PAN Piper 67’s?

I had a recent enquiry from a fellow PAN Fan Jem who asked about PAN Pipers specifically MP67 “Australia:Her Story” (MP because it cost 5/-) and XP67 “Enemy Of Rome” (XP because it cost 3/6) and who wondered why PAN had used the same number for both titles?

67s
This is a mistake on PANs part in that XP67 should really be XP70.

Whitakers Paperbacks In Print Winter 1965/66

If XP67 had been incorrectly labelled as ??47 (anyone know what it is?) then it might be a more understandable mistake.

STOP PRESS

This weeks blog will appear when a cat has stopped having kittens under our bed – and it’s not even our cat!

UPDATE Just one kitten but very sweet. Looks like it has got its colouring from all of the four possible fathers!

Life Size

Updates

Having had two family bereavements in very short succession I’ve not really had my mind on the blog for this week. I have managed to finish collecting a couple of sets published by Piccolo, one of which wasn’t helped by Amazon/Alibris/Abebooks/Biblio all having the same ISBN for two different titles and every time I got the one I didn’t want!

The ‘Dial’ series from Piccolo
The ‘Do You Know’ series from Piccolo

Which Came First?

While looking through a selection of James Leasor covers I came across the French Edition Pocket of ‘Passport To Oblivion’ and felt the cover image looked vaguely familiar. I’ve thought this in the past but on further investigate would usually find they were just similar but this time these two covers are not just similar but identical. Both books were published in 1967 so which came first?

Left Edition Pocket N°569 <> Right PAN Books Ltd X649

UPDATE Since adding this post I now have the French title in my hand and in the back it says it was published on 30th December 1967 and on the back cover says “Notre Couverture: © Pan Books Ltd. Loudres” so that probably answers the question but did they use anymore?

PAN Languages Series

Now the winter is behind us and spring is on the way (!!!!) our thoughts turn to holidays abroad and the obligatory guide book and PAN was there with their PAN Languages series for travellers. I love the covers by Goran Lindgren which show either typical national costumes or racial stereotyping depend on your point of view.

I have found fifteen titles up to now but if anyone has others please let us know

Douglas Adams would have been 61 today. He was one of PAN’s best selling authors and winner of a Golden PAN Award.

Was This A Named Series?

I have often wondered if these titles from the 1960’s were intended to be part of a series but there is no reference to them being any different from other titles from the same time. Were they seen as ‘classics’, a precursor to ‘Bestsellers Of Literature’ and why is the logo moved to the left. Are you thinking ‘Where have I seen a similar design showing the publishers logo with a laurel wreath?’ Click on the question mark to find the answer from 1954.

These are all the titles with the PAN/laurel wreath logo on the spine that I can find in my collectionbut does anyone know of anymore?

Marsh-Devine Artwork Catalogue

After putting the Bonham’s original PAN artwork auction catalogue on recently I thought I would follow it up with another catalogue from around the same time. I borrowed it off fellow Pan Fan Jules Burt and I have scanned it in to make a Flash book. This sale was in response to the Bonham’s one in that it was actually the artists themselves, namely Sam Peffer, Pat Owen and Edward Mortelmans, selling their artwork at an auction run by Simon Marsh-Devine in Bristol around the end of 1991. The catalogue is a photocopy and so the images are a little dark but with the listings I think most of them can be identified. Of note are the Peffer covers for several Fleming titles which I am told are now all owned by the Fleming family, can anyone confirm this?