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Old May 31st 07, 02:26 AM posted to rec.collecting.books
Francis A. Miniter
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Posts: 131
Default 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
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