Red Arrow Books

Red Arrow 7 (1st prtg)

Red Arrow 7 (3rd prtg)

At roughly the same time that Pocket Books was printing their first standard-sized numbered books, Red Arrow Books of Milwaukee, Wisconsin began printing a series of books that were roughly the same size. There were twelve in the run, and they bore no pictures on the covers. Jon Warren, in his Paperback Price Guide, simply lists the twelve titles (all printed in 1939), plus one other no-numbered book printed in 1940. So does Kevin Hancer in his first two price guides. In his third edition, Hancer alludes to the fact that "pictorial wraps probably exist of each title, valued equally."

 However, according to Graham Holroyd in HIS price guide, the twelve titles were all reprinted three times (four printings in all), and the 13th title (The Unspeakable Gentleman by John P. Marquand) was only added in the fourth and final printing run. I don't know where Graham got his information, but I assume it is correct, and he is relatively specific about how to identify the individual printings (which are not identified in the books themselves).

First Printing - Books 1-5 have brown covers, 6-10 have green covers, 11-12 have blue covers. ALL of these have a book index of the twelve titles on the back cover.

Second Printing - At least the first five covers have a red spine. (The others are unknown.)

Third Printing - All twelve have pictorial covers.

Fourth Printing - All thirteen covers are blue, with no index on the back cover.

According to Graham, the third printings are the most valuable.