Vanguard Library - 1958

I found this British hardcover edition on eBay UK, and tried to buy it. Unfortunately the seller wouldn't ship to the U.S., so I turned to my pal Martin Gray (he of the Too Dangerous For A Girl blog), who lives on that side of the pond. Martin generously arranged to get me the book, and now I have another edition of The Razor's Edge in my collection! This is the perfect excuse to read it for like the 50th time, thanks again pal!

(Is that supposed to be Larry?)

Vintage Classics - 2000

The only New Year's resolution I made for myself last year was to read more books. I had only read a pathetic few in 2013 so I made sure that as soon as I finished a book in 2014, I grabbed a new one to start. Now that 2014 is wrapping up, I find that I've read about 15 books, which isn't too bad. So I decided to end the year with an old favorite--you can probably guess what it is--which meant I was on the hunt for yet another edition.

That's getting harder and harder of course, but I got lucky during an eBay search and found this British edition published in 2000. Not a bad cover, and the back cover plot description is pretty good. I can't think of a better way to end the year than with Larry Darrell and his search for the Absolute.

William Heinemann LTD - 1944

The times between my purchasing "new" editions of The Razor's Edge are getting further and further apart; I guess that's a natural cause of owning more and more versions of the book--there are only so many left.

But I did find this one, from a British publisher in 1944. The front cover is similar to the one on the American edition of the time; sadly the back cover is just a plug for other books by Heinemann. Not only that--perhaps it was due to paper rationing at the time (this was during World War II, after all), but if you flip the dust jacket inside out, you'll find it's a cover for another book--in this case A Silver Rattle by Sylvia Thompson! No, I've never heard of it either!

On the inside page, this copy has an inscription which reads: "To Daughter--A belated 'many happy returns', from Mike, March 1945." I generally find inscriptions in my books to be inherently interesting, but I'm intrigued that a father would sign a book to his daughter with his actual name, not "Dad" or some variation. All I can say is, I hope she enjoyed it!

Vanguard Library Edition - 1952

It's been a quite a while (see previous post) since I picked up a "new" edition of The Razor's Edge, but it wasn't for lack of trying!

I would check in on eBay every month or so, never finding anything. Then, about a month ago, I found this heretofore unknown-to-me edition hailing from England. The Vanguard Library was a series of six books (including such classics as Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory) published in 1952 in hardcover.

As you can see, the cover has nothing to do with the book's contents; they clearly preferred a generic cover that was more about the Vanguard name than the books themselves. The back cover barely even describes the book, interested more in giving us the life story of Somerset Maugham.

Mandarin Books Edition - 1995

I was in the mood to read The Razor's Edge again, so of course I went looking for a "new" edition!

Not finding anything on eBay, I decided to try eBay.co.uk, figuring maybe there was a British edition that might be for sale. Turns out I was right!

This cover is pretty decent; its a painting called Spanish Woman, but it could certainly fill in as the scene of Isabel as she leaves Larry's apartment, having just decided they won't be getting married--that sad, wistful look on the woman's face seems more than appropriate.

The back cover description is new, and does a fairly good job representing the book--mentioning the major characters, but putting Larry front and center.

Thrilled to add another edition to my collection!

Pocket Books Edition - 1971

I was absentmindedly surfing through eBay, when I got the ides to look for "new" editions of The Razor's Edge, reasonably sure I wasn't going to find one. And yet...

I guess this edition's cover would rank the most laughably wrongheaded, trying so hard as it does to make the novel and its characters seem contemporary. Remove the text and it kind of reminds me of those "bumper cards" you'd see on The Tonight Show coming back from commercials.

Now I have an excuse to read the book again!

Screen Romances #210 - November 1946

Now here's an unusual version of The Razor's Edge!

Screen Romances was not your standard movie/gossip mag of the 1940s, which usually were a series of commercials for different movies, with some articles on the stars giving the reader some tiny glimpse into their "real" lives.

No, Screen Romances surprised me, and here's why: on page 37, there's an article on The Razor's Edge movie.

What's odd about this magazine's movie articles is that they're not about the movies, exactly: they're more novel-like summations of the plot, written in prose style. So in the couple of pages on The Razor's Edge, you've got a prose version of a movie adaptation of an original novel. Weird!

I love that I found this very obscure piece of Razor's Edge arcana; and for only a few bucks. I wonder what other movie magazines with RE content might be out there...