Universal & Royal Giants

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The Universal Publishing and Distribution Corporation of New York put out its first Uni Books in 1947. Eventually, they would add lines of paperbacks that would include Intimate digests, Stallion, Award, and eventually and most notably, Beacon. In 1952, they added a line of exceedingly distinctive "giant" books. Distinctive, because unlike Bantam's and Graphic's "giant" volumes, these books really were large. They were, in fact, almost the same size as hardbound books, and they sold for 50¢. The size did vary somewhat during the run.

There were 29 books in all. The first 11 were dubbed "Universal Giants," and beginning with number 12 they became "Royal Giants." About half of them were "double novels," and used stacked double cover art. Most of the single novels sported significant art on their back covers, as well.

The last one was printed in 1954.

This page was updated in August 2022