Examining the Cover Art of Library Editions Part 2

One of the major library bindings for the Nancy Drew series was done by the American Publishers Corporation during the 1960s and 1970s. These books have a green binding, and like with all other library editions, were created by rebinding the text block from regular editions that were published by Grosset and Dunlap.

For most of the APC books, the cover art was taken from the first cover art of the regular picture cover edition from the early 1960s.

Just like with the Nancy Drew library editions mentioned in my previous post, these editions feature cover art that appears to have been traced from the cover art of the regular editions. The finished result has less detail than the original illustration. #1-43 and #49 were done in this fashion.

APC became more creative with #44-48 and #50. For these books, one of the internal illustrations from the regular edition was copied for the cover art. In each case, the APC cover art is an exact duplicate of that internal illustration. For The Double Jinx Mystery, the illustration was altered slightly below the placement of the title and at the very bottom where two branches were extended.

My favorite is The Double Jinx Mystery. I like this cover art better than the cover art for the regular edition, in part due to the exciting action depicted. What if Nancy slips and falls? What if the bird gets away? Imagine how attractive this illustration would have been in full color.  Compare to the regular edition of The Double Jinx Mystery.

I also enjoy the other APC editions which feature cover art copied from internal illustrations.

These Nancy Drew APC editions are neat since the cover art differs from the regular editions.