Inexpensive books with soft covers have been with us for hundreds of years, from early pamphlets issued soon after Gutenberg’s printing press became popular, to booklets and almanacs, and to the dime novels of the century.
The first modern paperback books, as we know them, were published in Germany in 1931. Four years later, Penguin Books in England released a group of ten paperback books.
It sounded like a can’t-miss deal. Books that were small, lightweight, easy to carry, and identical in content to the more expensive hardback editions. How could they not be immediate best-sellers?
But introducing paperbacks to the world was a real problem. Bookstores simply refused to sell them! They saw paperbacks as a threat to their hardback sales. The profit margin on a 25-cent paperback book was much smaller than that of a two-dollar-and-up hardback. In effect, bookstores would be cutting their own profits by carrying paperback books.
The breakthrough came when the British branch of Woolworth’s department stores decided to sell paperback books. Sales took off immediately, and soon Woolworth’s was selling paperbacks by the thousands. That’s when bookstores realized they had to give in and carry paperbacks too. A small profit was better than no profit at all.
The United States came on board in 1938, when a new company was formed with the express purpose of publishing paperback books. It was called Pocket Books, and its first effort was an experimental run of a paperback edition of Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth. Just 2,000 copies of The Good Earth were printed, and it was sold only in New York City. Today, only a dozen copies are known to have survived, and if you were to find another copy in fine condition, it would be worth about $15,000.
The experiment proved successful, and in 1939 the first “official” Pocket Book was published: Lost Horizon, by James Hilton. The first edition of this book is worth $1,000 in fine condition.
With the success of the Pocket Book line, other paperback presses sprang up. The first paperback publishers issued only reprints of previously-published hardback books. Soon, though, original works began appearing.
Novels that had originally appeared in pulp magazines were reprinted as paperbacks, often combining the several parts of monthly serials into complete books. This was not a new practice, by the way—many of Charles Dickens’ books were originally published as magazine serials. Most of the Sherlock Holmes stories appeared in magazines before they became books, and later the Shadow stories (“Who knows what evil…”) did the same.
The birth of the paperback book was a major cause of the death of the pulp magazine. Many of the pulp artists began doing covers for paperbacks, and pulp authors also moved to the paperback field. Even the more expensive “slick” magazines lost authors to paperbacks.
Several genre paperback houses appeared, where publishers specialized in such fields as westerns, science fiction, mystery, juvenile-delinquent novels, and hard-boiled private eye books.
One company, Ace Books, became popular for its Double Novels. Instead of paying a quarter for a book, you could pay 35 cents (“Just a dime more!”) for two books bound as one, with one of them printed upside down. Most of these Ace double novels were science fiction and westerns.
As for the cash value of old paperback books, only that first New York version of The Good Earth is worth enough money to buy a new car. Unlike stamps and coins, which can be worth upwards of a million dollars for the most sought-after issues, most collectible paperbacks can be had for well under a thousand dollars.
A couple of exceptions: Pocket Book #5 (of the ten that were initially printed, remember?) is an Agatha Christie novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It has sold for as much as $2,500.
Ace Double Book D-13 features Junkie, the first novel by William Burroughs. It has sold for a thousand dollars in fine condition.
Early “racy” paperbacks bring premium prices. Reform School Girl by Felice Swados, for example, is worth over a thousand dollars in fine condition.
What else should you look for?
Some of the most valuable paperback books are early puzzle books. For example, a 1952 paperback called Challenger Crossword Puzzles is worth over $500. The trick? It is only valuable if the puzzles haven’t been filled in! Good luck with that!
Some of the early Dell mysteries with crime scene maps on the back are worth a premium price, and early science fiction is always in demand.
Paperback book collecting is a hobby that is less expensive than many others. You can often find collectible paperbacks at thrift shops and yard sales.
The best price guide to paperback books is the Antique Trader Collectible Paperback Price Guide, by Gary Lovisi.
Dan Hughes and his wife Kathy own the Kaleidoscope Art Studio in Rantoul, which offers classes and self-directed workshops for both children and adults. Please visit their website at http://room200.com. Dan is a retired general manager of the Parkland College radio station and was an instructor in broadcasting. He wrote, produced, and hosted The Parkland Challenge, a popular local television quiz program for high school academic bowl teams. He has written books on metal detecting and adult softball, and he does weekly podcasts (internet radio shows). Email Dan at danhughes@juno.com, and check out his website at http://danhughes.net.