'' is one of several
digest-format paperbacks that were once published by Avon. Avon Books was founded in 1941 by the
American News Company (ANC) to create a rival to
Pocket Books. They hired brother and sister Joseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams to establish the company. ANC bought out
J.S. Ogilvie Publications, a
dime novel publisher partly owned by both the Meyers, and renamed it "Avon Publications". They also got into
comic books. "The early Avons were somewhat similar in appearance to the existing paperbacks of Pocket Books, resulting in an immediate and largely ineffective lawsuit by that company. Despite this superficial similarity, though, from early on Meyers differentiated Avon by placing an emphasis on popular appeal rather than loftier concepts of literary merit." The first 40 titles were not numbered. First editions of the first dozen or so have front and rear endpapers with an illustration of a globe. The emphasis on "popular appeal" led Avon to publish
ghost stories,
sexually-suggestive love stories,
fantasy novels and
science fiction in its early years, which were far removed in audience appeal from the somewhat more literary Pocket Books competition. As well as normal-sized paperbacks, Avon published
digest-format paperbacks (the size and shape of the present-day ''
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) in series. These included Murder Mystery Monthly
, Modern Short Story Monthly
and Avon Fantasy Reader''. Many authors highly prized by present-day collectors were published in these editions, including
A. Merritt,
James M. Cain,
H. P. Lovecraft,
Raymond Chandler and
Robert E. Howard. In 1953, Avon Books sold books in the price range of 25¢ to 50¢ (for the Avon "G" series, the "G" standing for "Giant") and were selling more than 20 million copies a year. Their books were characterized by
Time magazine as "westerns, whodunits and the kind of boy-meets-girl story that can be illustrated by a ripe cheesecake jacket". At around this time, Avon also began to publish under other imprints, including Eton (1951–1953), Novel Library, Broadway and Diversey. Avon's 35¢ "T" series, introduced in 1953, also had strong mass-market appeal and contains many outstanding examples of the then-popular
juvenile delinquent story. The "T" series also contained many movie
tie-in editions and the stand-bys of mysteries and science fiction. Avon was bought by the
Hearst Corporation in 1959. In the late 1960s there was a surge of interest in
Satanism largely due to the emergence of
Anton LaVey's Church of Satan in 1966 and the success of Ira Levin's novel ''
Rosemary's Baby in 1967. In 1968, an Avon editor named Peter Mayer approached Anton LaVey with the idea of publishing a "Satanic Bible", and he asked Anton to author it. Anton obliged, and in December 1969 The Satanic Bible'' was published as an Avon paperback. ==History of Avon Romance (post-1972)==