berkley

Berkley was created in 1954 (the first books were published in '55) by former executives of Avon. It's easy to see the similarities. The size was the standard, smaller paperback format, and the Berkley G-series 35¢ books look a lot like the Avon T-series. Provocative cover art is prevalent on many of the books, and several of the "sleazier" volumes have become quite collectible.

But Berkley published other genres as well. Its non-fiction books were generally WWII historical works (at least, during the vintage paperback years), and there were several westerns, cartoon and humor books, as well as some sci-fi offerings.

The numbered books began with 101 and ran through 112, then they skipped to 313 and ended with 386. The lettered-series books contained G (35¢) and BG (50¢) books in numerical order beginning with G-1. There is a gap between 300 & 401. Eventually, the "BG" would give way to the "F" (fifty-cent) prefix. Other letters designated other prices, but the numbers continued in sequence ... though there were several other gaps.

Somewhere in the 250 range, the lettered books began calling themselves "Berkley Medallions," and transitioned to the tall format. In 1959, Berkley put out a few dozen additional books in the original short format. They called them "Berkley Diamond" books, also known as the "D-series" by collectors. (NOTE: In the 70's, the "D" prefix designated a price of $1.50. Those books are in numerical order.) A few Berkley Highland books (which were also issued in numerical order within the Lettered-series) were obviously geared for young readers, much like Scholastic Books.

This page was updated in June, 2022