Re: Found
I was doing my laundry at the overpriced Laundromat across from the Safeway on upper Shattuck (for reasons too dull to go into). I had a twenty I needed to break to get change for the dryers, so I wandered a few doors down to Black Oak Books, one of the best used bookstores in the Bay Area.
I found a new copy of Cory Doctorow’s new book, but I only had a twenty, so I wandered into the back to the bargain pocket books section (“All pocket books, $2.00”). It was a very good decision: I found a first or near-first paperback edition of “Ada” (Fawcett-Crest/McGraw-Hill, 1970), which happens to be my favorite Nabokov novel ever (some previous owner paid a dollar for it someplace else, according the penciled price in the corner; I still had to pay two).
Printing History:
McGraw-Hill edition published May 1st, 1969
First printing, April 1969
Second Printing, April 1969
Third Printing, May 1969
Fourth Printing, July 1969
Fifth Printing, October 1969
(Ed. Note: It was a really popular book)
Selection of the Literary Guild, May 1969
First Fawcett-Crest printing, May 1970
The really fascinating thing about it is the cover. Nabokov is one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century, but the cover design on this one is hideous.
First, there’s the lurid teaser copy: “The new bestselling ‘Erotic Masterpiece’ from the author of ‘Lolita’!”
Finally, the cover art; it’s difficult to adequately convey how ugly it is. This being published in 1970, and it being an “Erotic Masterpiece”, someone came up with a psychedelic-Peter Max-style collage of naked women in the shape of a butterfly, in pinks, oranges, and light blue; it’s a style of art familiar to anyone who’s ever bought an early, swingin'-hippie-free-love-Monterey-Pops paperback edition of Robert Heinlein. It looks like cheap soft porn.
Compare this to my cherished modern Vintage books annotated version I received as a gift a few years ago: tasteful cream-colored cover, featuring a black and white picture of a young naked girl silouhetted against flowers.
Book marketing was different back then. These days, every new book has an arty photo-collage and title that usually has nothing to do with the story. People who buy books are sensitive to those things (arcane aesthetics as a marketing tool). Thirty-three years ago, things were different. Everyone bought books, more or less, and there were two castes of literary consumers: hardcover, and paperback. Hardcover readers were bibliophiles; professional types with education, money, and standards. They spent money on books they expected to read more than once and keep around for a while. Paperback readers were just the opposite: they slapped down $1.00 for a cheap thrill and then threw it out. Ergo, the fascinatingly quaint poor taste of the cover art for this particular literary masterpiece.
Anyhow, I covered the ugly one with a page from an old Hello Kitty calendar (February, with a picture of everyone’s favorite Japanese feline kawaii goddess demurely holding an “I Love You” heart in front of her. I thought it was perversely appropriate.).
9:17:55 AM 
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