One of the longest running mystery novel imprints was Red Badge Detective put out by Dodd Mead. The earliest date I can nail this down to is 1930. According to an advertisement included in the first few titles, this imprint was invented to distinguish the best of Dodd Mead's mystery novels. But as far as I can tell every single mystery novel published by Dodd Mead throughout the 1930s and 1940s carried this imprint info.
It was only towards the end of the imprint in the late 1960s and through the mid 1970s that only a few books carried the Red Badge logo. For instance, Agatha Christie's books were not Red Badge throughout the 60s or 70s while someone relatively new like Leonard Holton was given the Red Badge logo. I guess as Dodd Mead decided it was no longer necessary to brand a recognizable mystery writer like Christie and saved the Red Badge logo for less well known writers they were interested in highlighting.
Inside my copy of
The Tragedy of Twelvetrees by Arthur Rees (1930) is this ad facing the title page explaining the reason for the imprint:
The Red Badge imprint also sponsored a mystery novel writing contest that lasted only four or five years. The first winner in March 1937 was Clifford Knight for his detective novel The Affair of the Scarlet Crab which introduced his sleuth Huntoon Rogers. He won $2000 in addition to having his work published. Knight went on to write 23 more detective and suspense novels. Other winners such as Ruth Sawtell Wallis whose first novel Too Many Bones won the prize (only $1000 for her) in 1943 were not as prolific. And some wrote only one novel, collected the prize, saw the book published and were never heard from again. Check out the photo of the rear flap of Sailor, Take Warning! (shown below) for the lowdown on the contest.
The logo went through a few changes as can be seen in these photos. I have no idea of the significance of 449-4A or what it might refer to. Anyone who does know please feel free to leave a comment below. [UPDATE June 2018: a reader did some research and has come up with an answer to the number mystery. He emailed me his results. See comments below for the solution to this quasi-mystery.]
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Original Red Badge logo (1930s-1940s)
First endpaper design included a lightning bolt |
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Later endpaper design and
Final Red Badge logo design (1950s) |
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Once again this post shows a mixture of DJs from my own collection and some that I managed to find from online booksellers' catalogs. The authors who were published by Dodd Mead during the heyday of the Red Badge imprint were among the elite of mystery and crime fiction. They included Agatha Christie, R. Austin Freeman, Freeman Wills Crofts, John Rhode, Kelley Roos, Michael Innes, Clifford Knight, Lee Thayer, Hugh Pentecost/Judson Phillips, Bart Spicer, William McGivern, Ursula Curtiss, Rae Foley, two books by Cornell Woolrich, and two books by Edmund Crispin after he was dropped by Lippincott.
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| Pontifex, Son & Thorndyke (1931) |
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| The Body on the Beam (1932) |
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| The Crime on the Solent (1934) |
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| The Loss of the "Jane Vosper" (1936) |
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| The Starvel Hollow Tragedy (1938) |
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| The Stoneware Monkey (1939) |
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| Cancelled in Red (1939) |
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| Easy to Kill (1939) |
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| The Daffodil Affair (1942) |
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Rear flap from
Sailor Take Warning |
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| Sailor, Take Warning! (1944) |
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| The Secret of the Lake House (1946) |
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| Mrs. McGinty's Dead (1952) |
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| Nightmare (1956) |
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| Violence (1958) |
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| Flowers by Request (1964) |
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| Out of the Depths (1966) |
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| Money from Holme (1965) |
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| Appleby's Other Story (1974) |
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Note that by 1974 while the Red Badge name was still being used, the logo with the detective had been abandoned on the spine of the DJ. The imprint, the brand name and the use of the logo would disappear from all mystery and suspense fiction by the end of the 1970s.
As you probably know, John, Douglas Sanderson/Martin Brett's first crime novels, Exit in Green, Hot Freeze and The Darker Traffic, were all Red Badge Mysteries. One quirk I like about them is that the Red Badge appears in different colours on the boards: green, red and violet, respectively. Sad to say, they're the only Red Badges I own. Oh, what wouldn't give for Kenneth Millar's The Dark Tunnel and Trouble Follows Me.
ReplyDeleteYes, I intended to write about the different colored boards. That sets Red Badge apart from their competitors. Many publishers liked to keep the imprint uniform with a specific design and color for the boards like Inner Sanctum and the way Random House did their mystery novels with the tan tweed boards and the endpapers. The only thing consistent with Red Badge was the logo stamped on the front board. But I got carried away with photos of DJs and decided not to post pictures of the boards. I found examples of red, yellow, green, black and brown boards on the Red Badge books I own from the 50s and 60s. The boards from the 30s and 40s were more varied with all sorts of typography and cloth combinations.
DeleteI want all the covers (even if I could probably pass on some of the books - never really got into Innes) - marvellous!
ReplyDeleteOnly twelve DJs of those pictured are mine. Well, actually some of them are "once owned". I went through my "Sold" files dating back to 2008 and pulled some of those photos. Innes is not my thing either (though I thought DAFFODIL AFFAIR was wholly unique and outrageously entertaining). All of his DJs and two of the Crofts DJs came from my "Sold" files.
DeleteThanks, David. Hope you'll be visiting more regularly.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, John. I love these chances to learn about such things, enjoy seeing how publishing once was, and of course, always like seeing DJs. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteA reader named John Qualls wrote me with his research into the mystery of the 449-4A shown in the early Red Badge Logo. Seems that it refers to an address of the Dodd Mead offices. Here's what he found:
ReplyDelete"449-4A may refer to the original address of Dodd, Mead & Co., which was an "11-story building built by them at 449-4A---449 4th Avenue at 30th Street," in Manhattan, New York.
"Currently, as 4th Avenue angles northward, it meets Broadway at E. 15th St., where both become Fifth Avenue. At 30th St., there is now a First Republic bank in an 11-story building on the northeast corner with a current address of 443. The next adjacent building going northward is the 10-story Raymond R. Corbett Building at 451, which was built in 1988. When entering the address of "449" in Google Earth, the Corbett Building is indicated.
"My only Red Badge volume is Deadline by Alexander Irving (1947) which I am about to read for the first time. It gives Dodd, Mead's address as 432 Fourth Avenue, which if that is now Fifth Avenue, it is less than half a block away just south of 30th St., and on the opposite side of the street. A search of Dodd, Mead shows equally addresses of both 449 and 432, both Fourth and Fifth Avenues, which might mean that they moved across the street before 1947, and that Fourth Avenue used to go much farther north; and one as 443-449, which might mean address numbers were changed for those two adjacent buildings, which might mean that the current 11-story building at 443 was the original Dodd, Mead building of 449."
How could you overlook Davis Dresser, as Brett Halliday? This is a gross error since you thought it important to mention writers of One or TWO books. Halliday also won the prize and had a first novel printed, then went on to write 31 more "Michael Shayne mysteries," many of which were published under the RED BADGE label. I've collected ALL his paperbacks but am aware of at least seven "Red Badge" titles from 1943, '43, '44, '45, '50, '51 and '51 again. I know these seven titles but will leave it to you to do your homework.
ReplyDeleteThis is a rather strident comment with a touch of unnecessary sarcasm in your last sentence. "Gross error" is your opinion. An oversight, perhaps, is more accurate. But there is an explanation.
DeleteWhen I wrote this post (five years ago) I went through my personal collection and posted photos of what I had for Dodd Mead. Halliday's first book published by Dodd Mead was the 6th Shayne mystery, The Corpse Came Calling. (1942) They released all of them until Dresser and his wife Helen McCloy founded their own publishing company called Torquil. From 1953 on Torquil published the remainder of the Shayne mystery novels with Dodd Mead acting as distributor. I own plenty of Mike Shayne books but most of them happen to be Dell mapbacks and later Dell paperbacks and a couple of Popular Library paperbacks. I do own Brett Halliday's first five books (1939-1941) which were published by Henry Holt. Take a look at the Holt post in this series of "Impressive Imprints" to satisfy your Halliday craving.
I found this blog when searching for information on what the eight point test for a red badge mystery might be. Have you found info on that? My 1945 copy of Too Many Suspects by John Rhode mentions it in the front pages.
ReplyDeleteNo, I have not. Sorry to disappoint. I keep hoping it will turn up on one of the DJs for the award winners back in the late 30s. Still have not seen the rules.
DeleteI have recently discovered that my great aunt, Marion Holbrook, was the author of Suitable for Framing, a Red Badge Detective book published in 1941. My family has obtained a copy of the book, and it mentions The Annual Red Badge $1000 Prize Contest and the 8-point Test for being selected as a Red Badge Detective book in the front of the book. I'd love to know what the 8 point test consisted of if you ever find out. I also wonder if you know if my great aunt was a winner of the contest or just an author that they selected to carry the Red Badge brand? Any information would be appreciated.
ReplyDelete