Permabooks was a paperback division of Doubleday, established by Doubleday in 1948. Although published by Doubleday's Garden City Publishing Company in Garden City, Long Island, the Permabooks editorial office was located at 14 West 49th Street in Manhattan. Promoted with the slogans Books of Permanent Value for Permanent Use and Books to Keep, the early Permabooks were priced at 35 cents. They did not feature the flexible covers usually associated with paperback books. Instead, as the name implies, the first Permabooks were designed in a more durable format with board covers. The interior looked like a paperback, but the exterior, measuring 4⅜" wide by 6½" deep, gave the impression of a reduced-size hardcover. The edges of the stiff, unflexible board cover extended 1/8" past the trim of the interior pages.Paperbarn: Hyde Park Books: Permabooks
/ref> The concept was heralded in a back cover blurb: :Permabooks combine the virtues of handiness for the pocket and durability for the library shelf. They are selected with care to provide reliable books for education and recreation. Each has been printed from new plates and bound in boards with special wear-resistant finish. The initial format only lasted three years, with Doubleday switching to the standard paperback appearance in 1951, as indicated by Hyde Park Books' breakdown of the numbering sequence: :The binding influenced editorial decisions. There was no sense publishing a durable book that no one had reason to keep, so the first titles were ''Best-Loved Poems'', ''How to Write Letters'', ''Best Quotations for All Occasions'' and other reference-style works. The numbering sequence: P1-P92, hardbacks; there was no P93; P94-P97, hardbacks; P98, paper; P99-P101, hard; P102 on were all paperback. Plus, P5, P7, P25, P65, P89 were re-issued as paperback without being re-numbered. In 1954, the company was purchased by

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...

, which began numbering Permabooks with M1000, skipped to M1600, skipped for the third title to M2001, skipped yet again to M3002 for the fourth title, and then numbered sequentially until M5014, when it jumped to M7500. The Perma Star imprint began in 1952. Perma Special, which also began that year, was a higher quality line selling for 50 cents. These imprints included originals by Richard Stark (a

Donald E. Westlake Donald Edwin Westlake (July 12, 1933 – December 31, 2008) was an American writer, with more than a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into ...

pseudonym) and Ed McBain (an

Evan Hunter Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino,(October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) was an American author and screenwriter best known for his 87th Precinct novels, written under his Ed McBain pen name, and the novel upon which the film '' Blackb ...

pseudonym). In 1954, Doubleday sold Permabooks to

, which kept the Permabooks name as one of their imprints, issuing both originals and reprints.Hansen, Harry. "Doubleday's Permabooks Merged with Pocket Books," ''Chicago Tribune'', August 1, 1954
/ref>

Partial list of the 1948-50 Permabooks

*P1 ''Best Loved Poems'' edited by Richard Charlton MacKenzie, 1948 *P2 ''How to Write Letters for All Occasions'' by Sheff and Ingalls *P3 ''Best Quotations for All Occasions'' *P4 ''Common Errors in English and How to Avoid Them'' by Alexander M. Witherspoon, PhD *P5 ''The Standard Bartender's Guide'' by Patrick Gavin Duffy, 1948 *P6 ''

Sex and the Love Life Sex and the Love Life by the American author William J. Fielding is a non-fictional book published in 1927 in New York. It deals with the contemporary understanding of sexuality and its relation to the love life in many fields of life. The book c ...

'' by William J. Fielding, 1948 *P7 ''Eat and Reduce!'' by Victor H. Lindlahr *P8 ''The Stainless Steel Kimono'' by Elliott Chaze, 1948 - *PB ''Best Jokes for All Occasions'' edited by Moulton *P9 ''Ida Bailey Allen's Cookbook" *P10 ''The Conquest of Fear'' by Basil King, 1948 *P11 ''How Shall I Tell My Child? A Parent's Guide to the Sex Education of Children'' by Belle S. Mooney, 1948 *P13 ''Something to Live By'' by Dorothea Kopplin *P14 ''Sight Without Glasses'' by Dr. Harold M. Peppard *P15 ''Blackstone's Tricks Anyone Can Do'' by Harry Blackstone, 1948 *P16 ''Fortune Telling for Fun and Popularity'' by Paul Showers *P17 ''The Handy Encyclopedia of Useful Information'' by Lewis Copeland (editor). Research Editors: Robert Rahtz, Leonard D. Abbott and Paul Doring *P19 ''Good English Made Easy'' by J. Milnor Dorey *P20 ''Mathematics for Home and Business'' by William L. Schaaf, Ph.D. *P21 ''Modern Sex Life'' by Edwin W. Hirsch, B.S., M.D. *P25 ''Handy Legal Adviser for Home and Business'' by Samuel G. Kling *P26 ''What Your Dreams Mean'' by Herbert Hespro *P32 ''Photography as a Hobby'' by Fred B. Barton *P33 ''Winning Poker'' by Oswald Jacoby *P34 ''The Handy Book of Hobbies'' by

Geoffrey Mott-Smith The Mott-Smith Trophy, named for writer and cryptographer Geoffrey Mott-Smith, is awarded to the player with the best overall individual performance in the Spring Nationals, the spring event of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) North Amer ...

, 1949 *P36 ''Astrology for Everyone'' by Evangeline Adams *P37 ''Numerology'' by Morris C. Goodman *P38 ''Three Famous French Novels (Abridged)'' Madame Bovary, Mlle. de Maupin and Sapho *P39 ''Character Reading Made Easy'' by Meier *P40 '' Stop Me If You've Heard This One'' by

Lew Lehr Lew or LEW may refer to: People * Lew (given name) * Lew (surname) Places * Lew, Oxfordshire, England * River Lew, in Devon, England Transport * LEW Hennigsdorf, a rail vehicle factory in Hennigsdorf, Germany * Lew (locomotive), a British narr ...

, Cal Tinney and Roger Bower, 1949 *P41 ''Best Short Stories of Jack London'' *P42 ''The Art of Living'' by Norman Vincent Peale, D.D. *P43 ''The Human Body and How it Works'' by Tokay *P44 ''A Handy Illustrated Guide to Football'' *P45 ''The Golden Book of Prayer'' edited by D. B. Aldrich *P47 ''A Handy Illustrated Guide to Basketball'' *P48 ''Better Speech for You'' by Daniel P. Eginton, PhD *P50 ''Psychoanalysis and Love'' by Andre Tridon *P52 ''A Handy Illustrated Guide to Bowling'' *P53 ''A Handy Illustrated Guide to Boxing'' *P54 ''Magic Explained'' by Walter B. Gibson *P55 ''The Handy Book of Indoor Games'' by Geoffrey Matt-Smith *P57 ''Understanding Human Nature'' by Alfred Adler *P58 ''Charles H. Goren's Bridge Quiz Book" *P59 ''Reading Handwriting for Fun and Popularity'' by Dorothy Sara *P60 ''Be Glad You're Neurotic'' by louis E. Bisch, PhD *P61 ''Grammar Made Easy'' by Richard D. Mallery *P62 ''Permabook of Art Masterpieces, Explanatory Text'' by Ray Brock *P63 ''The Handy Book of Gardening'' by Wilkinson and Tiedjens *P64 ''The Meaning of Psychoanalysis'' by Martin W. Peck *P65 ''Know Your Real Abilities'' by C. V. and M. E. Broadley *P66 ''Stories of Famous Operas'' by Harold V. Milligan *P67 ''The Science Fiction Galaxy'' edited by Groff Conklin *P68 ''How to Use Your Imagination to Make Money'' by C. B. Roth *P69 ''Favorite Verse of Edgar A. Guest'' *P70 ''Perma Handy World Atlas'' *P71 ''Goren's Canasta Up-to-Date'' by Charles H. Goren *P72 ''Meditations and My Daily Strength'' by Preston Bradley *P73 ''Personality Pointers'' by Jill Edwards *P74 ''South Sea Stories of W. Somerset Mougham'' *P75 ''Manners for Millions'' by Sophie C. Hadida *P76 ''The Care and Handling of Dogs'' by Jack Baird *P77 ''A Handy Illustrated Guide to Baseball'' *P78 ''Buried Treasure'' by Ken Krippene *P79 ''Everyday Speech'' by Bess Sondel *P80 ''The New Standard Ready Reckoner'' *P81 ''How to Read Palms'' by Litzka Raymond, 1950 *P82 ''The Perma Week-End Companion'' edited by E. Mitchell *P83 ''How to Travel for Fun'' by Helen Eva Yates

Sources

* Davis, Kenneth C. ''Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America'', Boston:

Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

, 1984. *Permabooks List of Published Titles from the Back Cover of P81 ''How to Read Palms'' by Litzka Raymond, 1950

References

{{reflist

External links

"Once Doubleday Was a King, Now House Gets a New Look" by Terry Considine Williams. ''The New York Times'', October 6, 1996
Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Publishing companies established in 1948