In “The Catalogs” I talked about Marty Greenberg’s Pick-A-Book program, which sold at large discounts not only Gnome titles but also titles from Fantasy Press (FP) and Fantasy Publishing Company., Inc. (FPIC). (Some books were published with the designator Fantasy Publishing Co., Inc.) Nobody later would need to pay attention except that Greenberg didn’t purchase unsold books from the dissolved presses, he took unbound pages and rebound them, occasionally used more cheaply printed dust jackets, and even put Gnome Press on the spines of some if not all FPIC books. As they were printed off the original plates they all carry the “First Printing” designation although not a single one of them was. Decades of bibliographic confusion ensued. They are known today collectively as the “Greenberg Variants.”
CHALKER is the source for all later accounts, with a twist. I can’t add anything new; I’m merely extracting individual title information collected and listing it in a more convenient fashion. All extracts are verbatim, except for extraneous information; the inconsistencies in formatting are original.
Fantasy Press
CHALKER is not kind.
Unfortunately, no record exists of how many copies of the unbound sheets were sold to Martin Greenberg’s Pick–A–Book operation but records indicate that in only one case (noted below) were there more than a hundred of any title [not true: see listings] and Greenberg did not take all available titles. It is easy to spot a Greenberg Variant, though; they are cheaply bound, usually in vinyl covered pressboard or cheap gray cloth and often perfect bound. They simply look and feel cheaper, somehow. … In the mid-Eighties, Eshbach still had Greenberg’s bounced check for the last batch in 1962.
The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson
Original binding … has endpapers; Greenberg’s binding does not.
Sinister Barrier by Eric Frank Russell
834 Greenberg variants.
Darker Than You Think, by Jack Williamson
472 Greenberg gray binding.
Seven Out of Time, by Arthur Leo Zagat
425 Greenberg Variants.
Masters of Time, by A. E. van Vogt
30 Greenberg binding, tan cloth with title in black.
Genus Homo, by L. Sprague deCamp and P. Schuyler Miller
94 copies bound by Greenberg in blue boards.
The Cometeers, by Jack Williamson
We have heard reports of ones without endpapers but have not seen them regardless of binding. First state and Greenbergs we’ve seen all have them.
Galactic Patrol, by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
red boards (Greenberg).
The Crystal Horde, by John Taine
648 copies Greenberg binding in light blue cloth lighter than FP with black spine lettering.
The Red Peri, by Stanley G. Weinbaum
Greenberg (blue cloth).
The Titan, by P. Schuyler Miller
973 Greenberg binding, black spine lettering.
Second Stage Lensman, by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
28 Greenberg variants in red boards.
The Black Star Passes, by John W. Campbell, Jr.
43 copies Greenberg blue-gray cloth binding with titling in black.
Assignment in Eternity, by Robert A. Heinlein
911 variant binding, some Greenberg (green boards, spine lettered in black).
Children of the Lens, by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
168 in gray board Greenberg binding.
Operation Outer Space, by Murray Leinster
1490 in Greenberg blue board binding.
Islands of Space, by John W Campbell, Jr.
1195 in blue-gray cloth Greenberg binding.
Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. (FPIC)
CHALKER is even more scathing about what Greenberg did to the FPIC titles.
[W]e have the Greenberg Variants; unbound sheets bought by Greenberg’s Pick-A-Book operation and bound and sold by him (at $1.20 each — postpaid!) It’s easy to spot a Greenberg Variant: just take off the jacket. It makes a book club edition look like fine bookmaking. … Greenberg printed up new jackets from the old plates as well, usually (but not always) leaving off the back ad (literally — some back jackets on the Greenberg editions are blank). The previous d/w colors were often changed, and a couple even say “Gnome Press” on the spine. Jones’ The Toymaker and Others is a good example: no back ad at all, color of d/w is black instead of original green, and the spine on the very cheap binding says “Gnome”.
I have four FPCI Greenberg Variants, three with dust wrappers. Those three all have the original back panel and a front cover with the original colors; all four have black spines which say “Gnome Press” on them in green ink. Not very good confirmation of CHALKER, including the fact that the plain black board bindings look to my untutored eye identical to those on several titles put out by Gnome in the late 1950s.
An additional complication is that the numbers given in CHALKER sometimes do not agree with an earlier account in the August and September 1983 issues of Fantasy Newsletter, written by … Jack L. Chalker. Oddly, the earlier version contains more details of information. Does that mean we should ignore it? The ISFDB seems to pull information from the Fantasy Newsletter pieces and I will do the same, with CHALKER’s variant numbers noted.
Out of the Unknown, by A. E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull
500 unbound sheets sold to Martin Greenberg for Pick-A-Book in 1959 and bound in cheap cardboard.
The Sunken World, A. Stanton Coblentz
500 unbound were sold to Greenberg in 1959 who bound them in cheap vinylized cardboard.
Death’s Deputy, by L. Ron Hubbard
450 were sold to Greenberg who bound them in cheap vinylized cardboard bindings. (CHALKER says 500]
The Radio Man, by Ralph Milne Farley
700 unbound were sold to Greenberg in 1959 who bound them in cheap vinylized cardboard.
The Cosmic Geoids, by John Taine
500 unbound were sold to Greenberg in 1959 who bound them in cheap vinylized cardboard.
Planets of Adventure, by Basil Wells
500 were sold to Greenberg who bound them in the usual cheap way.
Murder Madness, by Murrary Leinster
400 unbound sheets were sold to Greenberg who bound them in the usual cheap manner. [CHALKER says 300]
The Radium Pool, by Ed Earl Repp
400 were sold to Greenberg who bound them in the usual manner. [CHALKER says 300]
The Triton, by L. Ron Hubbard
500 were sold as unbound sheets to Greenberg who bound them in the usual manner.
Worlds of Wonder, by Olaf Stapledon
400 unbound sets were sold to Greenberg who bound them in the usual cheap manner.
The Stellar Missiles, by Ed Earl Repp
500 unbound sets were sold to Greenberg for Pick-A-Book and bound in the usual cheap manner.
The Rat Race, by Jay Franklin
500 unbound sets were sold to Greenberg who bound them in the usual cardboard.
After 12,000 Years, by Stanton Coblentz
500 sold to Pick-A-Book for the usual binding.
The Omnibus of Time, by Ralph Milne Farley
500 unbound sets were sold to Pick-A-Book for the usual cheap binding.
The Dark Other, by Stanley G. Weinberg
500 unbound sets were sold to Pick-A-Book who bound them in the usual cheap manner.
The Hidden Universe, by Ralph Milne Farley
200 were sold to Pick-A-Book which bound them in the usual cheap manner.
The Undesired Princess, by L. Sprague de Camp
350 were sold to Pick-A-Book and bound in the usual cheap manner.
The Toymaker, by Raymond F. Fisher
700 unbound sets were sold to Pick-A-Book who bound them in the usual cheap manner. As FPIC had apparently only printed 1500 jackets, Crawford [the FPIC publisher] printed a new one for the remaining 500 sets with “Gnome Press” on the spine, all ads gone, and the basic Gaughan cover in black rather than the original green.
Doorways to Space, by Basil Wells
500 unbound sets were sold to Pick-A-Book for their cheap binding.
The Iron Star, by John Taine
500 unbound sets were sold to Pick-A-Book for the cheap binding. Crawford [the FPIC publisher] also printed 300 easily identifiable extra jackets, as he was short this many, and sent them along to Pick-A-Book. Thus some Greenberg variants have the original jacket, but most do not. [second state is in black and white]
Drome, by John Martin Leahy
500 were unbound sets sold to Pick-A-Book and bound in the usual cheap manner.
Green Fire, by John Taine
500 sold to Pick-A-Book for the usual cheap binding. An additional 300 jackets, variant and easily identifiable, were printed up by Crawford [the FPIC publisher] so all Pick-A-Book copies would have jackets, so some of the Greenberg bindings have the original, most the reprinted jacket. [second state prints the green fire in black and white]
Science and Sorcery, edited by Garret Ford
300 unbound sets were sold to Pick-A-Book and got the usual cheap binding.