Unseen Library
The Unseen Library is a set of matching hardcover limited editions of the first eighteen Discworld novels. They were published by Book Club Associates (BCA), a company formed when The Reprint Society was bought and renamed by W.H. Smith and the American publisher Doubleday in 1966. The Unseen Library editions were published “by arrangement with Victor Gollancz” (though in fact other publishers were also involved) between 2001 and 2011.
These books are quarter-bound in cloth and (faux?) leather, with gold blocking, head and tail bands, and a marker ribbon. Each bears a small gold-embossed full-colour illustration of a character featured in the book, commissioned from Paul Kidby for this series. Inside the endpapers feature a full-colour map of the Discworld, and there's a half-page illustration on the title page. Each title was published in a limited edition of between 3,000 and 7,000, with the earlier books having larger print runs that the later ones.
In 2011 BCA was sold to the Webb Group, which went into insolvency in March 2012, taking BCA with it. The Unseen Library edition was left incomplete, published only up to Maskerade, though there were two editions of that book: the first had the misspelled title “Maskarade”, and was recalled and replaced. An unknown number of copies of the misprinted edition remain in circulation.
Cover Gallery
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Maskerade (both printings)
External links
- wikipedia:Book Club Associates page on Wikipedia