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Post by ripper on Dec 20, 2016 15:05:37 GMT
Nice to see "The Innocent Bystanders" by James Munro included for 1970, which is a couple of years prior to the film version being released.
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Post by cromagnonman on Dec 31, 2016 1:29:04 GMT
Cromagnonman would not wish it to be thought that he has been completely indolent over the festive period; pigged out on mastodon steaks and Elephant Bird eggs, watching nothing but repeats of the same old cave paintings on his wall. The following will, he trusts, disabuse anyone labouring under such a scurrilous misapprehension. To begin with, here are some scans of new additions to the Odhams library including - of particular interest to FM he hopes - one of the volume containing Peter Bryant's TWO HOURS TO DOOM. Cromagnonman himself is every bit as keen to read "The Strange Saga of 'Liver-Eating Johnson'". It sounds good, but then again it could be offal (Boom Boom!). Equally, each of the other volumes offers its own particular point of interest to recommend it. As noted on my Odhams checklist GALE FORCE etc was the very first volume issued in the Man's Book series, setting out the publisher's stall for what was to follow. It weighs in at an impressive 500+ pages. Aside from the novels it also includes two stories conscripted from the Alfred Hitchcock volume STORIES THEY WOULDN'T LET ME DO ON TV. I believe it has been debated at length elsewhere in the Vault exactly how much input Hitch himself actually had into the volumes that capitalised upon his name but it gave Odhams an excuse here to plaster AH's cherubic features across the back cover (whatever benefit that garnered them on a subscription only volume). The stories chosen are "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell and Ray Bradbury's "The October Game". Excellent selections both. ROAD BLOCK etc allowed me to confirm my previously voiced suspicion concerning Jim Holdaway's responsibility for some of the more impressive cover illustrations used on these early volumes. This one is clearly signed by him. The chief object of interest for me insofar as this volume goes is Charles Eric Maine's THE MAN WHO OWNED THE WORLD. This has all the makings of a book in the Buck Rogers vein with an astronaut en route to the moon experiencing a capsule malfunction which throws him into a trajectory that only returns him to earth 8000 years later. For anyone who continues to be as fascinated by this series as I am may I also draw attention to the fact that almost thirty - yes, three zero - new volumes have been added to the checklist. The overwhelming majority of these will be found attached to the catalogue of 1970s issues, extending the apparant duration of the series through to 1977. It has proven difficult to confirm the veracity of these titles in the set beyond doubt without having physical copies of them to hand. From 1972 onwards Odhams appears to have issued the books without any dust wrapper at all which renders them all but indistinguishable from omnibuses of condensed novels released in the same period *. The identifying MB monogram stamped into the faux leather bindings might have helped here but that had been dispensed with when the jacket designs were altered in the mid 60s. Despite these handicaps there is a certain continuity of authors and the novels used do appear in keeping with previous issues. In fact they appear to chart a progression away from the war stories that had predominated during the early years of the series towards a more prurient sex interest angle, as epitomized by the inclusion of Xaviera Hollander and Harold Robbins among others. In this the series might be said to mirror the changes in popular entertainment and the social attitudes towards it that had occurred over the intervening years, particularly in the cinema which the Odhams editorial board had proven so adept at anticipating. Just consider the erosion in taste that takes you from Ice Cold in Alex at one extreme to Confessions From a Holiday Camp at the other. Or, indeed, Carry On Sergeant to Carry On Emmannuelle.
* Should any Vaulter stumble upon a volume from 1972 onwards boasting a dust wrapper I'd be extremely grateful to hear about it.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jan 5, 2017 1:06:02 GMT
If anyone's still interested in keeping score, three more titles added to the list. One each at years 1967, 1968 and 1972. Brings the total number of volumes in the series to 135 and counting.
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jan 6, 2017 10:08:07 GMT
Managed to obtain a tatty, battered no dust jacket copy of The Ipcress File/The Body Snatchers volume, for The Body Snatchers. My brother had a paperback version that tied in with the 1978 film. The title was changed to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, and apparently Jack Finney updated his 54/55 story slightly to eliminate some of the 50s references. I can't remember much about it although I think it has far more in common with the 56 film. Raced through two chapters this morning. Great stuff!
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Post by dem bones on Jan 14, 2017 17:46:35 GMT
If anyone's still interested in keeping score, three more titles added to the list. One each at years 1967, 1968 and 1972. Brings the total number of volumes in the series to 135 and counting. Please do! I'd neither heard of nor seen examples of these omnibus volumes until you mentioned them.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jan 15, 2017 11:09:26 GMT
If anyone's still interested in keeping score, three more titles added to the list. One each at years 1967, 1968 and 1972. Brings the total number of volumes in the series to 135 and counting. Please do! I'd neither heard of nor seen examples of these omnibus volumes until you mentioned them. Your wish is my command Dem. Belatedly I've discovered the small print inside each book which signifies its volume number within the set. I've ammended the list to incorporate this information where I know it and using it as a sort of marker post am now in a position to say, with a fair degree of certainty, that the list covering the years 1958 to 1969 is ostensibly complete, barring two or possibly three omissions at the very most. I've a sneaking suspicion that one of these as yet unidentified volumes contains James Mayo's SERGEANT DEATH, seeing as how all his other Charles Hood thrillers feature in the series. I've no concrete evidence for this but its a plausible hypothesis to start searching from. The later volumes are a different matter entirely. I currently have no access to any volume post 1970 and so am still no closer to understanding how comprehensive that list may be. In all honesty these volumes hold less interest for me on account of their lack of issued dust wrappers rendering them a less attractive collecting proposition. Still I may yet invest in a volume or two from 1976/77 - if I can find them - in order to garner a better idea of the total number of volumes issued over the duration of the series. In the meantime I've added one new title to the year 1970.
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Post by dem bones on Jan 16, 2017 11:33:38 GMT
Thanks CMM! As you're doubtless aware, Odhams knocked out at least five volumes of 'Boys' stories plus two of 'Girls' stories during the 'sixties, all of them edited by Eric Duthie and - as far as I can tell - bearing those lovely full colour dust-wrappers. The only one I have is Stirring Stories For Boys (1960), but companion volumes include Adventure Stories For Boys, Mystery & Adventure Stories For Boys (includes stories by E.F. Benson, Gerald Kersh - The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy - Ray Bradbury, H. G. Wells, Somerset Maugham, Elleston Trevor and M. R. James), Open-air Adventure Stories for Boys and Red Story Book For Boys, Mystery and Adventure Stories for Girls and Stirring Stories For Girls.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jan 20, 2017 18:03:51 GMT
Thanks CMM! As you're doubtless aware, Odhams knocked out at least five volumes of 'Boys' stories plus two of 'Girls' stories during the 'sixties, all of them edited by Eric Duthie and - as far as I can tell - bearing those lovely full colour dust-wrappers. The only one I have is Stirring Stories For Boys (1960), but companion volumes include Adventure Stories For Boys, Mystery & Adventure Stories For Boys (includes stories by E.F. Benson, Gerald Kersh - The Extraordinarily Horrible Dummy - Ray Bradbury, H. G. Wells, Somerset Maugham, Elleston Trevor and M. R. James), Open-air Adventure Stories for Boys and Red Story Book For Boys, Mystery and Adventure Stories for Girls and Stirring Stories For Girls. Gosh; this is a real blast from the past for me. I remember the STIRRING STORIES FOR BOYS on account of my older brother having a copy when I was growing up. Regrettably it has long since followed him out to Australia and so is beyond my reference now. But I was a big Arthur C Clarke reader back in those days and seem to recall that one of his efforts was an enjoyable and illuminating little tale called "Robin Hood FRS", or something like that. Can't recall what the others were now. And I don't believe I've ever come across the others in the Duthie edited set; more's the pity. I thought there was a chance that regular visitors to this thread might like to see these new additions to my Odhams library. The first one epitomizes everything I find so fascinating about this series. It was the Blackburn novel that made me so keen to acquire it and yet it is the previously unfamiliar Holles book that I will in all probability read first. Just scanning the first page of it had me laughing out loud. These books open up whole new avenues of reading. Both these volumes turned up most unexpectedly. The first in the Book & Magazine Exchange in Notting Hill and the second was found lying forlornly in a YMCA charity shop in Hove. The latter isn't in the best condition admittedly, but its so uncommon to find these early 70s volumes boasting any sort of jacket whatsoever that I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to preserve this one for posterity in the Vault.
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Post by pulphack on Jan 21, 2017 9:09:06 GMT
Have been neglecting this thread, but just wanted to say I'm glad you've been posting these. Although you have given me yet another damn thing to look out for in second hand shops...
Blackburn's 'The Gaunt Stranger' is a cracking book - I picked up this and his 'The Blue Octavo' several years back in paperback, and both are more 'crime thriller' that 'espionage thriller' in delineation, though as always with Blackburn he likes to mix and match his genres. I will say that, if you haven't read it before, then bump it up the 'to read' list as it's a very fine book with a dark edge and a denouement that I guessed, but only in the last few pages: that point where you feel smug that you've worked it out, but also glad you didn't do that too early on and spoil the plot!
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Post by franklinmarsh on Jan 21, 2017 15:33:41 GMT
Good to see some Phwoar! sneaking in there. It's a man's man's man's man's world.
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Post by cromagnonman on Jan 21, 2017 21:07:51 GMT
Have been neglecting this thread, but just wanted to say I'm glad you've been posting these. Although you have given me yet another damn thing to look out for in second hand shops... Blackburn's 'The Gaunt Stranger' is a cracking book - I picked up this and his 'The Blue Octavo' several years back in paperback, and both are more 'crime thriller' that 'espionage thriller' in delineation, though as always with Blackburn he likes to mix and match his genres. I will say that, if you haven't read it before, then bump it up the 'to read' list as it's a very fine book with a dark edge and a denouement that I guessed, but only in the last few pages: that point where you feel smug that you've worked it out, but also glad you didn't do that too early on and spoil the plot! The pleasure is all mine PH. In my own mind I had provisionally penciled in BURY HIM DARKLY as the next Blackburn I intended to read, but I'll happily substitute this one on the strength of your recommendation. I adore Blackburn's books. You can always guarantee that the basic premise will be absolutely fascinating. And if they don't always satisfy in the execution then its never less than a compelling read to discover, one way or the other. BLUE OCTAVO is a case in point. The fundamental idea was just terrific but I personally found myself underwhelmed by the eventual explanation. Still a cracking read though. I believe Blackburn recycled the idea in A BOOK OF THE DEAD, but as I've never been able to locate a copy of that elusive volume I've no idea if he retained the rationale or substituted a better one.
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Post by cromagnonman on Mar 17, 2017 14:44:47 GMT
Apologies to all for the enforced dormancy on this thread. Such was far from being my wish but information had rather dwindled to a trickle and I have had very little of relevance to add lately. But then an idle off-hand enquiry to a book dealer revealed the gobsmacking news that he had just bought in a private collection of this series which amounted to no less than five boxloads of material! Talk about feast or famine. Overnight there seemed to be more information than I rightly knew what to do with. After a few days now of sifting and assimilating this new information I have added more than twenty five titles to the series list, almost exclusively to the roster of post 1971 issues. This now brings the total number of volumes in the Odhams set to 160 titles and I would be very surprised if that figure doesn't encompass all but the barest handful of omissions. With resources - to say nothing of storage space - being necessarily finite I've been limited to the number of additions from this cache that I've been able to make to my own collection. I'd like to take the opportunity therefore to once again thank FM and Pulphack for their input and recommendations earlier in the thread which have been crucial in enabling me to target priorities. Much appreciated chaps. I should have some appealing cover scans to post for your perusal over the course of the next few days. In the meantime here's a sample from the first batch of arrivals. I don't know about anyone else but these later style issues are starting to grow on me. One of the more charming aspects to this find stems from the fact that all the books have only ever had one previous owner. The counterfoils to the original postal orders being used as bookmarks inside them testify to that. This owner appears to have methodically collected practically every volume over a period of eighteen years. I don't think any one of us here can fail but to marvel at the diligence and commitment of this unknown bibliophile and tip our hats in memory of a true collector. I'm grateful for the finds of period adverts and Brooke Bond tea cards which I've also found tucked away inside the pages. I'm not so sure though how the religious pamphlets I've discovered too square with the collecting of THE HAPPY HOOKER and GOING DOWN WITH JANIS.
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Post by pulphack on Mar 17, 2017 18:06:19 GMT
What a splendid collection and a wonderful find, CM. Hours of fun just looking at the covers and the ads, cards, etc that come from inside (as an aside, when I was a kid I loved all the ads and catalogues for 'this months books' that came from the Thriller and Companion book clubs, ranging from '52 to '69, when he died - a window into another world). Then there's the books themselves! I see what you mean about the more function covers - they have a certain ascetic aesthetic to them.
Like yourself, I salute the diligence and dedication of the original collector (as well as his taste!). As for squaring the later sexploitation titles with the religious pamphlets, well... he was either a determined thriller fanatic who was prepared to ignore those titles in staying true to his task of collecting, or... well, put it this way: I'm not sure the likes of Lord Longford watched all that smut PURELY for research purposes...
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Post by helrunar on Mar 17, 2017 22:20:45 GMT
I love the detail about the counterfoils from the original postal orders and the Brooke Bond tea cards. Mind you haven't a clue what any of those looked like.
Curious to know if the art for the earlier 1959-1960s covers had some Jim Holdaway work in there, as I think CMM had speculated. I'm a huge fan of his Modesty Blaise strips. A great loss to British art that the Dark Horseman took him so young.
H.
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Post by cromagnonman on Mar 18, 2017 12:33:54 GMT
I love the detail about the counterfoils from the original postal orders and the Brooke Bond tea cards. Mind you haven't a clue what any of those looked like. Curious to know if the art for the earlier 1959-1960s covers had some Jim Holdaway work in there, as I think CMM had speculated. I'm a huge fan of his Modesty Blaise strips. A great loss to British art that the Dark Horseman took him so young. H. Concur with you wholeheartedly with regards to Holdaway H; a profoundly talented man and a grievous loss which the world of cartooning was forced to endure far too soon. With regards to the Odhams series it is now possible to confirm that initial speculation that Holdaway was responsible for some of the covers. This detail from the previously posted ROAD BLOCK is clearly signed: I am unable to say at present just how extensive his contribution to the series was. These are the only other examples that I personally am currently aware of and they all date to the period 1961/62. Presumably he was no longer involved with it by 1966 otherwise he would surely have been invited to contribute the Modesty Blaise cover. Apart from the covers there are also a number of delightful internal spot illios where characters appear to sport his signature doleful look. As regards Brooke Bond tea cards: I would imagine that the closest North American analogy is that they were akin to baseball cards. Only, in stereotypically British fashion, they came enclosed with packets of tea instead of cigarettes. You used to collect them and stick them in albums which, I seem to recall, you had to write away for. The series generally had an educational slant to them, and as a kid I can well remember collecting the sets devoted to explorers, dinosaurs and space travel. Ah, happy days.
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