Collins Crime Club was an imprint of British book publishers

William Collins, Sons William Collins, Sons (often referred to as Collins) was a Scottish printing and publishing company founded by a Presbyterian schoolmaster, William Collins, in Glasgow in 1819, in partnership with Charles Chalmers, the younger brother of Thomas ...

and ran from 6 May 1930 to April

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

. Throughout its 64 years the club issued a total of 2,012in "The Hooded Gunman -- An Illustrated History of Collins Crime Club", by John Curran, both in the dust jacket, and in page 388

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

s of crime novels and reached a high standard of quality throughout. In the field of crime book collecting, Collins Crime Club is eagerly sought, particularly pre-war first editions in dustwrappers with their vivid and imaginative images.

History

Customers registered their name and address with the club and were sent a

newsletter A newsletter is a printed or electronic report containing news concerning the activities of a business or an organization that is sent to its members, customers, employees or other subscribers. Newsletters generally contain one main topic of int ...

every three months which advised them of the latest books which had been or were to be issued. Collins' intention was to publish three new

crime books In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

on the first Monday of every month. All three books were supposedly picked by a panel of experts (only one of whom seems to have been named —

Cyril Alington Cyril Argentine Alington (22 October 1872 – 16 May 1955) was an English educationalist, scholar, cleric, and author. He was successively the headmaster of Shrewsbury School and Eton College. He also served as chaplain to King George V and as De ...

) and they chose for each month one book which they termed a ''Selection'' and two which were ''Recommended''. As a marketing device, the club seems to have been successful in that Collins boasted 25,000 subscribers in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

. The number of books published increased beyond the three promised per month, reaching a pre-war peak of 42 books in 1938. Much of the success of the club can be contributed to the partnership with popular crime fiction novelist

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

. Under contract to Collins since 1926, all except five of her books were published under the Crime Club imprint from ''

The Murder at the Vicarage ''The Murder at the Vicarage'' is a work of detective fiction by British writer Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in October 1930 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK editio ...

'' onwards and most of her classic titles such as ''

Murder on the Orient Express ''Murder on the Orient Express'' is a work of detective fiction by English writer Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. In the U ...

'' first appeared as Crime Club books with huge sales. From

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

, the Crime Club also issued all the remaining works of

Ngaio Marsh Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh (; 23 April 1895 – 18 February 1982) was a New Zealand mystery writer and theatre director. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of De ...

to be published, starting with '' Overture to Death''. They also published many of the works of

Golden Age of Detective Fiction The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is, in practice, usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was pre ...

writers, such as

John Rhode Cecil John Charles Street (3 May 1884 – 8 December 1964), who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British Army. During the course of World War I, he became a ...

and

Freeman Wills Crofts Freeman Wills Crofts FRSA (1 June 1879 – 11 April 1957) was an Irish mystery author, best remembered for the character of Inspector Joseph French. A railway engineer by training, Crofts introduced railway themes into many of his stories, ...

. U.S. writers such as

Hulbert Footner Hulbert Footner (April 2, 1879 – November 17, 1944) was a Canadian born American writer of primarily detective fiction. He also wrote some non-fiction. Early career He was born William Hulbert Footner in Hamilton, Ontario on April 2, 1879. Hi ...

and, later,

Rex Stout Rex Todhunter Stout (; December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975) was an American writer noted for his detective fiction. His best-known characters are the detective Nero Wolfe and his assistant Archie Goodwin, who were featured in 33 novels and ...

were also well published. A shortage of paper during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

impacted the club severely. From

1942 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...

, it announced that they were no longer able to issue quarterly newsletters. The page count of its books reduced from an average of 252–280 pages down to 160–192 with smaller typefaces being used as well as inferior paper. The number of new books being issued dropped dramatically with an all-time low being reached in

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

when just 16 new books were issued.

Post-war Period

After the war, both the number of books and their quality of production increased as shortages ceased. The Crime Club managed to keep up with the times with far more diverse and gritty novels and was able to claim notable 'firsts' throughout the remainder of its existence, publishing the first editions of all of the early

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery series, based on the novels by John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six series, was originally broadcast on BBC1 between 10 January 19 ...

novels by Jonathan Gash from 1977 onwards starting with ''

The Judas Pair ''The Judas Pair'' is a crime novel by Jonathan Gash. It is the first book in the Lovejoy series. The story was first published in 1977 and won a John Creasey Award. The story was adapted by Ian La Frenais for the BBC television series ''Lovej ...

'' and the

Dalziel and Pascoe Detective Superintendent Andrew "Andy" Dalziel and Detective Sergeant, later Detective Inspector, Peter Pascoe are two fictional Yorkshire detectives featuring in a series of novels by Reginald Hill. Characterisation and style Dalziel is ...

books of

Reginald Hill Reginald Charles Hill FRSL (3 April 193612 January 2012) was an English crime writer and the winner in 1995 of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement. Biography Hill was born to a "very ordinary" family ...

starting in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

with '' A Clubbable Woman''. The club at this time experienced a drop in popularity, in line with the drop in popularity of

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

. In 1989, Collins was bought out by

Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...

News Corporation News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in Ne ...

. The editor of the Club,

Elizabeth Walter Elizabeth Walter (1927 – 8 May 2006) was an English writer of short stories in the horror and fantasy genres. J. A. Cuddon, "Introduction" to ''The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories''. Harmondsworth,Middlesex, England.Penguin Books, 1984. (p.33) ...

, managed to keep the imprint going but upon her retirement in 1994, the Club was brought to an end and the final novels to appear under the Crime Club imprint were published in April of that year.

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

' crime fiction output was much reduced and most of the best-selling authors were absorbed into the main imprint of the publishers.

References

{{Reflist British companies established in 1930 1994 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Book clubs Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in 1930 Companies disestablished in 1994

History

Post-war Period

See also

References