Holt, Rinehart and Winston (New York, US)
Series dates: 1965-1967
Size: 5.25″ x 7.5″
The Rinehart Editions were a popular paperback series of classics aimed at the college market established by the publisher Rinehart in 1948. Rinehart & Company of New York and the John C. Winston Company of Philadelphia merged with Henry Holt in 1960 to become Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The Rinehart Editions continued to be published and were supplemented by a new hardcover series, the Rinehart Library Classics in 1965. The series was intended to provide the same edited, scholarly editions of books in the Rinehart Editions, but aimed at libraries, with sturdy, attractive cloth bindings and wide margins (useful if the books had to be rebound). A series prospectus suggested the goal was to eventually issue many of the Rinehart Editions in the hardbound Rinehart Library Classics. It seems as if only four titles were issued, some reprinted in 1966 (but listed as in print until at least 1978).
This series was similar to the Modern Library Buckram editions and Everyman’s Library “library” editions; heavy bindings suitable for libraries.
Jackets, designed by Michael Peters, are common to the series with contrasting colors. This copy of Charles Brockden Brown’s Arthur Mervyn is a second printing, December 1965. The series name is indicated on the jacket front. An overview of the title is included on the front jacket flap. The price is $4.50.
The back jacket lists the four titles in the series (no more were published). A prospectus for the series is on the back jacket flap.
Bindings are high quality in two colors of overlapping cloth, with author and title boldly printed on spine and book front.
Title page. The paper quality is low, rough and yellowing. Surprising for a book intended for long-term library use.
Title page:
Copyright and printing information on the reverse of the title page.
A catalog of the Rinehart Editions paperback series, from which the titles in the Rinehart Library Classics are drawn, is in the back of the book on two pages.
Two more copies: Hesse’s Steppenwolf (fifth printing, March 1966) and Godwin’s Adventures of Caleb Williams (third printing, October 1965):
