Avon Books Canadian Printings
As I've mentioned in many places, Avon Books were my first vintage paperback love. The bright pulpy covers with great good girl art by Raymond Johnson, Bill Randall, Robert Crowl and other "Avon Artists" of the 1940's & 50's called to me as a burgeoning collector back in the late 70's and early 80's when I started collecting, even though at the time, I had no idea who these artists were.
I recently came into a copy of the Canadian edition of "The Blue Negro" numbered C792, which I had never seen before, so I delved a bit into the web and my own collection to write a little bit about the Canadian Avons.
Digging through my collection, I found that I also had a copy of the Canadian edition of "The Juvenile Delinquents" by Lenard Kaufman. Avon Books C755. This was also unlaminated - as well as much thicker than the U.S. edition, not more pages but a thicker paper stock than the U.S. edition. It also has the "Printed in Canada" at the end of the copyright page.
After thinking about them for a litte bit. I decided to check the "Bookscans" website to see what, if any, Canadian Avons were listed there. The Canadian Avons were buried a bit, in the "Other Non U.S. Publishers A-C" section - which is kind of not where I'd think they were. There were 11 Canadian Avons with the "C" numbering there. The earliest number was "The Juvenile Delinquents" at C755, the last was C799 "Straw Boss" by E.E. Halleran. C792, "The Blue Negro" was not listed so I have an unlisted title that I will need to send them a scan of so they can display it there. You always kind of know you have something rare (or just obscure!) if it's not pictured on Bookscans.
I recall that I had at one time, a copy of the Canadian edition of Abraham Merritt's "The Fox Woman" and other stories (Avon No. 214) from 1949, this slightly earlier Canadian edition did not have a "C" numbering, instead, the number circle was blank. I have seen this Canadian "Blank Circle" on a few other Avons in the past that I cannot recall, so it was obviously an earlier device to identify Canadian Avon releases.
I posted the one Canadian Avon I have, The Ship of Ishtar, over on the CS forums. If you want me to try and dig it out for the indicia and back cover, let me know and I'll see if it's easily accessible. Feel free to borrow any of my images if you need them, I doubt there are many but some might apply, like this one. Good luck on the blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks Eric, that's a neat one that I will borrow - I'd like the info but only when you have time - the lack of the number on the cover is pretty convincing.
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