2 Santmyer Paperbacks

2 HELEN HOOVEN SANTMYER PAPERBACKS - "...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB" AND "THE FIERCE DISPUTE," XENIA OHIO NOVELS Two used softcover novels by Helen Hooven Santmyer, photographed on a dark oak table. "...And Ladies of the Club," a Berkley Book, spine marked "BERKLEY NOVEL ... 0-425-10243-2 / 595 U.S. (825 CAN)," cover banner "#1 THE YEAR'S BESTSELLER" and "The novel that has captured the heart of America," back-cover headline "ALL OUR GOLDEN YESTERDAYS" with a New York Daily News quote calling it "A great novel that is American to its core." "The Fierce Dispute," St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-91028-2, marked "First time in paperback" on the front and "A SELECTION OF THE TROLL BOOK CLUB" on the back, described there as a Xenia, Ohio story of Margaret Baird, her daughter Hilary, and Hilary's daughter Lucy Anne. Flaws: the spine of "...And Ladies of the Club" is heavily creased and crackled white along its whole length with loss of printing, both covers are rubbed, soiled, and corner-worn, page edges are toned and tanned, and BLUE BALLPOINT WRITING IS PRESENT IN THE FRONT MATTER OF BOTH BOOKS, reading like the name "JoAnn" with a brief notation, only partly legible. UNTESTED and uncollated - neither book was read through or collated page by page. Sold as a lot of two paperbacks. Description Form: two softcover novels, reading copies, no hardcovers and no jackets. "...And Ladies of the Club" is a very thick volume consistent with its published length of roughly 1,176 to 1,300 pages; "The Fierce Dispute" is a slim volume. Construction and finish: "...And Ladies of the Club" has purple and pink foil title lettering on a cream ground with five Victorian portrait vignettes; "The Fierce Dispute" has red foil lettering on pink with a photo-collage of 1920s figures. Interior text is clean letterpress-style setting with printed running heads reading "'...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB'" and "HELEN HOOVEN SANTMYER." Marks and imprints: "...And Ladies of the Club" - "A BERKLEY BOOK 0-425-10243-2," cover price 595 U.S. and 825 CAN. "The Fierce Dispute" - ISBN 0-312-91028-2, "ST. MARTIN'S PRESS / FICTION" at the spine tail. A "Critics Hail" leaf inside "The Fierce Dispute" carries quotes for "The Fierce Dispute," "Herbs and Apples," and "...And Ladies of the Club" from the Nashville Tennessean, Indianapolis Star, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Milwaukee Journal, Publishers Weekly, The New York Times, and New York Daily News. A Berkley mail-order leaf headed "WOMEN WRITERS OF QUALITY FICTION" lists Anne Tyler and Joyce Carol Oates titles with 1980s cover prices and the Berkley address at 390 Murray Hill Parkway, East Rutherford, NJ 07073. Size: each approximately 6.75 inches tall by 4.25 inches wide, standard paperback format, with "...And Ladies of the Club" roughly 2 inches thick. NO TAPE-MEASURE PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN, so these are visual estimates only and should be verified in hand. Only the two paperbacks pictured are included. Nothing else at the frame edges is included. Attribution note Helen Hooven Santmyer, born in Cincinnati in 1895 and raised in Xenia, Ohio, died at Xenia in February 1986 at age 90. "...And Ladies of the Club" was published obscurely in 1982 by the Ohio State University Press and sold only a few hundred copies, mostly to Ohio libraries, before G. P. Putnam's Sons acquired it - it then became a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection, reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and stayed on that list for 37 consecutive weeks, making Santmyer a national figure in her late eighties, per Wikipedia, the Britannica student entry, the Ohio Reading Road Trip biography, and her Los Angeles Times and New York Times obituaries. The novel follows a women's literary club in the fictional Waynesboro, Ohio, from 1868 to 1932, and a paperback edition of it sold more than a million copies. "The Fierce Dispute" is her 1929 second novel, set around 1900 in an unnamed Ohio town she later acknowledged was Xenia, and it was reissued in paperback by St. Martin's Press in 1988 following her rediscovery, per Wikipedia and the Ohio State University Press listing. This paperback is that reissue, not a 1929 first edition, and it is not represented as one. Notes for bidders Keep these dry, out of direct sunlight, and away from heat - mass-market pulp paper is acidic and the toning already present will progress in a hot garage or a sunny window. Do not attempt to clean the covers, since water and household cleaners lift the gloss coating and dissolve foil lettering. Leave the ink writing as it is; erasing ballpoint from a paperback flyleaf tears the paper, and a previous owner's name is normal in a used book. Do not bend the spine of "...And Ladies of the Club" backward - a 1,100-page paperback with an already crackled spine splits at exactly that point. Shelve upright with support, never stacked flat under weight, and avoid rubber bands and adhesive labels. Only the item(s) pictured are included in this lot. Terms Sold