Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Early Kay Tracey Dust Jackets

I recently bought an auction lot that contained the first four Kay Tracey books with dust jackets. The dust jackets are very early dust jackets; in fact, all four dust jackets may be the first printing dust jackets.

I have a complete set of the early thick yellow Kay Tracey books with dust jackets, and it was very difficult just to get the thick books with dust jackets that have unfaded spines. Due to the difficulty of getting a thick book with a nice dust jacket, I never tried to get any first printing dust jackets. I probably do have a few of the first printings of the last several titles, but I do not have any for the early books.

I used to have a first printing dust jacket of one of the early Kay Tracey books, but the spine was faded so I sold it when I acquired a slightly later printing with an unfaded spine. The condition of the dust jacket spines is very important to me since that part of the dust jacket is the part that I see on the shelf. I cannot stand faded spines and only have faded spines for the series books that are very scarce.

When I spotted the lot of four books and realized that the spines were unfaded and that the jackets were very early or first printings, I decided to buy them. The jackets are in varying stages of deterioration. All of them are brittle, but The Strange Echo is the worst of the four. This is what I had after I removed the dust jacket from the book:


The dust jacket was in many pieces, and additional pieces came loose as I repaired it. I had to use archival tape on it as there was no other way to get the dust jacket reassembled. Anyone who has tried to repair a dust jacket knows how hard it is to get the different pieces lined up properly. This is what I had after around 15 minutes of work:

I still had a couple of pieces that I could not match up with it or any of the other jackets. Since they must belong to Strange Echo, I put them in the mylar cover behind the jacket.

I do believe that at least three of the four dust jackets are the first printing dust jackets. Here is the dust jacket for The Secret of the Red Scarf, which is the first title in the series:


The dust jacket lists just the first two titles in the series. Since it was standard practice for publishers to release the first two to four books of a series simultaneously as a breeder set, the first two Kay Tracey books were probably released at the same time. For this reason, I believe that the above dust jacket is the first printing dust jacket.

Here is the dust jacket for The Strange Echo, the second title in the series:


The front flap lists just the first two titles in the series, just like the dust jacket for The Secret of the Red Scarf. Most likely, the above dust jacket is the first printing dust jacket.

Here is the dust jacket for The Mystery of the Swaying Curtains, the third title in the series:


It lists to the fourth title in the series. For that reason, it may not be the first printing dust jacket, unless volumes three and four were released simultaneously. I notice that the copyright pages for the first two books list just the first two books with "other volumes in preparation." The copyright pages for the third and fourth books list the first four books with "other volumes in preparation." For this reason, it seems likely that the third and fourth books were released simultaneously, so my third book does likely have the first printing dust jacket.

Here is the dust jacket for The Shadow on the Door, the fourth title in the series:


This dust jacket lists to the fourth title, so it is probably the first printing dust jacket.

One last thing—I paid under $8.00 per book, so these books were a bargain.

6 comments:

Lisa K said...

Hi Jennifer,
Where do you buy archival tape? Would you recommend that for repairing book spines?

Anonymous said...

What a great find for you and a great bargain! Thanks so much for sharing this with us, especially how you worked with the jackets. It is fascinating. This might be a dumb question but, anyway... where pieces of the jacket are missing, are the white areas that show through tape or is it a piece of paper backing? I'm assuming it must be paper, and the pieces of archival tape are placed only behind the pieces to hold them together. It's hard for me to imagine how you do this. Must be very painstaking work. But rewarding!

Jennifer White said...

Demco has archival tape:

Filmoplast Mending Tape

It is expensive, but I have been using the same roll for around 9 years. It lasts a long time.

I only use it on the reverse side of dust jackets. I don't think it could be used to repair the spines of books.

I have never bought archival products for book repair, but Demco has several products that could work for binding and other types of repairs:

Demco NeutralBond Modified Vinyl Adhesive

Systematic Archival Glue Pen

Jennifer White said...

This might be a dumb question but, anyway... where pieces of the jacket are missing, are the white areas that show through tape or is it a piece of paper backing?

The white areas are where pieces are missing and are the paper backing of the mylar covers showing through to the front. The jackets are unbelievably brittle, and I had pieces coming off as I messed with them. I'm sure some pieces were probably lost by the seller during the time that the books were up for sale and getting packaged. At least now the dust jackets are safe.

I do tape the jackets from the reverse side, which does make it a little trickier. By taping from the reverse side, the tape does not take away from the appearance of the jacket.

While the process is tricky, it was not as difficult with these particular jackets as it is with some jackets. These early jackets have the book lists on the reverse side, so I was able to line the pieces up easier by lining up the text. When the reverse side is unprinted, it is a lot harder to do.

Anonymous said...

I thought of another question regarding this topic. I've ordered some protective jacket covers from Brodart (Adjust-a-Fold turned out to be less expensive than Demco, for me anyway) to use on my Nancy Drew books and some other modern books I have. From a collecting perspective, if the dust jacket has a tear, but it is all there - I think I've seen it called a "closed tear" or somehting like that - is it better to place it in the cover unrepaired (untaped) or should it be taped on the reverse side with appropriate tape? I'm not sure as I've never done it, but it seems it might look better repaired and perhaps the tape prevents further damage. But maybe most collectors prefer to leave book jackets unrepaired, and simply protected in the cover. What do you prefer and what have you found in regards to other collectors? Thanks!

Jennifer White said...

I usually place dust jackets in the mylar cover untaped unless the jacket displays poorly. Most closed tears of around an inch or under display as though not torn when placed in the mylar covers.

I had a book that I bought recently that had a five inch long tear to the front panel of the dust jacket. I placed it in the mylar cover, but the tear was still quite visible. It was too long to be held flat enough not to show. I used a small amount of archival tape to tack it down from the reverse side. Once finished, the tear was barely visible in the mylar cover.

My rule of thumb is to avoid taping the dust jackets when I can. If the jackets still look bad in the mylar covers, I use a small amount of tape on the reverse side. Most intact dust jacket do not require tape when placed in the mylar covers. The ones that are in rough shape normally do.