I’ve had this artwork for quite a while and all I knew was that it was for a PAN title.
I have now discovered which one so if you want to guess and then check just click on the picture for the answer.
Ian Fleming: The Bibliography
It seems like years ago that I was talking to Jon Gilbert about his forthcoming publication ‘Ian Fleming: The Bibliography’ but it looks like it’s nearly here at last. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to buy a copy at £175 but I have read there will be a trade edition later.
Jon says it shows 95% of the PAN editions so there’s the challenge for all us PAN Fans, have we got the missing 5%?
To see the flier with all the book details click HERE and to read an interview with Jon Gilbert on Spy Vibe click HERE
Apologies
Sorry there has not be a post of late but we have been off walking the ‘Wolds Way’ in North Yorkshire and still managing to find time to visit the few remaining second hand book shops. ‘Yorkshire Quality Paperbacks’ in Pickering came up trumps and I bought six titles for less than three pounds. One of these will be the subject of a later blog when I have tracked down some editions to go with it.
For Adults Only!
I’ve always been disappointed that PAN didn’t give away more bits and pieces linked to their titles unlike Penguin but I have managed to get hold of a calendar given away in 1974 to coincide with the publication of ‘The Pin-up: A Modest History’ by Mark Gabor.
To see the calendar containg images of disrobed ladies click HERE
I noticed that this book has been reprinted by Taschen in 2000 with the same cover as the PAN edition.
What have you found inside a PAN?
Rob Waterhouse, a fellow PAN Fan from Australia, emailed me to say he had got a copy of ‘A Throne Of Bayonets’ PAN 350 with an slip reporting an error. I have managed to find a copy with this insert and added it to the page but he is fortunate in that his copy also has a slip mentioning Joyce Weiner, Author’s Agent which I find adds greatly to the interest.
This got me onto thinking about bits and pieces I’ve found over the years, mostly adds for life insurance, bus tickets or shopping lists but occasional PAN related bookmarks and other errata slips which I ‘ll blog about at another time. Two good finds were a) hand written and then typed detail plot analysis notes by Marc Brody (Bill Williams) of the novel ‘A Forest Of Eyes’ PAN 248 and b) a copy of the Domino letter in a pristine copy of ‘Thunderball‘ I got for 20p. I see someone is currently asking £750 for one on eBay, funny but there doesn’t seem to be a rush of bidders!
Finally I was going to mention GP17 / X100 but I don’t want to fall foul of the London 2012 Brand Protection ……
Dustjackets
I’m often asked about dustjackets and how many titles had them. So far I make it 21 but if you have any I may have missed please let me know. I have made a page to show them all which can be found here.
DUSTJACKETS
Not Too Posh At Scotney Castle
While in Kent we visited several National Trust properties featuring impressive libraries of shelves and shelves of, probably unread, leather bound books. So it was very heartening to see this set of shelves in the corridor at Scotney Castle which included many PANs especially Christie and Heyer – and they looked as though they had been read!
Following James Bond In Kent
Just been in Kent for a couple of weeks camping and amazingly we only had one night of wind and rain! Before we went I looked on the 007 MAGAZINE website and managed to get to one of the mentioned locations namely Pett Bottom where there is a plaque on the wall of the Duck Inn commemorating the fact Ian Fleming stayed there while writing “You Only Live Twice” Here I am holding my 1965 copy which also has a film tie-in dust jacket and states on the back ‘Not for sale in the UK’
Founder OF PAN Books Alan Bott Part 3
While talking with Johnny Mains we were trying to see if there was a link between Alan Bott and Herbert van Thal. They were both friendly with Sir Hugh Walpole and it is a distinct possibility that they could have met up socially at Brackenburn, Walpole’s house in the Lake District. Walpole, to celebrate his 50th birthday had privately printed and bound in vellum by The University Press, Glasgow 100 signed and numbered copies of his work “Extracts From A Diary’ which he intended to give to his friends at his party.
Unfortunately he wasn’t well on his birthday so the party was delayed as shown in a letter he wrote to Alan Bott. I was wondering if val Thal got one as well so I have been trying to track down other copies but although I have the following numbers and their locations only a couple have their recipients name shown in brackets. S/C means they have a slip case and G/J a glassine jacket.
- 03 Tim Kitchen (Alan Bott)
- 09 Library Of Congress
- 18 University Of Tulsa
- 29 Yale University
- 37 National Library Of Scotland
- 40 Huntington Library
- 41 Sold by Biblio to ? S/C G/J
- 42 Godfrey Holdstock S/C
- 44 Stanford University
- 45 University Of Melbourne
- 46 Lilly Library
- 49 UCLA Library
- 58 Dee MacLean (Jack and Edith Eliot)
- 65 Alexander Turnbull Library
- 68 Sold by Harper Field Auctioneers to ? 2018 S/C
- 71 Simon Dunant
- 76 Ann Bolam Gifted by Hart-Davies S/C with George Cukor written on it
- 80 Ann Bolam
- 81 Library of Congress (Jean Hersholt)
- 84 Boston University
- 87 University Of Texas
- 88 Bodleian Library
- 89 British Library
- 92 Cambridge University
- 93 London Library
- 94 British Library
- 100 University of York (Ronald Storrs) Gifted by Sir Rupert Hart-Davies
Thank you to all the libraries that took the time to reply to my enquiries to check numbers and dedications etc.
All Greek To Me
While looking on Peter Lorenz’s excellent site I noticed he had some Greek James Bond covers that looked vaguely familiar. He put me in touch with a Greek James Bond fan, Anagnostis Karras. I was very surprised when Anagnostis said he had a spare copy of one of the titles and would I like it? The book as I’m sure you can all work out is ‘Colonel Sun’ as the Kingsley Amis is a bit of a give away but some of the others are very much more PAN look alikes. The publishing company is Squirrel hence the logo and has a list of titles by George Simenon, Agatha Christie, Peter Cheyney, Leslie Charteris and Patrick Quentin again all authors also published by PAN.
