Earlier in the week, at the end of this post on the review slip in Jeffrey Goodman’s copy of the 1967 Gold Medal edition of Point Blank!, I mentioned that seeing that review slip helped me make a connection that answered a question I’d been pondering for a while, and that as a consequence I’d be writing what would likely be a highly tedious follow-up post in which I would explain all. This, dear reader, is that post. I make no apologies for its pseudo-academic didactic nature, so if you have little interest in matters to do with publishing, skip to the end of the post for some pretty pictures.
Still with me? Well you’ve only got yourself to blame. As I was saying: I was struck by a realization whilst writing that second Point Blank! post, to do with Coronet, the British paperback publisher of the Parker novels in the late-1960s. See, in common with many of the outfits who’ve published Richard Stark’s Parker books over the years, Coronet issued the novels out of sequence. Indeed, to my knowledge, the Parkers have only ever been published in the correct order twice: on their initial publication—although even there I’ve heard rumours about a couple of the books switching places due to a delay—and more recently when The University of Chicago Press acquired the rights. Every other time, each publisher—Berkley, Avon, Allison & Busby—managed to mix up the running order somehow, whether it be bringing forward a novel due to there being a movie adaptation (both Avon and Allison & Busby with Slayground) or seemingly through sheer incompetence (Berkley).
Coronet were no different. The British publisher started off well enough by issuing The Hunter, the debut Parker novel (original US publication 1962), in 1967, again retitled Point Blank! and with a still of Lee Marvin from John Boorman’s movie of that year on the cover. But then, for their next Parker offering in 1968, Coronet skipped the subsequent eight Parkers and published instead the ninth novel, The Rare Coin Score (orig. US publication 1967), following that the same year with the tenth one, The Green Eagle Score (also orig. 1967 in the States). Parker #11, The Black Ice Score (orig. US 1968) was next in 1969, before Coronet jumped back to the seventh Parker, The Seventh (orig. US 1966), now retitled as The Split, and rounded off 1969 with the twelfth Parker, The Sour Lemon Score (orig. US 1969).
Coronet’s treatment of Point Blank! and The Split are easy enough to understand: both sport movie stills on the cover and were issued to tie in with their respective film adaptations. But I could never quite work out why Coronet opted to publish Parkers #9–12 instead of, say, The Man with the Getaway Face (Parker #2, orig. US 1963), The Outfit (Parker #3, orig. US 1963), and so forth. Until, that is, I finally fixed on a word in the expanded version of the publishing house’s name—a word that also appears in Gold Medal’s full name: Fawcett.
Coronet, you see, was an imprint of Hodder Fawcett Ltd in the UK, while Gold Medal was an imprint of Fawcett Publications in the States. They were, in effect, the same publisher, and once you—or rather, I—realise that, then Coronet’s publishing strategy becomes easier to comprehend: Fawcett Gold Medal acquired the rights to the Parker series in the States from Pocket Books as of The Rare Coin Score, which is why Hodder Fawcett Coronet followed suit with that book in the UK (after publishing Point Blank!, that is). I guess I should have made the connection earlier with all the blogging I’ve done on the Coronet editions of the Parkers, but as I said before, I’ve never been the sharpest tool in the box.
Anyway, so this post isn’t a complete waste of everyone’s time, I thought it might be instructive to compare the different approaches on the covers of the Fawcett US and UK paperback editions. The American covers were all illustrated by the great Robert McGinnis, but I’m still none the wiser as to who illustrated the UK ones (those that were illustrated, that is). I speculated here that it might be John M. Burns, but, as ever, if anyone reading this can shed light on the true identity of the cover artist on the British editions, you know what to do. The order of publication differed slightly from US to UK, so I’m going with what I think is the US order.
US Fawcett Gold Medal, 1967 / UK Hodder Fawcett Coronet, 1968
US Fawcett Gold Medal, 1967 / UK Hodder Fawcett Coronet, 1967
US Fawcett Gold Medal, 1967 / UK Hodder Fawcett Coronet, 1968
US Fawcett Gold Medal, 1968 / UK Hodder Fawcett Coronet, 1969
US Fawcett Gold Medal, 1968 / UK Hodder Fawcett Coronet, 1969
US Fawcett Gold Medal, 1969 / UK Hodder Fawcett Coronet, 1969
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great information and love the covers.
My first exposure to the Parker novels was through the Allison and Busby omnibus editions, which also published the books out of order, which I read after finding a movie tie in edition of Point Blank/The Hunter in my local library. Even without a prior knowledge of the series it was obvious that they were being printed out of sequence due to the fact that each book in the second volume contained a footnote explaining a certain reference as relating to a book that wasn’t in the first volume. Even more frustrating was the fact that they never went past volume two, and at that point the allison and busby editions were the only Parker books available in UK bookshops. It was only later when I got my own internet connection (and credit card) that I was able to start filling out my Parker collection.
Also Robert McGinness rocks. If it wasn’t for his covers I never would have discovered the Ben Gates series by Robert Kyle, which is one of the best private detective novel series I’ve read. Highly recommended (and I think one of the books was reprinted by Hard Case Crime under the author’s actual name, Robert Terrell.)
Nick, wouldn’t the US order be confirmed by placing them in the order of their Gold Medal id number found right above the price? That’s how I’ve kept the order of all things GM (except for my Parker collection which remains in order of original publication since my run is a mix of publishers)for years now, regardless of the copyright date. I just assumed they released books like other publishers release periodicals or comic books…starting with number 1….though I have often wondered about the letter that often comes before the number and why some letters are capitalized and others are not…and if that even means anything at all….see what you’ve started???
Since you made me curious here’s what I found that does a little ‘splainin’!
http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Publisher:Fawcett_Gold_Medal
The letter designation apparently pertains to the PRICE of the book and nothing more. Nice reference page, though, that I never thought of looking for until reading your post this afternoon. Quite useful after all, Nick!
Just started collecting these myself–it’s hard to find good copies for a decent price, but still possible if you shop around a bit (and aren’t too picky about the condition–I mean, these are cheap paperback books that are around as old as I am).
As I mentioned over on Existential Ennui, I’m struck by how some of the early versions of Parker you see on these covers are patterned after some actor or another–somebody prominent at the time, but who never actually played Parker, or any character based on Parker.
The original Pocket Books edition of The Hunter–Lloyd Bridges. He’d just finished doing “Sea Hunt” on TV.
McGinness’ Parker on the cover of the 1967 Fawcett reprint–basically a skinny Sean Connery. No need to explain that one.
But for The Rare Coin Score, McGinness went in a different direction–that’s Charlton Heston with the slinky brunette draped around him–a very idealized Chuck Heston, but unmistakable. Heston was a huge star in the late 60’s.
The Parker on the cover of The Green Eagle Score MIGHT be Robert Stack. I am far from confident on that I.D. “The Untouchables” ended in 1963, but he was still playing lead roles in films for a while after that.
The Split–Burt Lancaster? Not sure at all about that. Not a very distinct portrait.
The Sour Lemon Score–maybe a bit like Richard Crenna. He had a lot of very prominent movie roles in the late 60’s/early 70’s.
McGinness did the most specific Parker portraits–also the most mutable–he never tried to make Parker look the same way twice. And he seems to have liked playing Imaginary Casting Director, a game I’m rather fond of myself.
Rod Taylor would have made a good Parker–at least if he’d been a head taller. But then again, he was certainly a bigger-looking man than Mel Gibson.
But for me, it’s always Lee Marvin and then everybody else. The gruff voice, the oddly expressive deadpan–even the big rawboned hands. Pity he never got to play the real Parker, but I always hear his voice in my head when I’m reading the books.