Lost Horizon
From Author Wars - https://authorwars.com/publications/lost-horizon-601641.html
Overview:
- Title: Lost Horizon
- Author: James Hilton
- Year: 1939
- Publisher: Pocket Books
- Price: $0.25
- Pages: 231
- Binding: Paperback
- Type: Novel
- Title Reference: Lost Horizon
- Notes:
- Stated 1st printing. Stated date of publication.
- First mass market paperback book ever produced. #1 on the Pocket Book catalog list (and remained there for 22 years).
- The publication month is contentious. The 62nd printing says "1st printing ... April, 1939". However, a photo of the first printing from "1st Editions and Antiquarian Books", posted on eBay, says "Pocket Book edition published May, 1939; 1st printing, May, 1939" with no additional printings, so that is the date we use here. The essay "The Story of a Best Seller" in the 62nd printing says "In June, 1939, it became the first title in the first list published by Pocket Books", which is explainable, because they wouldn't have a 'catalog' until some additional books were available. (On the other hand, the back cover of this first printing lists 10 books, up through "Bambi" as "Pocket Books Now Ready".)
- The cover is uncredited, but attributed to "Steinberg" by the Warren paperback guide, and also in the Paperback Quarterly (Vol. 3 No. 1) Spring 1980, p. 38. The Paperback Quarterly gives no first name for this author; we have not seen the Warren guide, and we do not know if it gives a first name.
- The Paperback Quarterly issue mentioned above says a 5th printing came in Sept. 1939, 11 printings by the end of 1940, and 21 printings by the of 1942.
- The OCLC record incorrectly specifies this edition as a Spanish-language version. Page count from this record.