NAL Four Square Books

Q3296                           P3264

New American Library (NAL) was started by Victor Weybright and Kurt Enoch in 1947, when they separated the U.S. publisher Penguin from its parent company in London. NAL's two labels were Signet and Mentor. To complete the circle, NAL eventually started a British subsidiary, New English Library (NEL) in London. That new company bought and combined two British publishers, Ace Books (the London subsidiary) and Four Square. They closed Ace, printed Four Square books for awhile, and then changed the name of their books to New English Library.

Are you with me so far?

NAL was the parent company of NEL, but the name "Four Square" was only associated with the British firm, New English Library.

 But surprise! There were some books published in Canada that bore both of the names NAL and Four Square. And to top it all off, the books had Signet book numbers!

So ... they combined U.S. and British names, used the British colophon, were published in Canada, and they had U.S. book numbers.

Bibliophiles get excited about the strangest things.

Many thanks to Grant Thiessen, of BookIT Enterprises, for calling attention to these books.

The scan of P3264 above is courtesy of Grant Thiessen.