![Image for Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Spring 1952 Selections (Volume IX) [Adventures in Two Worlds; The Gabriel Horn; Duveen; Out of Africa; East Side General]](/assets/images/product/22889.jpg)
[solid clean copy, minor wear to extremities, very slight bump to bottom rear corner, light age-toning to edges of text block, one-time owner's name/address stamp on both pastedowns, ffep and title page (enough already!); the jacket is slightly edgeworn and lightly rubbed, with tiny tears and a teensy bit of paper loss at a couple of corners, a bit of creasing in the middle of the rear panel]. Vol. 9 The ninth volume in the RDCB series, with the Spring 1952 issue of "News of The Reader's Digest Condensed Book Club" (8 pages) laid in. This edition contains condensed versions of four popular books of the day -- "Adventures in Two Worlds" by A.J. Cronin, "The Gabriel Horn" by Felix Holt, "Duveen" by S.N. Behrman ("illustrated with 10 famous art masterpieces reproduced in full color"), and "East Side General" by Frank G. Slaughter -- as well as what's called a "brief condensation" of the Isak Dinesen classic "Out of Africa," but is really just an episode entitled "Kamante and Lulu." Each of these is accompanied by a one-page profile (with small portrait drawing) of its author. Interesting to note that just two years into the series, they had already cut the per-volume subscriber's price from $1.89 to $1.88 (plus 12 cents postage). Long the bane of used bookstores and objects of derision from "serious" readers, these volumes nonetheless have been a fixture on the publishing landscape for close onto seventy years now (the name was changed to the slightly more snooty-sounding "Reader's Digest Select Editions" in 1997). Jacketed copies of the earlier volumes in the series are surprisingly scarce, perhaps because many of their original owners considered the decorated spines of the books themselves to be "classier"-looking than the printed jackets, and therefore discarded the latter.
Title: Reader's Digest Condensed Books: Spring 1952 Selections (Volume IX) [Adventures in Two Worlds; The Gabriel Horn; Duveen; Out of Africa; East Side General]
Edition: First Edition
Illustrator: Illustrated by Robert Fawcett, Henry Pitz, Edward Shenton, Ed Vebell
Location Published: Pleasantville NY, The Reader's Digest Association: (c.1952)
Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Near Fine in Very Good+ dj
Categories: Fiction: Vintage
Seller ID: 22889
Keywords: movie source popular fiction