Monday, January 21, 2013

Nancy Drew Girl Detective Library Editions

Recently, I spotted an eBay listing that included six hardcover Nancy Drew Girl Detective books with dust jackets.  This intrigued me.  The Girl Detective books have only been published in softcover editions.  Various library bound editions exist, and I knew that these books had to be books that had been rebound.  Still, the idea of a dust jacket was interesting.


I studied the seller's picture, where I could see that the books were hardcover with dust jackets.  The jackets did not appear to be photocopied, but they did have what looked like white paper along the edges.  Still intrigued, I purchased the books.

Just as expected, the books are rebound library editions.  The dust jackets were made from the original paperback covers.  The bindery removed the text block from the cover and then attached Tyvek paper to the edges of the front and back covers to create the front and rear flaps.  The jackets were then affixed to the inside front and back covers of the books.

I was able to remove the jackets from the books with little difficulty.  Either the glue was not strong, or the Tyvek did not bond well to the glue.  I placed the jackets in mylar covers.










The books have plain covers with no text printed on the outside of the book.  This means that the dust jackets are necessary in order to tell the books apart from the outside.  I especially like #19 The Orchid Thief, because the color of the book matches the dust jacket so well.  It's very pretty!

4 comments:

Cathy Reeve said...

Interesting - are the covers the actually paperback covers, or are the photocopies?? They just look like they're wrapping around the books very nicely.

Jennifer White said...

The covers are the actual original paperback covers. On the reserve side, you can see some scarring in the spine area from when they were pulled away from the binding. They turned out really nice. It would be neat to find more of them.

Cathy Reeve said...

Actually - I'm a bookbinder :) Maybe I'll try redoing one of the pb copies I have lying around.

Unknown said...

These books are an interesting Nancy collectible. I am impressed with how the bookbinder made dustjackets from the paperback covers. Clever!