INTRODUCTION

It was some time after I started collecting Wheatley's Arrow paperbacks that I discovered my first Hutchinson paperback – the 1951 edition of Such Power Is Dangerous.  I was thrilled and in my naivety thought I had discovered an anomaly in the paperbacks.  Then a couple of years later, in a bookshop in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, I found my first red-striped "Pocket" Library edition (with a wrapper!) and knew I had stumbled on to a range of paperback editions that, up until then, I had never seen mentioned anywhere.  Since those early days I have slowly found more of these early paperbacks and with the help of some other DW aficionados feel I now have enough information to show them on their own page.

DATING

As with the early hardbacks, dating the issues without a publisher's date is a difficult exercise.  Hutchinson have long ago lost any information they might have had with regards to their publication date, so I am left with looking for the following bits of information to try to estimate (perhaps 'guestimate' is a better word) issue dates:

• a printed list of currently published DW titles somewhere in the copy (so that I can assume the edition was published before any titles not mentioned);
• the same for adverts for other authors' titles;
• the phrase "nnth Thousand" somewhere in the issue which refers to the number of copies of the title printed since the 1st edition (not the number of prints of this edition, as I used to think!) (this I can compare with other editions and try to guess where this issue lies in relation to them);
• advertisements (for comparison with other adverts, information in the advert, etc.);
• selling price (again, for comparison with other editions) and any other bits I can glean from the publisher's tit-bits, print layout, etc.;
• for the "Pocket" Library editions I am grateful for the additional information I have been able to obtain from Gavin Holman, webmaster for the Vintage Paperback pages on the Brass Penguin site.
• for editions from 1949 I am grateful to, and give acknowledgement to, Richard Williams of The Dragonby Press, Scunthorpe, for the information in his publication British Paperback Checklists: Number Thirty-Eight : Hutchinson Group Post-War Numbered Series later Arrow Books, 1949-1960.

If you know I've got it wrong and can show me how – please let me know and I'll gladly correct the information.

PICTURES

Don't be fooled by the apparent cleanliness of some of the following pictures – where possible I've cleaned them up and repaired the years of wear electronically!  If only I could do the same to the real thing. . . . . . . . . 

CONTACT ME

I know there must be a lot more out there, somewhere.  If you have details of other Hutchinson Paperbacks or know where I can get those details, please contact me:

Black August | Contraband | The Devil Rides Out | The Eunuch Of Stamboul | The Fabulous Valley | The Forbidden Territory | The Secret War | Such Power Is Dangerous | Three Inquisitive People | Uncharted Seas

 

Black August		Contraband
Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library No.44		Hutchinson's Pocket Library of Fiction
(with wrapper)		Click here to see the cover under the thin paper wrapper
marked 'British Sales 66th Thousand' (circa 1937/8)		marked 36th Thousand (circa 1940)

 

Contraband		Contraband
Hutchinson		Hutchinson
Marked 136th Thousand (circa 1942/4)		1/6 reprint : 161st Thousand (circa 1945)

Hutchinson's Free Victory Gift Edition

marked internally 161st Thousand (circa 1945)

Small print at the bottom of the circle on the front cover reads: This is one of the 1,000,000 Books given Free by Walter Hutchinson, Esq., on behalf of Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), Ltd., and the Hutchinson Printing Trust, Ltd., to mark the Glorious Victories.

Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library, Services Edition		Hutchinson No.239
marked internally 186th Thousand		marked internally 221st Thousand [Feb 1952]

 

The Devil Rides Out
Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library, No.61		Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library
marked 'British sales 69th Thousand' [1939]		marked 'British sales 112th Thousand' (no wrapper) (circa 1945)

 

The Eunuch Of Stamboul
Hutchinson		The Readers' Library Publishing Co. Ltd. in association with The Grout Publishing Co.
marked 91st Thousand		marked '23rd Impression' (circa 1943/4)

 

The Fabulous Valley
Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library, No.58		Hutchinson's Pocket Library of Fiction
		d
(with wrapper)
marked 'British Sales 43rd Thousand'

 

The Forbidden Territory
Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library, No.33		Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library
(with wrapper) 320pp.		(no wrapper) 192pp.
marked 'British Sales 71st Thousand' [Aug 1937]		marked '59th Thousand' (circa 1944)

 

The Secret War
The Readers' Library Publishing Co. Ltd. in association with The Grout Publishing Co.		Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library, Services Edition
marked 42nd Thousand (circa 1944)		marked internally 67th Thousand

Hutchinson's Free Victory Gift Edition		Hutchinson
d
(circa 1945)		marked 117th Thousand (earliest possible date 1944)

 

Such Power Is Dangerous
Hutchinson's "Pocket" Library, No.38
Click here to see the cover under the wrapper		(with wrapper)
marked 62nd Thousand (circa 1937)		marked 92nd Thousand (circa 1938/39)

Hutchinson's Pocket Library of Fiction		The Readers' Library Publishing Co., Ltd. in association with Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers), Ltd.
marked 105th Thousand		marked 130th Thousand (earliest possible date 1944)

Hutchinson, No.235

marked internally 156th Thousand [June 1951]

 

Three Inquisitive People
Hutchinson's Pocket Library of Fiction		Hutchinson's Pocket Library of Fiction
marked 60th Thousand (U.K. printing)		marked 60th Thousand (Australian printing)
The Readers’ Library Publishing Co., Ltd. in association with Hutchinson & Co, (Publishers), Ltd.		Hutchinson No. 238
marked 75th Thousand (circa 1944)		marked internally 135th Thousand [Feb 1952]

 

Uncharted Seas
Hutchinson’s Pocket Library of Fiction
marked 67th Thousand (This incomplete copy is the only one I have seen)

 

Black August | Contraband | The Devil Rides Out | The Eunuch Of Stamboul | The Fabulous Valley | The Forbidden Territory | The Secret War | Such Power Is Dangerous | Three Inquisitive People | Uncharted Seas

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