The extraordinary success of Penguin Books led American reprint publisher Robert deGraff to launch a similar experiment, with three important changes: [f]irst, he would cut the size of the book to 6 1/2 x 4 1/2; second, he would glue the pages instead of stitching them...a newly invented glue encouraged him; and third, he would gamble with a huge press run ten times that of Penguin.
A test was successfully conducted in 1938 with Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, which deGraff had printed in 2000 copies. (The title was reprinted a year later as part of the regular series.) After being rejected by several potential backers, deGraff's audacious experiment was formally launched in 1939 with financial backing from Simon and Schuster and distribution via the more prestigious Macy's and Liggett's department stores. The first ten titles to debut with the kangaroo logo (appropriately labeled Pocket Books because they were small enough to fit in one's pocket) had press runs of some 20,000 copies each. Both department store chains sold out within 24 hours:
After the launch of Pocket Books, modern paperback publishing grew quickly on several fronts, with a number of other brands following in short order: Avon; Popular Library; Dell Paperbacks; New American Library of World Literature (formerly American Penguin, which Kurt Enoch purchased from Allen Lane); and a great many more now-famous brands. This often complex history is well-recounted in a number of titles that are readily available in the marketplace:
As we have noted in several previous posts (see, e.g., our posts of 25 June 2009, 30 June 2009, and 4 July 2009), the advent of pulp fiction earlier in the century would greatly influence the development of paperback publishing, and vice versa. But war would have an equally great influence....
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