The romance novel was firmly established in the book publishing world when early silent cinema allowed a visual confirmation for viewers of characters only imagined.   Book store displays that featured Hollywood actors embracing on the dust jacket of a then-current photoplay edition not only attracted the eye but sold lots of books.  Many monthly magazines serialized romance novels that ultimately became bound volumes.  The scenario of a heroine overcoming great odds to secure happiness will add fodder to the writer’s imagination forever.  Women in today’s world continue to out-read men in general and have always provided financial support to the romance novel industry.

By the mid-1920s the Grosset and Dunlap and A. L. Burt book publishers had pretty much monopolized the photoplay edition market.  With numerous films appearing weekly, it became common to see novels published with advance publicity stating that the film rights had been sold.  Grosset and Dunlap in particular were quick to secure reprint privileges for ‘best seller’ novels being made into moving pictures.  Novelizations from screenplays showed up for contemporary films that allowed readers to experience enhanced dialog with regional vernacular.  Rural theatergoers could read the film edition and have a further vicarious experience with big city life, after viewing the movie.

The images for this narrative were chosen to exemplify that bookstore display of yesteryear with jackets depicting colorful romantic scenes with just the right hint of interior intrigue, dilemma or redemption.

Seventh Heaven by Austin Strong is a novelization of the 1922 stageplay by John Golden, which Grosset & Dunlap first published as a theater edition with stills from the lengthy run on Broadway.  The movie edition appeared in 1927 and Janet Gaynor’s performance won her the first Best Actress Academy Award.  Young lovers in Paris pre WWI, the implications of wartime on family relationships and faith, these events combined to give viewers and readers alike a grand event.

In 1925, Grosset and Dunlap published Cobra by Martin Brown and Russell Holman from the stageplay by Martin Brown.  This being a further example of a stageplay being filmed and this time a novelization of the film appears as a photoplay edition also a First Edition.  The plotline of a penniless Italian nobleman chasing skirts in 1920s flapper age NYC allowed Rudolph Valentino the opportunity to please his fans.  His next film The Son of the Sheik in 1926 would be his last.

Other romantic First Edition photoplays by A. L. Burt include The Merry Widow (1925) by Anonymous (Henry W. Savage) from the operetta by Franz Lehar, Rio Rita (1929 musical) by Harry Sinclair Drago, Evangeline by Finis Fox (1929 The Romance of Evangeline).  Another Grosset First Edition is Classmates novelized by Walter F. Eberhardt (1924 from the play by William De Mille).

Edith Wharton wrote her Pulitzer Prize winning novel  The Age of Innocence in 1920, which depicted life for the upper class in 1870s New York City society.  Her insider contacts gave Wharton a special insight into the top crust of city life.  When Grosset and Dunlap reprinted the novel circa 1934 the publisher created a photo wraparound band placed over a non-movie art jacket by Skrenda.  Even early jacketed reprints of this novel have become pricey but finding the film band as well, good luck.

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Last Revision:  March 12, 2021 8:42 PM