Publishing Enterprises in a while. But a couple of recent bookseller listings for one of Export's  books has inspired. Export's primary imprint was "News Stand Library". Between May 1948 and January 1951 Export published 159 News Stand titles. Number 54 is Jim Thompson's Heed the Thunder, his second book, originally published in 1946 (New York: Greenberg). Thanks to Thompson's reputation the two listed copies are expensive - here at $500CAN (this bookseller happens to be a 5 minute drive from our house ..read more
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Whispering City
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
4M ago
The latest title in Montreal publisher Vehicule Press's Ricochet imprint has just been published. Whispering City was first published in 1947 as a paperback original by Global Publishing Company in Pickering, Ontario, a city just east of Toronto. The publisher was Horace Brown who was also the author. It is a novelization of a movie which takes place in Quebec City and was released in both French and English.  The new edition has an introduction by series editor Brian Busby and the original foreword by the author. Unable to be reproduced are three photos from the movie ..read more
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Newspaper Novels Part I
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by bowdler
8M ago
Recently I did a series on the Star Weekly Novels which were published from 1938 to 1973 as inserts in the Saturday Toronto Star, one of 21 US (18) and Canadian (3) newspapers with novel inserts that I've so far identified.  There is very little information on these inserts on-line but I've cobbled together lists totaling 2500. An early guess is at least 12,000 were published. The dates so far are 1910/11 and 1928 to 1973. At least six US newspapers used inserts produced in Canada, just changing the newspaper name on the first page. Here are three US examples. The Philadelphia Inquir ..read more
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Star Weekly Novel Part V
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
10M ago
I've mentioned authors and artists in earlier Star Weekly Novel posts. Here I'll start looking at genres. The series lasted for 36 years and nicely lines up with the middle third of the 20th century. From the annexation of Austria into the German Reich and the discovery of fission in 1938 to Watergate and the oil shock in 1973. It was a time when the number of readers in the US and Canada grew very fast. The post war world of increased education levels and popularity of cheap paperbacks are some of the reasons for this change. The popular fiction genres were historical, romance, crime/thriller ..read more
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Star Weekly Novel Part IV
Fly-by-night
by bowdler
10M ago
I've been able to find title/author information for some 1500 Star Weekly Novels, 80% of the approximate 1875 published. So far I have identified the artwork on only 93 issues. There are 34 separate artists. Here are some examples. Dance Without Music is illustrated by Mabel McDermott (?-?).   Stranger in the Little House has an illustration by someone well known to readers of this blog - Harlequin cover artist Paul Anna Soik (1919-1999). Where is Jenny Now? - art by American George Sottung (1927-1999). Star Weekly Complete Novel - December 3, 1960 Star Weekly Comp ..read more
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