31 Days of Nancy Drew Topic #5 Nancy Drew Library Editions - A Brief Overview

31 Days of Nancy Drew Topic #5

Nancy Drew Library Editions - A Brief Overview

Since 1930, there have been various library bound editions of the classic 1-56 Nancy Drew books - my brief focus for this post. There are also a lot of library bound editions of books post-classic 56 too and some of you may collect those. I have a section on Nancy Drew library editions which I've not updated in ages, but you can see some images there of the various types I've nicknamed like the Twisted Candles editions for instance - these feature an image of Nancy from Twisted Candles on the covers of each book - so check this section out and see what you've been missing out on! 

My interest in library editions goes back to my elementary school library which had a lot of library editions of Nancy Drew and I checked out a lot of those, so they have special nostalgia for me. They often come in very used and even grubby condition with all the markings of use and library markings plus envelopes and cards to check out/etc. Finding them minty is great, but not something I strive for due to the nature of these bindings and their heavy use. I like seeing checkout history on the cards if they're still inside the books. I'm always upgrading though, so if I find one in better shape, I'll upgrade. At one point in time I had a lot more library editions, but I culled out some due to space and got rid of grubbier ones in the hopes of finding better ones at some point. Some of the images here in this post show the library editions on my shelves and closer views of shelves.

There are collectors who don't enjoy these as much and do not collect them. Or some collectors do collect them, but prefer to find them mint and unused and you can from time to time. Jennifer White's series books website also features Nancy Drew and other series book library editions and you can see editions I don't have on my site at hers as well.

There are a lot of different types of editions and I won't go into all of them in this posting - so check out the website links above to both of our sites for a full overview and more sections on types not featured here.

But here in this posting, I do want to highlight several types that you can find regularly and fairly easily at sites like eBay - I think Jennifer also has some listed for sale too right now. These types seem to come up pretty frequently or fairly often at eBay in addition to flashlight image library editions which I don't feature here:

Grosset & Dunlap PC Library Editions

These are the official library editions of the classic Nancy Drew - at least in the picture cover style - and have lavender spines and back covers - the back cover features a library bound logo. I prefer to find them unused but have a mixture of used/unused in my collection. Books 1-55 come in this format with lavender. #56 exists but is hard to find - features a yellow spine/back. I'd love to acquire one of these for my collection if anyone has any extras to sell!

Twisted Candles Library Editions

I've nickname them Twisted Candles editions because of the cover image on all books. These often show up with pink boards but I have seen them in blue, green and golden yellow too.

 

Magnifying Glass Library Editions

These feature a large image on the back covers of a magnifying glass with images of Nancy inside it.

 

Green APC Library Editions

One of my favorites are these green editions - featuring images of the cover art and sometimes internal illustrations on the covers of these editions.

 

Crossword Cipher Library Editions

I nickname these as such because on back of them they feature the image of Nancy from Crossword Cipher. These were the kind I remember reading in my school library! So they are favorite due to nostalgia.

 

Multi Scene Library Editions

Nicknamed due to the many scenes on the covers like the multi scene endpapers used in the regular books. These come in various colors including green, yellow, blue.

 

Special Editions Library Editions

Some of the special edition Nancy Drew books - like the Cookbook and Sleuth Book have library editions of them  - the G&D PC format and others.

 

Other Library Editions

There are various other types - some from the early 40s which are very neat - see Jennifer's site for images, I don't have any like this. Books bound with geometric patterns, and other misc. ones with images from Velvet Mask on the cover, a large image of Nancy's face and ones with the flashlight picture cover images on them. 

In the comments, let me know - do you collect library editions? Do you plan to start now that you've seen how neat they are? Do you have any special library editions that you like for a particular reason? Did you read library editions as a kid from the local or school libraries?