Sunday, June 6, 2010

THE HAPPY HOLLISTERS & COPYRIGHT DATES

Back of book club promotion envelope:
I am listing the Happy Hollisters books for the first time in my blog, which is nothing extra-ordinary, but my list includes one additional piece of information. I am not sure I have ever seen a list of Happy Hollisters books with copyright dates for each volume listed. So this list will include copyright dates to illustrate how frequently these books were published in a particular year. Note in particular the fact that the first four volumes were all copyrighted in the same year, 1953. That is quite an achievement in series book history, although not unmatched by other series. I am also, by copyright dates, listing the series in order and correcting an error repeated over and over again in the series. That error is the placement of Pony Hill Farm before Merry-Go-Round Mystery on most book lists for the series since those books were first published. The problem started, I assume, when Pony Hill Farm is listed as volume #10 on its dust jacket even though that book is copyrighted in 1956 and Merry-Go-Round Mystery is listed as #11, even though its' copyright is 1955. I have recently seen a first edition of Pony Hill Farm that has that error on the dust jacket. And my copy of Merry-Go-Round Mystery, published by Garden City, lists it as #11 on the dust jacket spine, but on the dust jacket back flap and inside it is listed as #10 in order. So this list will correct the order of Happy Hollisters books.
Included in this blog entry are some additional photos of Happy Hollister book club promotions and the mailing cards from the club to myself. Note one of the mailing cards came with my gold metal book holder. More about these items are availble in other earlier blog entries

# 1 The Happy Hollisters, 1953

# 2 The Happy Hollisters on a River Trip, 1953

# 3 The Happy Hollisters at Sea Gull Beach, 1953

# 4 The Happy Hollisters and the Indian Treasure, 1953

# 5 The Happy Hollisters at Mystery Mountain, 1954

# 6 The Happy Hollisters at Snowflake Camp, 1954

# 7 The Happy Hollisters and the Trading Post Mystery, 1954

# 8 The Happy Hollisters at Circus Island, 1955

# 9 The Happy Hollisters and the Secret Fort, 1955

#10 The Happy Hollisters and the Merry-Go-Round Mystery, 1955

#11 The Happy Hollisters at Pony Hill Farm, 1956

#12 The Happy Hollisters and the Old Clipper Ship, 1956

#13 The Happy Hollisters at Lizard Cove, 1957

#14 The Happy Hollisters and the Scarecrow Mystery, 1957

#15 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Totem Faces, 1958

#16 The Happy Hollisters and the Ice Carnival Mystery, 1958

#17 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery in Skyscraper City, 1959

#18 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Little Mermaid, 1960

#19 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery at Missile Town, 1961

#20 The Happy Hollisters and the Cowboy Mystery, 1961

#21 The Happy Hollisters and the Haunted House Mystery, 1962

#22 The Happy Hollisters and the Secret of the Lucky Coins, 1962

#23 The Happy Hollisters and the Castle Rock Mystery, 1963

#24 The Happy Hollisters and the Cuckoo Clock Mystery, 1963

#25 The Happy Hollisters and the Swiss Echo Mystery, 1963

#26 The Happy Hollisters and the Sea Turtle Mystery, 1964

#27 The Happy Hollisters and the Punch and Judy Mystery, 1964

#28 The Happy Hollisters and the Whistle Pig Mystery, 1964

#29 The Happy Hollisters and the Ghost Horse Mystery, 1965

#30 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Golden Witch, 1966

#31 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Mexican Idol, 1967

#32 The Happy Hollisters and the Monster Mystery, 1969

#33 The Happy Hollisters and the Mystery of the Midnight Trolls, 1969

Letterhead of Happy Hollisters book club:

1 comment:

  1. This database has information on copyright renewals for books that were actually renewed between 1923 and 1963 in the US. If a book was not renewed, it is probably in the public domain in the U.S.

    http://www.incopyright.org/?r=%22Happy+Hollisters%22

    For this discussion, the interesting thing to note is the original copyright date that is revealed in the detail portion of the renewal record by clicking on the plus (+) sign for the entry.

    Before this was available, I'd look up the Library of Congress card numbers to determine priority in books from a given year. These numbers which look something like 54-1234 show a year and a sequential number based on when the Library of Congress card was created. These cards were made available to libraries and the card could be ordered based on this number. Many library listings include this number.

    Then, of course, there's the Doubleday date code in the gutter of most non-library editions.

    James Keeline

    100th Anniversary Tom Swift Convention
    July 16-18, 2010 -- San Diego, CA
    http://TomSwiftEnterprises.com

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