Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

Re: New member - Question about Collections

From: James Keeline <keeline~at~yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 2002 15:40:12 -0700 (PDT)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~math.technion.ac.il>
Cc: Monica Erdahl Drake <erdahl~at~idirect.com>

It sounds as if the paperback editions you had were published by Ace in the so-called Fitzroy
editions edited by I.O. Evans. These first came out in hardcover editions published by Arco in
the UK and Associated Booksellers in the U.S. There are some contemporary reprints from Amereon
in hardcover editions for the library market. The collection was notable for having many obscure
Verne titles which are not frequently reprinted.

As far as values go, the early hardcover editions with dust jackets tend to sell in the US$20-40
range. The Ace paperbacks are usually found in the $US2-10 range. They are not especially
common, however. You can visit a lot of stores with huge selections of sf paperbacks and only
occasionally see one of the Ace paperbacks from the Fitzroy series.

Because of the rather large number of volumes written by Verne, no "complete" collection could be
contained in either 2 or 10 volumes. However, some of the reprint houses which specialize in
editions for the bargain racks of stores like Barnes & Noble have issued editions with two or
three stories in a single thick volume with some of the original illustrations. The stories are
the early translations which have been justifiably criticized over the years but it is nice to see
some of the old engravings. One such publisher imprint for these books is Castle. I think I have
both volumes in my collection.

Around 1911, Vincent Parke published some limited editions of Verne stories which reprinted most
of the well known stories and some of the unusual ones. However, these editions tend to be rather
expensive.

If you were to perform a used book database search for books by Jules Verne which were either
published by Ace or made mention of the Fitzroy edition or the editor I.O. Evans, I think you
would find the listings that are currently offered by sellers. One easy way to consult the used
book databases is via the link http://used.addall.com/ but keep in mind that it is usually most
effective to look for individual titles rather than anything by Verne and published by Ace. The
reason for this is that each used book database will only return the 50-200 titles which are found
in 20-30 seconds that addall.com will wait. If their server is slow, listings may not show up.

Some time ago I put together a list of the hardcover volumes in this series. Most, if not all, of
them should exist in the Ace paperback reprints from the 1960s. Here is a link with the list
http://www.keeline.com/Verne/Fitzroy.html Some of the titles are unique to these editions. Most
of the stories are heavily abridged but readable.

James D. Keeline


--- Monica Erdahl Drake <erdahl~at~idirect.com> wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> I am a new but brief member to this list. A few months ago, my parents condo
> bldg burned down and among the lost is my father's Jules Verne Collection.
> Most of the books were neither old enough to be all that valuable (as
> concerns his insurance company) or recent enough to be easily replaceable.
> The books were mainly purchased in the 1950's and 60's and the vast majority
> were paperback. I am been trying to help him track down values and
> availability which is proving difficult because some are available in recent
> reprints (which he doesn't want) and some are not available at all except
> through auctions. If he goes the auction route, he will need to actually bid
> on each book and only after purchasing can he submit a claim. Could take a
> decade. He is trying to find a compromise with the insurance company and was
> wondering if there were ever a collection published that consisted of all
> Verne's books? In either a one or two volume set or a boxed collection? In
> addition to wanting to purchase this, he needs an easier way to submit a
> price to his insurance company and is hoping this is the way to get both
> accomplished.
>
> Hope the above made sense and thank you in advance for any information.
>
> Monica
> Calgary (yes, it was that fire)
> erdahl~at~idirect.com
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com
Received on Sun 08 Sep 2002 - 01:41:38 IDT

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$