Macfadden-Bartell Novels of Distinction
One reason why the demise of the mass market paperback is a great American tragedy is that with them went the custom of listing other titles from the publisher in the back of the book. …
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Tracks of Forgotten Books, or, Subjects For No Further Research
I love publishers who made a practice of listing their other releases on the flyleaf or dust jacket, because these can be the clues that lead me to a forgotten gem. But sometimes, these lists …
Two Lost Novels
I love to page through old issues of The Saturday Review, the TLS, and other book reviews of the past for the advertisements as much as for the reviews. Browsing through old copies of the …
The Signpost, by E. Arnot Robertson (1943)
Macmillan splashed this ad for E. Arnot Robertson’s novel, The Signpost across the top half of page 13 on the New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review, consuming paper that British publishers struggling with wartime …
Angry Man’s Tale, by Peter de Polnay (1939)
At a time when many first-time novelists bemourn publishers’ reluctance to back their works with advertisement, Alfred A. Knopf’s half-page ad for Peter de Polnay’s Angry Man’s Tale (1939) stands as righteous refutation. Look at …