Re: RARA-AVIS: Ross Macdonald short story collection

From: jeffwong_ny ( jeffwong_ny@yahoo.com)
Date: 06 Jan 2008


--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Jeff Vorzimmer" <jvorzimmer@...> wrote:
> Does it have the same cover as the first printing? My copy is a
fourth and
> has a different cover and shows the date of the second printing as
March
> 1955. I doubt there was a Canadian only printing, it's more likely
to have
> been a smaller print run.
>
> Great job on the cover. It caught my eye. I design CD covers
myself, but I
> often thought I'd like to do a book jacket.
>
> Regards,
> Jeff

I suspect it does have the same cover as the 1st. I had remembered that March 1955 was the date for the 2nd printing, but, I couldn't remember where I had gleaned that information--thank you for reminding me (I probably got the date from the 4th printing). Having never seen the 2nd, I can't be sure, but, given its publication was supposedly a month after the 1st, it makes sense that it would be the same design.

I know that a lot of these early Bantams had Canadian printings with no interior indication that they were Canadian printings. Externally, they usually had a higher price, 35c vs. 25c, or 50c vs. 35c. Eventually, they stated "Printed in Canada", and are easier to trace. By 1955 this book might fall into the category of indicating that it was printed in Canada, but would still show as a 1st printing. However, I have a 1st printing Canadian Bantam of THE BARBAROUS COAST from 1957, and it has a cover price of 25c and states that it was printed in Canada. My (un)educated guess is that if there is a 2nd printing of THE NAME IS ARCHER, it is a US printing, although a lot can happen in a 2 year window. I think you are correct that the print run was significantly smaller if it indeed exists. This 2nd printing has become something of a Holy Grail for me. My collection of A items is nearly complete for US and UK titles (I'm still missing a number of binding and dust jacket variants) and finding this elusive paperback would be amazing.

Thank you, RE: THE ARCHER FILES cover.



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