A Bat of a Different Color

From collector Ron Keesling come the three distinct printings of Dell 652.

According to William H. Lyles' definitive index, Dell Paperbacks, 1942 to Mid-1962, he believes that the yellow issue was printed first, and the orange and red issues were possible later printings. The colors are in raised felt.

The book was put out in January, 1953. It is a reprinting of Dell 241.

According to Lyles, the original issue of #652 had a print run of 201,000 copies. The red and orange issues were 12,000 copies each.

A later reissue in April, 1953, was 206,000 copies, which lacked the distinctive keyhole mosaic on the inside covers (as seen below).

I don't know if I'm indicative of other collectors, but when I first saw a book with the yellow cover, I incorrectly assumed it was an orange copy that was sun-faded.

Click an image to see the larger picture.

Scans are from Ron Keesling.