THE CHILDREN’S BOOK CLUB BOOKS
TWENTY EIGHT OF W.E. JOHNS’ BOOKS WERE
RE-PUBLISHED AS “CHILDREN’S BOOK CLUB” EDITIONS IN THE 1950’s AND 1960’s.
TWENTY TWO OF THESE WERE BIGGLES BOOKS
AND EIGHTEEN OF THOSE BIGGLES BOOKS FEATURED UNIQUE COVER ARTWORK
- YOU
CAN SEE THESE EIGHTEEN UNIQUE COVERS HERE
SOME OF THESE BOOKS ARE OFTEN MISTAKEN
FOR FIRST EDITIONS – BUT THEY ARE
ALL REPRINTS
THERE WAS, ADDITIONALLY, A W. E. JOHNS’
“YOUTH BOOK CLUB” BOOK PUBLISHED, WHICH WAS A GIMLET BOOK – WITH AN UNUSUAL
PLAIN DUST WRAPPER.
THE BACK OF THE BOOK SAYS THE YOUTH BOOK
CLUB IS FOR THOSE AGED 15 TO 22, SO FOR OLDER READERS THAN THE “CHILDREN’S BOOK
CLUB”.
YOU CAN SEE A LETTER ABOUT HOW THIS BOOK
CAME TO BE PUBLISHED BELOW.
MOST OF THESE BOOKS ARE RELATIVELY COMMON
– BUT THE FIRST THREE BIGGLES TITLES ARE PARTICULARLY RARE AND DIFFICULT
TO FIND WITH GOOD JACKETS
ON THE BACK OF THE DUST WRAPPER OF
“BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN” IT SAYS
“This is a book club edition. Members buy books published at 7/6, 8/6, 10/6
and 12/6 for 3/6 each”
SO THE ATTRACTION OF THESE BOOKS WAS
CHEAPER EDITIONS FOR CLUB MEMBERS.
HOWEVER, THIS MEANT CHEAPER QUALITY PAPER,
CHEAPER BOOK BOARDS, LESS ILLUSTRATIONS
AND SOMETIMES NO ILLUSTRATIONS AT ALL!
IF YOU CLICK ON ANY OF THE EIGHTEEN
UNIQUE DUST JACKETS BELOW YOU CAN ENLARGE THEM TO SEE THEM IN DETAIL.
ON THE FRONT FLAP THEY REFER TO THE
ORIGINAL PRICE OF THE ORIGINAL FIRST EDITIONS (BUT FOR THE LAST TWO, THE PRICES
GIVEN ARE NOT ACCURATE!)
All Children’s
Book Club books had the following address printed inside them –
THE
CHILDREN’S BOOK CLUB 121 CHARING
CROSS ROAD LONDON, W.C. 2
The Children’s
Book Club was run by Foyles, the famous bookshop.
The President
of the Children’s Book Club was Mr. W. A. Foyle himself, one of the two brothers
who founded that business.
Foyles bookshop
was at 113 - 119 Charing Cross Road until 2014, when they moved down the street
slightly to 107 Charing Cross Road.
On checking on
street view, 121 Charing Cross Road is currently unnumbered but would appear
now to be a Sex Shop(!)
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185 PAGES THIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED AS A YOUTH BOOK
CLUB CHOICE Inside is the address YOUTH BOOK CLUB LTD.
24 – 26 Blackfriars Lane, London.
E.C.4 This book
contains all the original illustrations including the colour frontispiece and
the printing information says “Specially produced in mcml for the Youth Book
Club Limited by courtesy of University of London Press, Ltd”. GIMLET GOES AGAIN – CLICK HERE
TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION W. E. Johns literary agent, Peter Watt, wrote to Johns about
this on 13th February 1950.
You can see the letter by CLICKING HERE. Peter Watt agreed to the book being
published on Johns’ behalf. The Youth
Book Club were to print 7,200 copies and pay 4d per copy – half of this to go
to Johns and half to go to Hodder & Stoughton. The sale of this book to the Youth Book
Club should have netted Johns £60.00 – however a later letter says the print
run will be reduced to 5,225 copies due to paper shortages. |
223 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations EXCEPT the colour frontispiece and
has no publishing date. Printing
information says “This edition by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. It does
contain the same map on the opening end piece but in faded red ink rather
than the original black ink. BIGGLES FAILS TO RETURN – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1943 FIRST EDITION |
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191 PAGES This book
contains no illustrations. Printing
information says “Special edition
. . 1951”. BIGGLES TAKES A HOLIDAY – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1949 FIRST EDITION |
189 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations including the colour frontispiece. Printing
information says “Special edition 1951 by arrangement with Hodder and
Stoughton Ltd, London”. BIGGLES GETS HIS MEN – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 1950
FIRST EDITION |
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192 PAGES This book
contains no illustrations other than the aircraft on the title page. Printing
information says “This edition by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES AND THE BLACK RAIDER – CLICK HERE TO SEE
THE 1953 FIRST EDITION |
190 PAGES This book
contains no illustrations other than the illustration of Biggles punching the
Arab on the title page. Printing
information says “This edition by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES FOREIGN LEGIONNAIRE – CLICK HERE TO SEE
THE 1954 FIRST EDITION |
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188 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations including the colour frontispiece and has no
publishing date. Printing
information says “This edition by arrangement with Brockhampton
Press Limited”. BIGGLES’ CHINESE PUZZLE – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1955 FIRST EDITION |
192 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations including the colour frontispiece and has no
publishing date. Printing
information says “This edition by arrangement with Hodder & Stoughton
Ltd”. BIGGLES MAKES ENDS MEET – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1957 FIRST EDITION |
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192 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations including the colour frontispiece and has no
publishing date. Printing
information says “This edition by arrangement with Brockhampton
Press Limited”. BIGGLES PRESSES ON – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 1958
FIRST EDITION |
192 PAGES Surprisingly,
this book DOES contains all six colour plates that
featured in the original first edition. Printing
information has the original 1958 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES ON MYSTERY ISLAND – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1958 FIRST EDITION |
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158 PAGES Surprisingly,
this book DOES contain all six colour plates that featured in the original
first edition. The
illustration on the title page is however, not present. Printing
information has the original 1959 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES’ COMBINED OPERATION – CLICK HERE TO SEE
THE 1959 FIRST EDITION |
182 PAGES Surprisingly,
this book DOES contain all six colour plates that featured in the original
first edition. Printing
information has the original 1959 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES AT WORLD’S END – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1959 FIRST EDITION |
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184 PAGES This book
contains all of the six original illustrations including the colour
frontispiece. However
whereas in the first edition there were six separate colour plates, here there
are four plates with the
last four illustrations being back to back on the last of those two plates. Printing
information has the original 1960 first printing date and makes no reference whatsoever to this book
being any form of reprint. BIGGLES AND THE LEOPARDS OF ZINN – CLICK HERE TO
SEE 1960 THE FIRST EDITION |
160 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations EXCEPT the colour frontispiece. Printing
information has the original 1960 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES GOES HOME – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 1960
FIRST EDITION |
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182 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations EXCEPT the colour frontispiece. Printing
information has the original 1961 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Brockhampton Press Ltd”. BIGGLES AND THE POOR RICH BOY – CLICK HERE TO SEE
THE 1961 FIRST EDITION |
170 PAGES This book
contains no illustrations. Printing
information has the original 1961 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Brockhampton Press Ltd”. BIGGLES AND THE MISSING MILLIONAIRE – CLICK HERE
TO SEE THE 1961 FIRST EDITION |
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168 PAGES This book
contains no illustrations. Printing
information has the original 1962 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Brockhampton Press Ltd”. ORCHIDS FOR BIGGLES – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 1962
FIRST EDITION |
159 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations. Printing
information has the original 1962 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES SETS A TRAP – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 1962
FIRST EDITION |
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184 PAGES This book
contains no illustrations. Printing
information has the original 1963 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Brockhampton Press Ltd”. It does contain
the same map on the opening end piece as the original first edition. BIGGLES TAKES IT ROUGH – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1963 FIRST EDITION |
159 PAGES This book
contains all the original illustrations. Printing information
has the original 1963 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Ltd”. BIGGLES AND THE PLANE THAT DISAPPEARED – CLICK
HERE TO SEE THE 1963 FIRST EDITION |
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184 PAGES Surprisingly,
this book DOES contains the original colour frontispiece
but features no other illustrations. This is the
same as the original first edition. Printing
information has the original 1964 first printing date and then says “This edition
by arrangement with Brockhampton Press Ltd”. BIGGLES AND THE LOST SOVEREIGNS – CLICK HERE TO
SEE THE 1964 FIRST EDITION |
160 PAGES Like the
original first edition, this book features no other illustrations. Printing
information has the original 1965 first printing date and then says “Second
Impression 1966” and refers to being printed for “Brockhampton
Press Ltd” rather than for
“Hodder and Stoughton” as the original first edition did. The front
flap says this was book originally published by Hodder & Stoughton at 16s 0d.
That is not true. It was
originally published at 10/6. BIGGLES SCORES A BULL – CLICK HERE TO SEE THE
1965 FIRST EDITION |
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151 PAGES Like the
original first edition, this book features no other illustrations. Printing
information has the original 1967 first printing date and makes no reference whatsoever to this book
being any form of reprint. The front
flap says this was book originally published by Brockhampton Press at 16s and that is not true
either. It was originally published at
10/6. BIGGLES AND THE PENITENT THIEF – CLICK HERE TO
SEE THE 1967 FIRST EDITION |
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THE CHILDREN’S BOOK CLUB HAD THEIR OWN
BOOK PLATE AND MOTTO …… “NOTHING VENTURED – NOTHING GAINED”
THERE WERE FIVE OTHER CHILDREN’S BOOK
CLUB BOOKS FROM W.E. JOHNS’ SPACE SERIES PUBLISHED -
THREE OF THESE (THE MIDDLE THREE BELOW)
FEATURED NEW ARTWORK DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL FIRST EDITIONS
(YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY BOOK
TO SEE THE FIRST EDITION DETAILS)
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THE CHILDREN’S BOOK CLUB ALSO PUBLISHED
AN EDITION OF “WHERE THE GOLDEN EAGLE
SOARS” by W. E. Johns
RETURN TO THE MAIN W.E. JOHNS PAGE