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-   -   Detective Book Club oddity (http://www.collectingbanter.com/showthread.php?t=214707)

Francis A. Miniter May 31st 07 01:28 AM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
John R. Yamamoto-Wilson wrote:

Jim wrote:

Well, checking these titles on bookfinder, I come up with an
ordinary Detective Book Club edition as well, which leads me
to assume that 1969 (or 1970) *is* the date of publication.



I'm not sure why you think that. If a book carries a copyright but no
publication date then, unless there is other evidence to pin down the
date of publication, all one can assume is that it was published on or
after the copyright date.

my impression was that the titles were always contemporary
mysteries, and I'm wondering why, after 28--or even 35--years,
they should do this volume.



That Zane Grey website has a lot of info on Walter Black. Apparently
they did a lot of reprints of Zane Grey material during the 1960s:

The Walter J. Black Editions were reprints of seventy-three of
Zane Grey's titles with one additional title appearing as a First
Edition. The series also included a biography of Zane Grey.
Produced in the 1960's, they were bound in red and tan cloth and
originally came in a rice paper cover.

(http://www.zgws.org/black.html)

It goes on to discuss the value of these editions (most of them are of
little value, but there are one or two exceptions).

So Walter Black were reprinting Zane Grey stuff in the 1960s and several
of these reprints (according to http://www.zgws.org/zgfechrono.html)
were limited "leatherette" editions. It's not unreasonable to suppose
that they were reprinting other material from decades earlier and that
some of that, too, came out in limited editions with a leather binding.

John


Today I came across a learthette bound book from Walter Black. This was the
"Works of Tolstoi" bearing a copyright of 1928 (presumably for the translation).
But the condition of the book looked much more recent than 1928.


Francis A. Miniter

John R. Yamamoto-Wilson May 31st 07 02:11 AM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
Francis A. Miniter wrote:

Today I came across a learthette bound book from Walter Black. This was
the "Works of Tolstoi" bearing a copyright of 1928 (presumably for the
translation). But the condition of the book looked much more recent than
1928.


Interesting. I notice the copyright date they used on their Maigret titles
was the date of the original, rather than the date of the translation.
Anyway, the thing about reprint companies like this is that, since they
generally don't give a printing date and only use a copyright date, it's
well-nigh impossible to pin down the exact date of publication.

How do/did Walter Black distribute? This series is a "book club", so I'm
guessing it would be a subscription thing, right? If so, then these
leatherette and/or limited editions might have been special offers to
members, or inducements to become a member. They might have chosen their
most popular title(s) for this treatment, hence the OP's "vintage" volume in
a series of "current" mystery stories.

John


Francis A. Miniter May 31st 07 02:26 AM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
John R. Yamamoto-Wilson wrote:

Francis A. Miniter wrote:


Today I came across a learthette bound book from Walter Black. This was
the "Works of Tolstoi" bearing a copyright of 1928 (presumably for the


translation). But the condition of the book looked much more recent than


1928.



Interesting. I notice the copyright date they used on their Maigret titles
was the date of the original, rather than the date of the translation.
Anyway, the thing about reprint companies like this is that, since they
generally don't give a printing date and only use a copyright date, it's
well-nigh impossible to pin down the exact date of publication.

How do/did Walter Black distribute? This series is a "book club", so I'm
guessing it would be a subscription thing, right? If so, then these
leatherette and/or limited editions might have been special offers to
members, or inducements to become a member. They might have chosen their
most popular title(s) for this treatment, hence the OP's "vintage" volume in
a series of "current" mystery stories.

John


That makes sense.

I mentioned Walter Black a couple of months ago with respect to an Erle Stanley
Gardner work, "The Case of the Singing Skirt". There is a dust jacket from
Morrow (Gardner's usual publisher) on it, but the book says Walter Black. The
copyright page says "published by special arrangement with William Morrow & Co."
But when I to an AddALL search for the book, I only get one Walter Black copy,
no Morrow copies. Strange. The Morrow dust jacket contains a $2.95 price, by
the way.


Francis A. Miniter

Jim[_2_] May 31st 07 04:49 AM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
On May 30, 8:28 pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

Today I came across a learthette bound book from Walter Black. This was the
"Works of Tolstoi" bearing a copyright of 1928 (presumably for the translation).
But the condition of the book looked much more recent than 1928.


That would be a "Reader's Service" volume, I bet. The ordinary ones
were red, and the fancy ones (which you saw) a cream-colored binding,
if I recall.

You didn't happen to notice anything indicating it was "limited" in
any way, did you?


Francis A. Miniter May 31st 07 09:27 PM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
Jim wrote:
On May 30, 8:28 pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

Today I came across a learthette bound book from Walter Black. This was the
"Works of Tolstoi" bearing a copyright of 1928 (presumably for the translation).
But the condition of the book looked much more recent than 1928.



That would be a "Reader's Service" volume, I bet. The ordinary ones
were red, and the fancy ones (which you saw) a cream-colored binding,
if I recall.

You didn't happen to notice anything indicating it was "limited" in
any way, did you?


No, but I may be able to get back and double check. Certainly there was nothing
on the copyright page. That I am sure of.


Francis A. Miniter

Jim[_2_] May 31st 07 09:47 PM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
Jim wrote:
You didn't happen to notice anything indicating it was "limited" in
any way, did you?


Francis wrote:
No, but I may be able to get back and double check. Certainly there was nothing
on the copyright page. That I am sure of.


What I'm thinking is that these were not "limited" in the proper
sense, but "deluxe." (I grant that they were limited in the sense that
they were published in smaller numbers than the regular edition...) I
suspect that's also the case with the Zane Grey titles John cites
above.


Jim[_2_] June 8th 07 09:51 PM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
On May 30, 9:26 pm, "Francis A. Miniter"
wrote:

I mentioned Walter Black a couple of months ago with respect to an Erle Stanley
Gardner work, "The Case of the Singing Skirt". There is a dust jacket from
Morrow (Gardner's usual publisher) on it, but the book says Walter Black. The
copyright page says "published by special arrangement with William Morrow & Co."
But when I to an AddALL search for the book, I only get one Walter Black copy,
no Morrow copies. Strange. The Morrow dust jacket contains a $2.95 price, by
the way.


Almost all the Gardner titles went right into a Detective Book Club
volume (according to the Dorothy Hughes bio), and were reprinted by
Black later in various forms, eventually becoming the uniform edition
known as the Gardner Mystery Library.


Jim[_2_] July 22nd 07 08:04 PM

Detective Book Club oddity
 
On May 30, 9:11 pm, "John R. Yamamoto-Wilson"
wrote:

How do/did Walter Black distribute? This series is a "book club", so I'm
guessing it would be a subscription thing, right? If so, then these
leatherette and/or limited editions might have been special offers to
members, or inducements to become a member. They might have chosen their
most popular title(s) for this treatment, hence the OP's "vintage" volume in
a series of "current" mystery stories.


I've seen the leatherettes of various titles around, but never a
*numbered* limited edition...



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