belmont books mmpb first printing(s?°), first edition
cover art by john cayea (signed)
cover price 75¢
160pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
number-string on spine is not an sbn of any variety. it may be its abn, last element is cover price in cents
° - quite likely to also exist in a near-identical canadian-carcassed variant, intended for distribution north of the parallel; but yr hmbl srppnt.'s seen none such so far, nor any report of such a beast from the wild;
please check the indicia for mention of the carcase (or ''book'') being canadian-printed if you hold a copy of this edition, and post the wording from the publishing history if it proves to be one such.
- thank-you.. ppint.
despite the overseas territories prices printed on the cover, five star books are not known to've been distributed as new titles by the book trade nor via news wholesalers in east africa, australia nor new zealand: indeed, they're not known to've been distributed as new titles by the book trade in the yuk-of-gb-&-ni (and probably also in the republic of ireland).
lacking any cat#, let alone any sbn or isbn, they couldn't've been (re-)ordered specifically by the retailer, and were probably initially boxed out to their customary newsagents by pbs (or by world distributors (manchester) ltd. who seem to've been closely associated with pbs) before the majority of the print run was sold off to be packed in mixed cartons of remainders.
often - most usually? - met dumped into a partition in the wire open-topped small & medium-sized toys section in uk-of-gb-&-ni (& roi?) branches of woolworths together with random other remainders.
never seen nor reported to've been seen carried in (or on) their book departments/sections' shelves.. (this comment is from another edition of this book)
jimess: thank-you. john cayea was active for a decade producing cover art for sf books etc. including stephen king's "the stand", but seems little-known - barely remembered - now. (this comment is from another edition of this book)
flamingo imprint undated° p/b edition, not first uk p/b edition; of extremely dubious legality;
possibly a later incarnation of brown, watson ltd. after the balbanis sold their company/ies
cover art unsigned, uncredited, retained from the belmont-tower mmpb cover
cover price 30p
160pp. including titles, indicia (ha!) etc, end pp. advertising
publication date derived from the date of the full-colour advertisement for (a merkin brand of) cigarettes bound-in between pp. 96 & 97, which quotes from an october 1974 ftc report
as pbs ltd. of victoria mills, manchester (probapossibly closely connected with world distributors (manchester) ltd.) had obtained a licence to (at least) the uk rights to this novel in 1972 it is extremely unlikely that this flamingo book was published legally in the uk-of-gb-&-ni; the duration of book rights licences had begun reducing, but were not then (nor for a while longer) normally for less than a decade. (this comment is from another edition of this book)
belmont tower mmpb undated° first printing, not first mmpb edition
cover art unsigned, uncredited (a detail very likely cut down from cover art for an earlier belmont or tower mmpb, as-yet ''unidentified'')
cover price 95¢
160pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising
printed from the belmont publications typesetting/plates, titles and advertising suitably emended, by the successor publishing company.
the uk p/b run-on of dubious legality was produced as a flamingo book,
its date derived by interpolation of cat#, comparison of cover price and dating of colour advertisement for cigarettes bound in (some? all?) copies between pp. 96 & 97 (this comment is from another edition of this book)
first unibook p/b edition, may've been a run-on of the 1971 belmont books mmpb with which it is near-identical: belmont logo name and cat# top front cover near spine replaced by "a unibook" above price:
cover art by john cayea (signed; retained from belmont books first edition)
cover price 75¢
160pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp.
produced as a promotional book for one or more or more companies or, possibly, as an instant remainder - or both (this comment is from another edition of this book)
pbs ltd. five star books imprint p/b first printing, first uk edition
cover art is a mirror image of that on the belmont mmpb first edition by john cayea that looks to have been re-coloured, shot up and then cropped back down to a-format p/b size
cover price 25p, east africa 6/00s, australia 70¢, new zealand 75¢
160pp. including titles, indicia etc, end pp. advertising (this comment is from another edition of this book)