Sunday, February 20, 2011

Any Questions?

I'm still here, but this is one of those times when I have little to say regarding series books.  It's because February has been a bizarre month.  Oklahoma City received 19 inches of snow during the first two weeks in February, and this majorly disrupted everyone's lives.  Schools were shut down for most of those two weeks, and travel was difficult or impossible.  It was also very cold, with the low temperatures reaching well below zero.

This last week was a five-day work week, and it was exhausting getting back into a regular schedule.  Now the weather is like spring with the temperatures reaching 70 to 80 degrees each day, making for an odd contrast.  When I was out on Saturday, everyone seemed so joyful.  I've never gotten that kind of a strong vibe from everyone while on an outing.  It's like we are out of prison.

I spent a significant amount of time early in the week finishing my article for this year's Nancy Drew Web Con.  Follow the provided link for more information.  Since my efforts were elsewhere, they were not here.  Make sense?  My article will be on library editions.

I do have more package troubles, but I will most likely wait for a final resolution before publishing my thoughts.

So, does anyone have any kind of random thought or question regarding series books that we can discuss until I am sufficiently motivated to write again?

14 comments:

rachel said...

Why are those early Dana's with covers so hard (for me) to find?

Jennifer White said...

Do you refer to the ones with dust jackets that are lavender or turquoise? Or to any Danas with dust jackets?

stratomiker said...

We're still stuck in deep winter here in northeast Ohio. Last week the driveway heaved up and cracked in a zillion places and the gutters came down, today we lost the natural gas and I spent the whole day making sure the gas men got it back on. The gas pipes were filled with water up and down the street from snowmelt. They had to pump the water out and then blow out the haouse-to-street lines. Then, it started snowing like crazy again, but at least we had heat! Now it's raining, icing, snowing (this year they are calling it 'mixing'), and it's a great storm right out of The Secret of the Musical Tree. However, the ice may pull the electric lines down and then we won't have electricity to run the furnace!

When I used to plow snow (for forty years) I never removed the plow from my truck till the end of April, and I put it on the beginning of October. That's how long a Cleveland winter can be!

Oklahoma, you ain't seen nothing!

Recovering from a surgery in late December I've had plenty of time to read and write about series books on a new blog. Check it out:

Hardy Boys & Chums Blog
http://hardyboys-stratomiker.blogspot.com

Mike

rachel said...

I mean the lavender and turquoise ones.

Jennifer White said...

I thought that you meant the earliest ones, but I wanted to make sure.

The values of those jackets have come down greatly since the late 1990s, but the jackets remain fairly difficult to acquire. The jackets used to sell for $250 and higher at times, but in recent years, people have had to take less than $50 for them.

I recall that it took me a very long time to acquire all of them, particularly the last turquoise ones.

Paula said...

Hi, Jennifer,

I've been meaning to ask this question for awhile - thanks for the opportunity! I have searched a long time for the introduction of the revised text for Nancy Drew The Clue in the Old Album (#24). According to the Farah's Guide I have, the old 10th edition, the introduction of the text and 3rd cover art were printed together. However, I assume this information is out of date, as your picture cover gallery shows that there was one printing of the revised text with the older 2nd cover art. This is the one I have been searching for, looking for the 2nd cover art and asking sellers for the copyright date (wanting 1977). I haven't had any luck yet, so I'd just like to confirm that it does exist! I'm also wondering what title it lists to on the back and inside since I don't have that information. Do you have this particular book in your collection? Do you think it's extra hard to find, and if so what would you say the value is?

Another one that seems HTF is the intro of the revised text for Brass-Bound Trunk (#17), which lists to Sky Phantom, I believe. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that book also.

I thought these printings would be easier to find since they are relatively recent, but they have been among the hardest PC's for me to snag! Thanks so much!

Jennifer White said...

Ugh. This is my third attempt in answering the Old Album question. I confused myself majorly, but maybe I have it right now.

My answer has gone from "maybe but I can't find it so I'm not sure" to "no because I can't find it and made a mistake in my records" to "yes I found it finally!!!"

Part of the trouble is that the 1977 text book has both copyrights on the copyright page, and the text has the same font in both versions. They look so similar as to appear identical!

Here goes, for the third time.

I have the 1977B-44 printing of Old Album which has the revised text and the 2nd cover art. It has all of the same points as the book mentioned in this post, except that it does have printed endpapers. The back cover lists NDC, #1-25, #53, #26-52, and #54. The book has an order form listing to #54. The book has the revised 1977 text. It fits.

The book from that post is an anomaly not listed in Farah's Guide. It has the 1947 text and all of the other points. Personally, I think it is a subset of the 1977B-44 printing, which means that the 1977B-44 printing had both texts and that is why the 1977 text version is so scarce.

I know of at least one other person who has the 1977 second cover art book with unprinted endpapers and the 1947 text. So there are multiple copies that ended up with the original text. That means that not all of them had the revised text.

Take a look at the yellow band on the front cover in that post. My 1977 text 1977B-44 book also has a yellow band that is too wide. It is not as wide as the one with the 1947 text, but it is very wide as well. This could be a way to visually identify Old Album books that might be from the same printing.

The introduction of the revised text of Brass Bound Trunk is extremely scarce. I do not have it. Someone keeps contacting me every few months to find out if I have that book available for sale. The trouble is that I don't own it myself, so if I ever find one, I'm keeping it. :) I have to find two before I will have one to sell.

Farah's places a value of $15 on both books you mentioned. I'd say $15-20 on Old Album. For Brass Bound Trunk, I'd say $25-35. It is very scarce. It's a lot harder to find than any printing of Thirteenth Pearl, for instance.

Mike wrote, "Oklahoma, you ain't seen nothing!"

You're right about that! We had our crazy snow, but our climate is such that it goes away fast and then we have pretty good weather. Those of you who live farther north have to put up with a lot of extended really bad winter weather. I am glad I live this far to the south!

Paula said...

Jennifer,
Thank you so much for the answers and information! I'm sorry it was so troublesome! I hate when I can't find a book that I've recorded - it's like, where did this thing go?

The information about the yellow band is critical to me! I usually don't even inquire about those, because I prefer books without the yellow band. After having difficulty finding this particular Old Album, I thought perhaps it was the book with the yellow band. But when I checked it out, all the yellow band books I saw had the 1947 copyright, so I dismissed that idea. So now I realize I have been passing over the yellow band books on sight, thinking they were all 1947 copyright. Thank you, thank you - you have breathed new life into my quest for this one! :) Gosh, I *never* would have found it, the way I was going about it!

Jennifer White said...

I glad that the information is helpful! I kept trying to figure out why I had the book recorded as that printing in Farah's 12th and could not seem to find it. I was ignoring the ones with the yellow band! I then kept confusing myself as I checked one and then the other. The books looks almost exactly the same!

Paula said...

To all, for your viewing and sleuthing pleasure: a handpicked Bonanza list where all pictures are elements of the Nancy Drew original text (1932) story, Nancy's Mysterious Letter. See if you can make the connection!

http://www.bonanza.com/hand_picked_lists/64660

I hope you enjoy it! :)

Rose said...

Hi Jennifer,

I've been collecting Nancy Drew's for several years. I recently obtained a first printing of The Mystery of the Tolling Bell. When I took it out of the box I noticed that it seemed small. When I compared it to my other Nancy's it was a full 1/4" shorter and 1/4" more narrow. Is this normal for this particular format? Thanks for your input!

Jennifer White said...

I only pulled a few books down from the shelf, but my Tolling Bell first is shorter than my Old Album first. It is the same height as my Old Attic and Crumbling Wall firsts. The books from the middle part of the 1940s do tend to be shorter than other books printed before and after this time.

Paula said...

I wrote a synopsis of the original text story for Nancy's Mysterious Letter in the comments section of my Bonanza HPL. It more or less explains the tie between all the pictures in the HPL to the story. I hope you enjoy it! :)

http://www.bonanza.com/hand_picked_lists/64660

Paula said...

Hi, Jennifer,
Just wanted to update you about the Old Album book (revised text with 2nd cover art) - I finally have one! Ironically, I found it in a lot of books on ebay that did not show the covers of the books in the listing. The lot in general was mostly fair & poor condition books, but this one was VG, as I confirmed with the seller before bidding. It does have the thick yellow banner at top, and both copyrights dates as you mentioned. Now that I have it in my hands, I can see also how a seller could make a mistake about the copyright date. "Copyright 1947" stands out clearly on the first of seven lines, while "1977" is kind of buried in the middle of other text on the second line. So just as a hint to others looking for this particular book, besides looking for the yellow band at top, you might want to ask about number of chapters, rather than copyright date, to avoid any confusion about which text is in the book. Thanks again for your help, Jennifer! I am really happy to finally have found this one! :)