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Click below for books beginning with:
4-digit
00001
01600
02600
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As outlined below, this
publisher is linked to to two other UK publishers:
Ace and Foursquare.
As an introduction, I will paste an
edited outtake from an email I received from Grant Thiessen, owner of
BookIt.com. Thanks, Grant!
The Times Mirror Company of Los
Angeles bought New American Library (Signet) in 1960. To complement this,
they bought Four Square and Ace (British) in 1961, which
were eventually merged into New English Library. Ace (British) was
discontinued in 1962, Four Square was last used in 1968. The difficult
period is 1967-68, when there were a number of books with both the NEL
symbol, and the WORDS "Four Square" across the top. I have always treated
these as Four Square, and treated as New English Library only those titles
which had the WORDS "New English Library" on them.
Numbers: lowest number/highest number (1st printings only, there are
exceptions which were reprints).
based on books I have physically handled:
Four Square 2006
NEL Four Square 1627 - 2279
New English Library 2281 (This refers to the words "New English Library"
spelled out in full).
As you can see, there was a period between at least #1627 and #2006 where a
book could be labeled as either Four Square, or Four Square with the NEL
symbol. Looking over my lists, it appears NEL must have assigned book
numbers other than at the point of publication, since #1627 was first
published in 1968, while all of the numbers surrounding that number were
published in 1966. (#1040 also shows as "NEL Four Square," but this is a 1968
reprint of an earlier issue of #1040, as were some 1967 reprints of Tarzan
books)
New English Library then dropped Four Square, but continued its numbering
sequence under the NEL imprint.
New English Library was sold to Hodder and Stoughton in 1981.
I have not seen any Four Square books from #383 to #612. My theory is that
at the time of acquisition, Ace (British) was more advanced in its
numbering, and space was left in the Four Square sequence for the Ace
(British) numbers. I don’t have a lot of Ace (British), but H546, which I
do have, is published by New English Library, so NEL did publish under
this imprint after the acquisition, before it was abandoned in favor of
Four Square.
Another justification for this theory:
While I don’t have a scan of it, Ace (British) H439, was reprinted as Four
Square H439 (1964, 3rd printing). (This was after the acquisition by NEL.)
There is a listing on ABEBOOKS.COM to support this, and I once had
a copy, as well.
Four Square books under #383 were published by Four Square Limited,
those about 600 were published by New English Library.
As near as I can determine, there are two different books numbered Four
Square 1774. I don’t have copies, but I emailed some people, and each
confirmed that one or the other of those books which they had a copy of,
had the number 1774. Both are from 1967.
- Grant
The cover scan above is courtesy of Grant Thiessen
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