Triangle Books
Publisher: Blue Ribbon Books (1938-1939); Doubleday (1939-1948)
People: Eugene Reynal, Freeman Lewis, Robert De Graff
Years: 1938-1948
Related Series: Permabooks
Low-priced (39 cents) hardcover reprint series issued by Blue Ribbon Books in 1938. Purchased by Doubleday in 1939, the line continued along successfully until a price increase (49 cents) in 1942 and another in 1947 (59 cents). Shortly after a price reduction in 1948 (49 cents) effected by a change in materials, the line was discontinued and replaced by Doubleday's Permabooks, which itself changed format from boards to paper within a couple years.
More Information
Blue Ribbon Plans Fiction Reprints at Thirty-Nine Cents, PW, Jan. 2, 1938, at 48-49 ("The new series is being undertaken with the knowledge that it can be continued only if the books succeed in reaching the potential mass market available in this country.")
Hodge Sales Manager for Blue Ribbon, PW, Jan. 22, 1938, at 313-314, 314 ("Freeman Lewis, who has until the present acted as sales manager for the organization, will now devote his entire time to editorial and special contact work for all the Reynal and Hitchcock and Blue Ribbon activities. Mr. Lewis is very busy with Triangle Books, the new line of 39-cent reprints;")
Ad, PW, Feb. 5, 1938, at [19-21] (three-page spread describing the series).
Ad, PW, Feb. 26, 1938, at 996 (ad asking sellers to place their orders in the proper quantity, as Blue Ribbon was out of stock of their early titles).
Triangle Books Catch On in Several Fields, PW, Mar. 12, 1938, at 1202-04.
Triangle Books, PW, Sept. 17, 1938, at 1009.
Triangle Books, PW, Feb. 11, 1939, at 685.
Notice, PW, Aug. 19, 1939, at [12] (announcing that Doubleday on Aug. 11, 1949, acquired Blue Ribbon Books, including its Triangle Books imprint, but will continue publishing them the same as before).
Ad, PW, Apr. 13, 1940, at [10-11].
Triangle Books, PW, Jan. 25, 1941, at 429-30.
Sale of Triangle Books Doubled in 1941, PW, Jan. 31, 1942, at 469.
Triangle Books, PW, May 30, 1942, at 1997-1998 (announcing price increase from 39 cents to 49 cents).
Garden City Center Books Series Well Received, PW, Nov. 14, 1942, at 2046-47 (announcing Center Books, a "parallel series" to Triangle Books).
Garden City Increases Price of Triangle Books to 59 Cents, PW, Aug. 30, 1947, at 910.
New Binding for Triangle Books; Price Lowered to 49 Cents, PW, May 15, 1948, at 2095.
AT DOUBLEDAY, PW, Oct, 16, 1948, at 1764 (reporting that the Triangle Books has been discontinued and replaced with the Permabooks line).
EUGENE REYNALD, PW, Apr. 1, 1968, at 21-22 (obituary notice for Eugene Reynald, who ran Blue Ribbon Books when it was a cooperative reprint house owned by Harper; Harcourt; Dodd, Mead; and Little, Brown and who purchased it in 1933, later launching the Triangle Books series).