Grove Press (cloth editions)

ISBN format: 0-394-55xxx-c (not sequential)

Breaking all the rules to include these, as they're obviously not paperbacks. 

Notes: 

• The first three titles were published by the original Grove publishers from 1949-1950. 

• Barney Rosset purchased Grove in 1951 and commenced publishing hardcover titles.  

• As far as I can tell, GP- numbers were not used during the early years on the books themselves, though it's possible they were used internally, as for inventory purposes. 

  • GP- numbers for these early titles come from UNC's Grove Press Imprint collection. The catalog notes often indicate that the copies in the collection have spine labels with GP- numbers. 

  • Grove acted as a distributor for smaller presses early on, and some of these titles in the UNC collection also have GP- numbers, despite the physical items themselves not being marked as Grove publications in any way. 

    • Examples include GP-16 & GP-17, from Banyan Press. GP-18 is a book originally published by the Cresset Press in England that a publisher/importer called the Chanticleer Press, issued in the U.S. as part of its Cresset Library in late 1949 (see ad, PW, Sept. 3, 1949, at 883). It appears that Grove also later reissued other Cresset Library titles as Grove clothbound titles (e.g., GP-28, GP-173). Grove possibly reissued.

    • The UNC collection doesn't have records that include every early GP- number. This Banyan Press title in the collection was probably one of the unidentified books from GP-19 through GP-21: 

      • William Jay Smith, Poems (Banyan Press 1947) [UNC catalog record]

• Syracuse's Grove Press Records has records listing HB- numbers that appear to be linked to the Hudson Book Club (formerly the Marboro Book Club; see PW, Jan. 29, 1962, at 96). These HB- numbers largely correspond with GB- numbers, though some, like a few works by James Broughton, appear to have HB- numbers that predate the 1962 creation of the Hudson Book Club. 

  • • An Almanac for Armorists: GP-71 (Syracuse & UNC)

    • Musical Chairs: GP-72 (Syracuse & UNC, whose copy was published by Centaur Press, 1950)

    • True and False Unicorn (1957): HB-118-118A (Syracuse, with royalties spanning 1957-1961), GP-118 (UNC)

    • The Playground: HB-119 (Syracuse), GP-119 (UNC, whose copy was published by Centaur Press, 1949)

• GP- numbers begin to appear in Grove Press ads as early as January 1961 (see PW, Jan. 23, 1961, at [61]) but don't appear on the spine and front inside flaps, near the price, until late 1964, possibly with the fall titles. 

• Some Grove clothbound titles were issued with a GT- number: 

  • • GT-308: Popkin, ed., The New British Drama: Six Plays, in 1964 at $8.50, labeled on the spine as a "Text Edition." This title was later issued as GT-614 under the title Modern British Drama: Six Plays in 1969 in a paperbound edition at $5.95.  

    • GT-325: Clurman, ed., Seven Plays of the Modern Theater, originally GP-260 at $8.50 in 1962. This version was labeled as a "Text Edition" in 1964 at $4.50. The title was also later issued in a paperbound edition as GT-422, also labeled as a "Text Edition," in 1967 at $3.95.  

• Grove published Edith's Strange Desire in cloth in 1970, giving it the series number X-1016. As far as I can tell, there were no other Grove titles with X- numbers. The rear jacket lists other contemporaneous Grove titles of "adult interest," but they all have GP- numbers.