Re: RARA-AVIS: Mercury Mystery

From: Nathan Cain (IndieCrime@gmail.com)
Date: 01 Jan 2009

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    Although, on second glance, the Mercury Mysteries I'm talking about appear to be older. They don't have the covers like those listed in the link. These are solid colors, with artwork surrounded by a rectuangular frame in the middle. As far as I can tell, they're from the 40's. At least the Woolrich, Dead Man's Blues (published under William Irish), was published in 1947. It is listed at prices between
    $40-70 on the internet. You can see a picture at the link below.

    http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/ListingDetails?bi=1011584038&cm_mmc=gbase-_-us-_-gbase-_-1011584038

    Seeing as how, I just won that one and four others on ebay for about
    $13 including shipping, I might have just made out. These are listed as being published by Jonathan Press, and I'm curious to know if they relate to the book's in Ed's link, or to Spivak's Mercury Press.

    On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 9:21 AM, Nathan Cain <indiecrime@gmail.com> wrote:
    > Thanks. I couldn't find anything on them when I searched. My Google-fu
    > is weak, I guess.
    >
    > On Wed, Dec 31, 2008 at 10:26 PM, <ejgorman99@aol.com> wrote:
    >> I recently ran across some Mercury Mysteries by Woolrich, Richard
    >> Powell and others, but I can't seem to find out much about this
    >> particular line of digests. They look like Reader's Digest condensed
    >> versions of mystery novels. Is that impression correct? They seem to
    >> be fairly rare. Does anyone collect these?
    >>
    >> ------------
    >>
    >> Here's some background with covers.
    >>
    >> http://www.philsp.com/mags/mercury_mystery_book.html
    >>
    >> http://www.philsp.com/data/data207.html
    >>
    >> Mercury Mystery-Book Magazine
    >>
    >> Total Issues: 23
    >>
    >> Numbering began from #210. It was a continuation of the Mercury Mystery
    >> novels, published in digest form since Mar-1940.
    >>
    >> Issues & Index Sources
    >> Sep-1955 – Apr-1959:
    >> Monthly Murders
    >> Crime Fiction Index (in progress)
    >>
    >> #merges with Bestseller Mystery Magazine
    >>
    >> Publishers
    >> Mercury Publications
    >>
    >> Editors
    >> Joseph W. Ferman
    >>
    >> Formats
    >> digest
    >>
    >> Prices
    >> 35c
    >>
    >> Pagecounts
    >> 128pp
    >>
    >> Frequency
    >> Sep-1955 – May-1956: monthly
    >> Jun-1956 – Apr-1959: bi-monthly
    >>
    >> Sources
    >> UltGuide, CookMDE
    >> Issue Checklist
    >>
    >> Mercury Mystery Book Magazine (Australia)
    >>
    >> Total Issues: 6 (at least)
    >>
    >> Australian reprint edition of Mercury Mystery Book Magazine.
    >> Issues & Index Sources: Mar-1956 – ?:
    >> Crime Fiction Index (in progress)
    >> (Missing: #2, any after #6)
    >> Publishers: Atlas Publishers, Melbourne
    >>
    >> **************
    >> New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making
    >> headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026)
    >>
    >> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
    >>
    >>
    >

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