REPRINTS >> FOREIGN REPRINTS >> NETHERLANDS | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch/American background art by Raphael DeSoto The Spider TM & © Argosy Communications, Inc. |
Netherlands
I am lucky enough to own one rare Dutch hardcover and one softcover book. Both are undated, so my thanks go out to Hillebrand Komrij, a Dutch expert on American mystery reprints (and the Raven-Reeks series in particular), for filling in the details of the Forties translations -- and then surprising me with information on two later paperbacks. A.G. SchoonderbeekA.G. Schoonderbeek of Laren, Netherlands, published two hardcover Spider books in March of 1942 as part of their Raven-Reeks series of imported mystery fiction (which also included works by Earle Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen, and Sax Rohmer, and pulp heroes Doc Savage, The Shadow and The Black Bat). These feature two-color dust jackets using the original pulp cover art -- which is also repeated on a title page of sorts inside. The only illustration in Dreiging is one of Richard Wentworth from "The Web" column printed with a teaser following the title page; Gedachte includes two illustrations. The books are: Een Duivelsche Gedachte (A Devil's Idea) hardcover reprint of "Prince of the Red Looters" August 1934 Een Gruwelijke Dreiging (An Atrocious Threat) hardcover reprint of "Empire of Doom" February 1934
During WWII, publishers were forbidden to translate works of American writers, but
after the war ended Schoonderbeck tried again, publishing three small (5-1/4" x 7-1/2") De Spin books in 1946. Two of these are
softcover (thin paper with a flap folded over for stiffness) and one is hardcover with a dustjacket.
All three include 4-5 of the original pulp illustrations by J. Fleming Gould.
De Grot Der Verschrikkingen (The Cave of Horrors) De Gemaskerde Krankzinnige (The Masked Lunatic) |