Non-US publishers

Fontana

(UK)

Click below for books beginning with:

1

500

1000

1800

2400

610000

613700

615000

Fontana was launched in 1953 by William Collins, Sons. Previously, the company had published the paperback Collins Crime Club books (as well as Collins White Circle Pocket Books), which were dedicated solely to mysteries (and can be viewed elsewhere in this section of BookScans).

It appears that there were several labels in the Fontana run (mostly in the 80's), including Fountain, Fontana Monarchs, Fontana African Fiction Series, Fontana Lions, and Fontana Modern Masters.

According to Grant Thiessen, "Fount" and "Fountain" were religious books, and sometimes duplicated numbers already printed.

There were no prefixes in the numbers, but the letter "R" followed some book numbers on religious titles.

News Corporation acquired Collins in the 1980's. It merged with Harper & Row in 1990 and became HarperCollins.

From one online source, it appears that Fontana's greatest production output occurred in the 1980's.

However, the BookScans database does not go beyond 1979.

Here's some more great info from Grant Thiessen:

Fontana started using a 6 digit number sometime in the first half of 1973, as they adopted the full ISBN system. If a book from 1 to 3295 (transition may have been erratic, however, as the 1972 printing of 3295 follows a number of 1973 printings) was reprinted in 1973 or later, the numbers 61, 62, or 63 were placed at the front of it. Problematically, however, they still showed the final 4 digits of the 6 digit number at the base of the spine, well into the 1980’s.

For consistency, I believe that everything after 3295 should use the 6 digit number, if only to put the books in their proper perspective. 3296 through 4678 should be 6-digit numbers preceded by 61: e,g, 3385 should be 613385, and 5142 should be 635142

the first 2 digits were used as follows:

61 - mainly fiction. Fontana symbol base is usually blue
62 - religion. Fontana symbol base is usually red
63 - non-fiction. Fontana symbol base is usually orange, but sometimes blue

Interestingly, if you remove the 61, 62, and 63 prefixes, the remaining 4-digits all belong in a single sequence, no duplications.,

67 - Lions (juvenile fiction). Lions was a weird imprint. It was first used in the 1970’s in conjunction with Armada as Armada Lion(s) (some books show the Lions imprint, but also say An Armada Lion); but also as Lions by itself, and also as Fontana Lions in the 1980’s.

Armada books were originally published by MayFair Books from 1962 until 1966, at which time the company was sold to Collins, who continued the numbering sequence. When they got to 6-digit numbers, they used 0-00-69 as the prefix, whereas both Lions and Armada Lions used the prefix 0-00-67. The earliest Lion and Armada Lion titles seem to be from 1971. I have seen Armada Lions as late as 1979, Lions without the Armada as early as 1973. I have seen Armada without the Lions imprint as late as 1998. So I have no idea what made the difference between publishing the book as just Armada, just Lions, Armada Lion, or Fontana Lions. All were owned by Collins, the owner of Fontana, during this time period. A couple of Canadian imprints used in this period, also owned by Collins, were Totem and Tundra.
 

The cover scan above is courtesy of Grant Thiessen

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