One and Dones – Larque Press | The Digest Enthusiast

Vault January 20, 2020

Murder in the House with the Blue Eyes

At first glance, J.N. Darby’s digest-sized Murder in the House with the Blue Eyes may appear as a singleton. But the lower right corner of its cover reveals it’s “A Thrilling Mystery Novel,” from Atlas Books, produced under their Margood Publishing Company imprint in 1944, and therefore not an elusive One-and-Done.

For further candidates and their fates read Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault December 8, 2019

Nearly One-and-Done

An excerpt from Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9:

Paperback Prices by Graham Holroyd lists two books, D as in Dead, by mystery great Lawrence Treat, and The Lisping Man, by Frank Rawlings, as Atlas Books from the Hercules Publishing Corp. Kenneth R. Johnson’s “The Digest Index” and Hancer’s Price Guide to Paperback Books remove D as in Dead to a separate line of Martin Goodman books, also using the Hercules imprint. Why not put them together? Because D as in Dead is in fact separate. It does not blare “An Atlas Mystery” on the back cover. It is the largest of the three sizes that Atlas used.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault November 13, 2019

X Marks the Dot

An excerpt from Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9:

Guinn Company
Muriel Stafford had a syndicated newspaper column that did handwriting analysis of the stars, and not surprisingly X Marks the Dot stars a newspaper columnist solving a murder using handwriting analysis. Not only was Stafford enough of a name for her picture to fill the back cover, but as the ultimate gimmick, each of the suspects’ handwriting was reproduced inside the book so the reader could play along.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault October 17, 2019

25 Short Short Stories from Collier’s

An excerpt from Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9:

Galaxy Novels; The Barmaray Company
25 Short Short Stories from Colliers, Collier’s being a mainstream magazine rival to the Saturday Evening Post, is not a title anyone would normally associate with either Galaxy or novels, but connections do exist. The inside back cover has an ad for Galaxy, and the inside front cover offers a charter subscription for Galaxy’s sister magazine, Beyond Fantasy Fiction. Both magazines had just been purchased by Robert Guinn, a fixture in the New York publishing scene as a printer with access to paper, vital in 1953 when the Korean War dried up paper supplies. Despite the clear Galaxy lineage, Galaxy Novels is simply a misnomer for this title. The true publisher is The Barmaray Company, Inc.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault October 5, 2019

The Jackie Robinson Story

An excerpt from Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9:

The Jackie Robinson Story was a hit movie starring Jackie Robinson in 1950. It was co-written by Arthur Mann. And so we come across the movie tie-in digest, which was also titled The Jackie Robinson Story and published by F.J. Low.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault September 22, 2019

The Vice Czar Murders

An excerpt from Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9:

An ad for The Vice-Czar Murders by Franklin Charles is on the inside back cover of The Case of the Deadly Drops. No publisher is mentioned, but we know that an R. W. Company went one-and-done with a book of that title. And that’s all we know. The R. W. Company is as evanescent as the Edell Company. The address given is 11 East 44th Street, in midtown Manhattan, far removed from the then-backwoods of Brooklyn. Nor was The Vice Czar Murders published by Phoenix, nixing that connection. Yet, guess what? Its inside back cover is an ad for The Case of the Deadly Drops. Additionally, the covers of the two books are suspiciously similar in style and coloring, the back covers are identical yellow squares with white borders, and both were distributed by IND, the Independent News Company. It’s all but certain that the two companies are connected in some way.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault September 2, 2019

The Case of the Deadly Drops

An excerpt from Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9:

“The Edell Company is a total mystery. Nothing online can be found about it; no reference books provide information. The one book Edell released, The Case of the Deadly Drops by Gerald Benedict, is published ‘by arrangement with Phoenix Press.’”

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault August 19, 2019

Masterpieces of Adventure

Published in 1945 by J.P. Feiner, The Greatest Adventure Stories Ever Told features “30 Thrillers by the world’s master story-tellers.”

Steve Carper’s research for One-and-Dones part two (The Digest Enthusiast No. 8), reveals its likely connection to Doreen Publishing, who also produced (30 Tales of) Adventure and Romance, edited by Arnold Shaw.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault August 7, 2019

Robert E. Howard: The Garden of Fear

Published in 1945 by William Crawford, and listed in Paperback Prices by Graham Holroyd as a “Crawford Digest,” The Garden of Fear is an anthology titled after Robert E. Howard’s story, but also includes reprints by Lloyd A. Eshbach, H. P. Lovecraft, Miles J. Breuer, and David H. Keller from Crawford’s earlier Marvel Tales pulp magazine.

Steve Carper’s research for One-and-Dones part two (The Digest Enthusiast No. 8), reveals it was neither a singleton, nor a digest, but still a highly collectable volume, readily available in secondary markets.

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture, a comprehensive reference volume that includes a companion website: robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.

Vault July 22, 2019

One-and-Done

Excerpt from Steve Carper’s series “One-and-Dones” that appears in The Digest Enthusiast No. 7–9:

“Jacob R. Brussel was a New York bookstore owner noted for carrying erotica, connected with the small world of taboo-breaking books and writers. He published and distributed an early (and then completely illegal) edition of Tropic of Cancer and also the much less noted Oragenitalism. An Encyclopaedic Outline of Oral Technique in Genital Excitation.

“. . . a second 1945 release, One Hundred Years of American Humor, edited by J. Brussel, whose existence knocks an otherwise perfect one-and-done example off the list. Both covers of the anthology raise questions. The front cover says “Price 25 cents”yet the “Now 10¢.” stamp is clearly not an after-market artifact. Could this rarity have two printings?”

Now Available from McFarland: Steve Carper’s Robots in American Popular Culture. And be sure to check out the companion website robotsinamericanpopularculture.com.