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Avon |
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Click the group of books beginning with number:
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Joseph Meyer was approached by the American News Corporation (ANC) in 1941 to begin a paperback line, since Pocket Book had dropped them to begin its own distributing. Avon books were by far sleazier, flashier and gaudier than any other book of the day. As a result, they are more collectible today. The books were also of cheaper construction, which means good copies are harder to find. The back cover of a book, normally reserved for copywriters trying to sell a work, was used to tout the publisher itself at Avon. When this strange practice finally ended, Avon would often recycle old cover art from one book to try to increase appeal on the back cover of another. Sometimes, cover art on both front and back covers would have little-to-no relevance to the literary work itself. The first 40 Avon titles were not numbered, and are designated “nn” following their actual edition. Usually, very little Avon printing information is listed on the printer’s imprint page of a book, and while some editions were reprinted several time, there are very few accurate ways to determine printing numbers. Some books were actually reprints of earlier editions, and they often had the same cover, such as Avon 120 and Avon 232, Alabam. This practice was also used extensively at Dell. Thanks to contributors, I am able to present the entire run of numbered Avons (I'm still working on the T-series books). Special thanks to Bruce Brenner, of www.vintagepbks.com, who sent me scans of his entire Avon collection. There are a few Avon editions that do not exist. There are no books numbered 361, 386, 388, & 409. Avon #36 (no number), is supposed to be The Avon Book of Great Mystery Stories, but to my knowledge, no one has ever seen a copy; and we must assume that it, too, does not exist (that title is the numbered Avon 86). If anyone has ever seen a no-numbered copy, the vintage paperback community would really like to know about it. There are several documented variations among the early Avon covers. Check it out HERE. The "Avon Others" folder contains: Avon FANTASY NOVELS, Avon BARD, Avon CAMELOT and Avon DISCUS.
This page was update in March 2022
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