HARDCOVER DISCOUNT REPRINTS
In 1946 you could buy cheaply hardcover reprints of popular books a year or two after they had faded from the bestseller lists. Generally they were cheaply bound and printed on lower-grade paper than the publisher's editions. It had been a growing publishing niche since the 1930s.Grosset & Dunlop, also known for publishing juvenile fiction including the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew series, was a category leader but many of the largest publishers started reprint lines; Doubleday alone had three discount lines. Paperback publishers would become major challengers to the reprint business but at this time recent titles usually were not made available to the paperback publishers.
Reissues of past bestsellers were a major part of the business but some companies offered more highbrow choices, including Everyman's Library which focused on literary classics and Modern Library which republished more contemporary modernist fiction, both of which are still around at least as imprints.
The April 20 Publishers’ Weekly ran a list of the best-selling reprint titles of March. Several of them had movie tie-ins or were by author’s whose latest works were on the bestseller list.
Kitty by Rosamund Marshall. This was a steamy bodice ripper initially published in 1943 that had been turned into a tamer movie version currently playing in first run in Manhattan. In the movie Paulette Goddard starred as a guttersnipe and Ray Milland was a dashing ne’er-do-well in Georgian London. Marshall’s publishers, responding to the criticism of the movie as a knockoff of the immensely popular Forever Amber, noted that Kitty actually had been published first. Marshall had a new heavy-breather coming out in May, Duchess Hotspur.
Captain From Castile by Samuel Shellabarger. A film version of this popular 1945 swashbuckler was underway with Tyrone Power in the lead.
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain. The film noir version of Caine’s 1934 crime novel, starring Lana Turner and James Garfield, was opening soon.
The Valley of Decision by Marcia Davenport. The film version of this 1943 best seller about the romance between an Irish maid and the son of a steel industry tycoon in late 19th century Pittsburgh had been released in 1945. Greer Garson and Gregory Peck had starred.
Saratoga Trunk by Edna Ferber. This was another historical romance that had been made into a film, currently nearing the end of a long first run in the city. Ingrid Bergman and Gary Cooper starred as a New Orleans belle and a Texas gambler. The novel had been originally published in 1941.
Ride With Me by Thomas Costain. Costain was currently on the bestseller lists with The Black Rose. Ride With Me, originally published in 1944, was an historical adventure novel about a British war correspondent during the Napoleonic Wars.
Barefoot Boy with Cheek by Max Shulman. This was a 1943 satire on college life by the humorist whose current best seller was The Zebra Derby.
China to Me by Emily Hahn. This was a true life account by an acclaimed New Yorker writer of her experiences in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong. It was originally published to great success in 1944.
Yankee Lawyer by Arthur Train. This was a legal thriller by a popular writer who had died in December. It was a 1943 installment of a series of novels featuring the character Ephraim Tutt.
Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain. The 1941 book and 1945 movie version starring Joan Crawford had both been big hits.