Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
I found this book (published in 1949) in an indoor market I frequent and had to buy it as the cover art reminded me of a Bond titles sequence quite a bit! I think it's great stuff.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
that is a stylish and surreal cover. and the publisher is called BoardMan, while the picture depicts a man cut from a piece of board. I wonder if all their covers are variations on that theme?
rather than the Bond titles sequences, it reminds me f the title sequence of Gumby, who emerges from a slab of clay shaped like a board
@Silhouette Man I suspect you will not know of Gumby, since it was way before your time and wrong side of the atlantic. Gumby was an early childrens show created by Art Clokey using stopmotion claymation. Still in reruns while I as a kid in the early 70s, it was rather psychedelic.
@caractacus potts: No, not surprisingly, I wasn't familiar with Gumby. However, he does remind me rather of Morph from Tony Hart's Art TV show which I do remember seeing when I was growing up in the 1990s:
One of the many coincidences in my life occurred after purchasing a book collection which contained many titles with covers drawn by the same artist…
This was around 1980 and in those pre-internet days information was hard to come by and the only clue to the artist was the signature, J Pollack.
Anyway, I loved the covers and made a display in the window. Not long afterwards a gentlemen came into the shop and introduced himself as the artist of those covers! His name was John Pollack and he lived locally. He came into the office and we had a coffee and chatted about his work. He was kind enough to sign a couple of copies and said he would call again, but he never did. He died in 1985 and some more covers are below - I think he drew marvellous covers,,.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Peter Cheyney! I remember seeing them (not necessarily those titles) among my grandfather's books, but don't recall ever reading any of them. Still, a pleasant burst of nostalgia to see them.
@Barbel I read a couple of his Lemmy Caution (great name) private eye books, they were pretty good.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
edited April 2023
I have a few of Peter Cheyney's novels. I think it was Dark Bahama that I read a fair bit of back in about 2010 but for some reason I never got around to finishing it. It was good from what I remember. Fleming was famously called a "Peter Cheyney of the carriage trade" on the publication of Casino Royale.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Fleming was famously called a "Peter Cheyney of the carriage trade" on the publication of Casino Royale.
_________________________________________
I remember this quote, but never knew what it meant. what sort of author was Peter Cheney? and what is the carriage trade? is that meant to be a compliment or putdown?
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
I think that it's meant to be a compliment to Fleming somewhat at the expense of Cheyney. I suppose the implication was that Cheyney was a slightly more uncouth and thick-ear dialogue type of author whereas Fleming wrote of a more refined world of secret agents, luxurious locations and fine dining. I do recall DarkBahama having some quite violent scenes for the time, describing a victim's gunshot to the head etc. It is a rather dated term nowadays of course relating to the British upper classes so the meaning has been somewhat lost over time. Here's a definition I found online which might help to explain what was meant by the term "the carriage trade":
Noun. carriage trade (uncountable) Retail business with wealthy or upper-class customers, i.e. those who arrive in carriages.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Yes, long before my time but I think that's what it's referring to anyway from the relatively little I know about Cheyney's work as compared with Fleming's.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Erskine Caldwell wrote about the rural poor of Deep South America and mixed sex and violence in books that were far more than the pulp name that he was tagged with. God’s Little Acre and Tobacco Road would be his most famous works. Pan Books had some brilliant covers…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Famous Monsters Of Filmland was an American monthly magazine edited by the legendary Forrest J Ackerman, it ran for 191 issues from 1958 - 1983. Concentrating on Universal Horror and Hammer films and all things sci-fi/horror it was incredibly popular. I had a small magazine section in my bookshop which was devoted to this title and mens adventure pulp magazines of the 60’s/70’s. It was extremely popular and I could never get enough supplies to cover demand. There were three paperbacks produced which reprinted articles and photographs from the magazines, I never had a copy of the first book and only had a handful of the second two books over the lifetime of the shop, but I priced them at £100 each and they sold instantly whenever I had them. Current prices would garner £200+ so a good investment.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I’m not sure if this is well known or not, but the first two printings of the Pan OHMSS paperback were exported to Canada and Australia. The first printing on sale in the UK was the 3rd printing. A low print run of the first printing has made it extremely valuable and £250+ is the minimum you would expect to pay for even a battered version - very fine condition would probably get £1000+
The first printing is here…
The UK first printing (actually 3rd) is here…
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
That's interesting, thanks CHB. I definitely once had that cover (it's not impossible that it's packed away in the loft) but I have no idea which printing it was.
I was going to leave this for a few days but seeing you asked so nicely @Barbel 🙂
For the movie tie-in paperback for YOLT the first release sent out a small quantity of paperbacks with a dust wrapper to use up unsold copies of the previous printing. Later printings had the cover as we all know it. These are extremely rare and £1500 is the going price for it. As with the OHMSS 1st and 2nd printings, and the YOLT dust wrapper, I never had any of them in the 40 years I was trading.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
I've certainly never owned that dust jacket edition, but I have a memory of picking one up in a second hand bookshop a long time ago... then putting it back down. Ouch.
A dust jacket on a paperback? Wow. Gosh, never knew that. I know they removed covers off the old copies and attached new ones. I have a copy of one of those, but can't remember the title. I'll see if I can dig it out of the boxes.
That may well be the movie tie-in of OHMSS which I think, from memory, states that the movie TB has just been released, so it was a good 4 years without any reprints for OHMSS.
Yeah, well, sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand.
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Yes, that's the one. I bought a nice copy of that one from eBay last year as I'd never been able to find a copy in the wild. It was dated 1965 inside and Thunderball was the latest film at the time it was printed.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
I just checked my copy, its got the purple font and doesnt mention print number
it says...
"first published 1963 by Jonathon Cape
This edition published 1964 by PAN books
8 Headfort Place, London, SW1"
then later down states
"Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Company, Ltd, Bungay Suffolk"
...even though cover price is 60c. so as you say, printed in Britain for export
so I'm rich? I can see I paid $4- for it, probably about 17 years ago
pretty bashed up, with yellowed pages though. These PANs are scarcer than they used to be but I still see them, I picked up a film tie in of Casino Royale and painted covers of Diamonds are Forever and For Your Eyes Only a couple months ago, none were as much as $10-
Comments
I found this book (published in 1949) in an indoor market I frequent and had to buy it as the cover art reminded me of a Bond titles sequence quite a bit! I think it's great stuff.
that is a stylish and surreal cover. and the publisher is called BoardMan, while the picture depicts a man cut from a piece of board. I wonder if all their covers are variations on that theme?
rather than the Bond titles sequences, it reminds me f the title sequence of Gumby, who emerges from a slab of clay shaped like a board
@Silhouette Man I suspect you will not know of Gumby, since it was way before your time and wrong side of the atlantic. Gumby was an early childrens show created by Art Clokey using stopmotion claymation. Still in reruns while I as a kid in the early 70s, it was rather psychedelic.
This sort of thing would not hang around on the shelves for long…
I'm only familiar with the first and last of those authors, and it seems to me that the above covers are somewhat misrepresenting the contents within.
The covers are to induce sales, of course. I haven’t read either of the two books you quote but here are some alternative versions
And it would seem that a candelabra may be pertinent to the plot of the ones below…
@caractacus potts: No, not surprisingly, I wasn't familiar with Gumby. However, he does remind me rather of Morph from Tony Hart's Art TV show which I do remember seeing when I was growing up in the 1990s:
One of the many coincidences in my life occurred after purchasing a book collection which contained many titles with covers drawn by the same artist…
This was around 1980 and in those pre-internet days information was hard to come by and the only clue to the artist was the signature, J Pollack.
Anyway, I loved the covers and made a display in the window. Not long afterwards a gentlemen came into the shop and introduced himself as the artist of those covers! His name was John Pollack and he lived locally. He came into the office and we had a coffee and chatted about his work. He was kind enough to sign a couple of copies and said he would call again, but he never did. He died in 1985 and some more covers are below - I think he drew marvellous covers,,.
Agreed about the art work, and a lovely story - Champagne and Choppers - what a title and what an image !
Some nice covers below from author Peter Cheyney, a popular author from the first half of the last century...
Peter Cheyney! I remember seeing them (not necessarily those titles) among my grandfather's books, but don't recall ever reading any of them. Still, a pleasant burst of nostalgia to see them.
@Barbel I read a couple of his Lemmy Caution (great name) private eye books, they were pretty good.
I have a few of Peter Cheyney's novels. I think it was Dark Bahama that I read a fair bit of back in about 2010 but for some reason I never got around to finishing it. It was good from what I remember. Fleming was famously called a "Peter Cheyney of the carriage trade" on the publication of Casino Royale.
Silhouette Man said:
Fleming was famously called a "Peter Cheyney of the carriage trade" on the publication of Casino Royale.
_________________________________________
I remember this quote, but never knew what it meant. what sort of author was Peter Cheney? and what is the carriage trade? is that meant to be a compliment or putdown?
I think that it's meant to be a compliment to Fleming somewhat at the expense of Cheyney. I suppose the implication was that Cheyney was a slightly more uncouth and thick-ear dialogue type of author whereas Fleming wrote of a more refined world of secret agents, luxurious locations and fine dining. I do recall Dark Bahama having some quite violent scenes for the time, describing a victim's gunshot to the head etc. It is a rather dated term nowadays of course relating to the British upper classes so the meaning has been somewhat lost over time. Here's a definition I found online which might help to explain what was meant by the term "the carriage trade":
Noun. carriage trade (uncountable) Retail business with wealthy or upper-class customers, i.e. those who arrive in carriages.
thanks @Silly!
I can see now why that went over my head, both a very British phrase and an archaic sounding phrase about Class
Yes, long before my time but I think that's what it's referring to anyway from the relatively little I know about Cheyney's work as compared with Fleming's.
Erskine Caldwell wrote about the rural poor of Deep South America and mixed sex and violence in books that were far more than the pulp name that he was tagged with. God’s Little Acre and Tobacco Road would be his most famous works. Pan Books had some brilliant covers…
I like the way the artist for South Coast Tales evokes memories of Humphrey Bogart in the male protagonist.
Famous Monsters Of Filmland was an American monthly magazine edited by the legendary Forrest J Ackerman, it ran for 191 issues from 1958 - 1983. Concentrating on Universal Horror and Hammer films and all things sci-fi/horror it was incredibly popular. I had a small magazine section in my bookshop which was devoted to this title and mens adventure pulp magazines of the 60’s/70’s. It was extremely popular and I could never get enough supplies to cover demand. There were three paperbacks produced which reprinted articles and photographs from the magazines, I never had a copy of the first book and only had a handful of the second two books over the lifetime of the shop, but I priced them at £100 each and they sold instantly whenever I had them. Current prices would garner £200+ so a good investment.
Wonderful, I hadn't seen those.
I’m not sure if this is well known or not, but the first two printings of the Pan OHMSS paperback were exported to Canada and Australia. The first printing on sale in the UK was the 3rd printing. A low print run of the first printing has made it extremely valuable and £250+ is the minimum you would expect to pay for even a battered version - very fine condition would probably get £1000+
The first printing is here…
The UK first printing (actually 3rd) is here…
That's interesting, thanks CHB. I definitely once had that cover (it's not impossible that it's packed away in the loft) but I have no idea which printing it was.
Any other Bond cover facts you can think of?
I was going to leave this for a few days but seeing you asked so nicely @Barbel 🙂
For the movie tie-in paperback for YOLT the first release sent out a small quantity of paperbacks with a dust wrapper to use up unsold copies of the previous printing. Later printings had the cover as we all know it. These are extremely rare and £1500 is the going price for it. As with the OHMSS 1st and 2nd printings, and the YOLT dust wrapper, I never had any of them in the 40 years I was trading.
Thanks @CoolHandBond! That was fast.
I've certainly never owned that dust jacket edition, but I have a memory of picking one up in a second hand bookshop a long time ago... then putting it back down. Ouch.
A dust jacket on a paperback? Wow. Gosh, never knew that. I know they removed covers off the old copies and attached new ones. I have a copy of one of those, but can't remember the title. I'll see if I can dig it out of the boxes.
That may well be the movie tie-in of OHMSS which I think, from memory, states that the movie TB has just been released, so it was a good 4 years without any reprints for OHMSS.
Yes, that's the one. I bought a nice copy of that one from eBay last year as I'd never been able to find a copy in the wild. It was dated 1965 inside and Thunderball was the latest film at the time it was printed.
Thanks for confirming @Silhouette Man
I just checked my copy, its got the purple font and doesnt mention print number
it says...
"first published 1963 by Jonathon Cape
This edition published 1964 by PAN books
8 Headfort Place, London, SW1"
then later down states
"Printed in Great Britain by Richard Clay & Company, Ltd, Bungay Suffolk"
...even though cover price is 60c. so as you say, printed in Britain for export
so I'm rich? I can see I paid $4- for it, probably about 17 years ago
pretty bashed up, with yellowed pages though. These PANs are scarcer than they used to be but I still see them, I picked up a film tie in of Casino Royale and painted covers of Diamonds are Forever and For Your Eyes Only a couple months ago, none were as much as $10-
Yes, that’s an original first edition, fantastic!