Kingsport Press File Copies

Kingsport Press in Kingsport, Tennessee was the bindery that printed all of the Grosset and Dunlap juvenile series books for a number of decades up until the mid-1980s. Occasionally, collectors will find books that were Kingsport Press file copies. These books have a label which is pasted to the inside front cover and gives information such as how many books were bound. This is very interesting information to have.

I recently bought a Judy Bolton book which is a file copy. The book is The Vanishing Shadow and is a tweed copy from 1961. The label is dated April 17, 1961, gives the printing as the 45th edition, and states that 10,000 books were bound. I was actually surprised that 10,000 copies were bound since I have heard that the Hardy Boys books had lower print runs than 10,000. It may perhaps be because it was the first title in the series, and the first title in any series consistently sells more copies.

I also have a file copy of the Nancy Drew book, The Witch Tree Symbol. The label is dated May 5, 1972 and states that the printing consisted of 10,000 copies. In this case, the number of books printed does not surprise me simply because the Nancy Drew series was probably the best-selling Grosset and Dunlap series.

Additionally, I have two file copies of the lavender spine Grosset and Dunlap library editions of the Nancy Drew series. Both of these file copy labels state that 2,500 books were printed. It makes sense that the library binding would have a lower print run than the regular editions.

If you ever run across a Grosset and Dunlap book which has a file copy label on the inside front cover, you have a book which contains valuable information for series book researchers.