Dell, a major publisher of pulp magazines and comic books, started publishing paperback books in 1943. Dell had a successful track record in newsstand sales. By 1946 it was a major player in the paperback book industry, second only to Pocket Books in sales, but by a wide margin. It did not have its first million seller until the 1950s.
New Yorker George Delacorte (1894-1991) founded Dell Publishing in 1921 with money he received as a contract buyout when dismissed from his job at a publishing firm. He saw that there was a major market to be tapped in the semi-literate, an insight that made him a very rich man. He would later become a major philanthropist-- the Delacorte theater in Central Park is named for him-- famous for financing monuments, statues and beautification projects but giving nothing to helping the poor, whom he deemed “dumb and lazy,” or to hospitals, which he said he hated.
Besides magazines like Modern Screen and Modern Romance, Dell published comic books featuring comic-strip, Disney and Looney Tunes characters. Puzzle magazines were among the company’s greatest successes. Dell partnered with Western Publishing headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin for many of its publications, including the Dell paperbacks and comic books. Western had editorial offices in New York and Los Angeles. The latter handled the comics and books published under license with Disney and other studios. Western’s Los Angeles office had published an earlier series of paperback mysteries under the Bantam imprint (unrelated to the firm founded in 1945) which were sold in vending machines. Western handled editorial and art for Dell paperbacks while Dell’s New York office was in charge of financing. distribution and promotion.
Delacorte’s longtime assistant, Brooklyn-born Helen Meyer, noted for her toughness, was in charge of Bantam Books, a breakthrough in publishing for women. She later became CEO and President of Dell Publishing, the first woman to head a major publishing company.
Dell covers resembled the covers of pulp magazines. The back covers often had maps and casts of characters rather than the blurbs that were standard.
The titles released in early 1946 reflected the company’s roots. Almost all were crime novels. Women crime writers were particularly well represented. Most of the writers had followings but were not necessarily among the biggest names in the genre, with some exception like Agatha Christie, whose works were on many publisher lists. Many Dell titles were of more recent vintage than the titles released by Bantam, Pocket Books or Penguin.
The Dell books released early in 1946 were:
Trail Boss of Indian Beef (1940) by Harold Channing Wire was a western genre novel about a trail drive from South Texas to Fort Laramie in Wyoming through hostile Indian territory. It had been serialized in newspapers in 1943.
Spring Harrowing (1939) by Phoebe Atwood Taylor was one in a popular series of light detective fiction featuring Asey Mayo, an amateur crime solver and former fisherman on Cape Cod. The books were noted for their local color. In this one, Mayo searches for the link between two loosed bobcats, a woman held captive in a well and a murder. It had been a bestseller list at the same time as The Grapes of Wrath, Captain Horatio Hornblower and The Yearling.
Now, Voyager (1941) by Olive Higgins Prouty was the romantic novel made into the classic Bette Davis vehicle in 1942. Prouty had an earlier bestseller/movie adaptation with Stella Dallas.
The So Blue Marble (1940) was the first novel by Dorothy B. Hughes who wrote in the hardboiled, noir style. This novel is set in the glamorous world of pre-war Manhattan. Handsome, debonair and murderous twins are determined to get their hands on a blue marble they mistakenly believe is in the possession of a beautiful writer/actress who is staying in the apartment of her ex-husband, a journalist away covering the war in Europe. Several spies also want the marble. Three of Hughes’ later novels were made into movies. She also reviewed crime and mystery novels for newspapers, including the Herald Tribune.
Murder with Pictures (1935) by George Harmon Coxe who began writing for the pulps in the 1920s and went on to publish 63 crime novels. Murder with Pictures was his first work to have been published in hardcover. It appeared earlier as a story in a pulp magazine and was made into a movie in 1936 starring Lew Ayres as a news photographer who gets involved in a murder investigation. It was the first in a series to feature the character Kent Murdock.
You Only Hang Once (1944) by H.W. Roden. When PR consultant Johnny Knight finds a dead lawyer in his office, he calls in his friend, private eye Sid Ames, to help solve the crime. This was one on a series of hardboiled crime novels featuring Ames and Knight.
Murder is a Kill-Joy (1942 as Kill Joy) by Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, a leading female practitioner of the hardboiled detective style. In this novel, a loyal maid tries to make sense of suspicious situations involving her employer and gets herself caught up in a web of terror as a result.
The Crooking Finger (1944) by Cleve F. Adams. A detective is caught between two rival factions battling for control of a Nevada gambling town. It was one in Adams’ Rex McBride series.
Appointment with Death (1938) by Agatha Christie. Hercule Poirot solves the mysterious death of a tyrannical matriarch while on an expedition in the Middle East.
Made Up to Kill (1940) by Kelley Roos, was the first in a series of mysteries featuring a crime-solving married couple written by the husband-and-wife writing team of Audrey Kelley Roos and William E. Roos. In this book, Jeff Troy has just lost his job at an ad agency while his fiance has landed a role in a Broadway drawing room comedy. When her roommate is murdered, followed by the death of another actress, a sleuthing duo begins its career.
Deadly Truth (1941) by Helen McCloy was one in a series featuring psychologist Dr. Basil Willing. who works as a consultant for the New York D.A.s office. In this installment, he solves the murder of a beautiful, cruel Long Island socialite.
Death in Five Boxes (1938) by Carter Dixon (John Dickson Carr). When a man is found stabbed and three of his guests unconscious, detective Sir Henry Merrivale is called in to solve the crime. The only clue is five mysterious boxes containing the names of the three guests, a company clerk and a deceased author. Dixon novels were noted for their intricate, convoluted plots.
Spill the Jackpot (1941) by. A.A. Fair , a pen name used by Erle Stanley Gardner for his series of mysteries involving the sleuthing team of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam. In this novel they are hired to find the missing fiancee of a rich young man. They suspect their client, the man’s father, does not want the woman found. Before long, a murder complicates their investigation.
Wall of Eyes (1943) by. Margaret Millar, a well-respected mystery writer who would become more famous in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1944 her husband, Kenneth Millar decided to try his hand at mysteries writing as John MacDonald. After the war, he would adapt the pen name Ross MacDonald, soon overshadowing his wife's considerable success. In this novel, a policeman investigates the murder of a member of a highly unpleasant family. It is set in the Millar's hometown of Toronto rather than the Southern California location of her later novels.