First edition front cover
The epic project of building a database and uploading images from every copy of every book in Don’s personal library has begun. The full collection containing one copy of every edition of every book in print, and in every language, numbers in the hundreds. Several hundreds. So far, I’ve been able to catalog the first 41. The 41st book in Don’s collection is The Hunter, the first edition of the first Parker novel. The images on that page have been updated, as well as a few others.
But the biggest change is the addition of three pseudonyms to the bibliography — Alan Marshall, John Dexter and Andrew Shaw. All three names were house names that publishers used to allow any author to write for the same series. Midwood (Tower Publications) owned the Alan Marshall pseudonym and Nightstand Books owned the other two. Don wrote or collaborated on (with Lawrence Block writing as Sheldon Lord) thirteen titles under the name Alan Marshall. He wrote one book as John Dexter (the first of that series) and collaborated (again with Larry) on the Andrew Shaw title. All are now officially part of the Donald Westlake legacy.
Teaser page
The pages with new additions are linked below. In some cases, you may notice a number written in the top-right corner of a title, teaser or copyright page in the photo gallery. That’s Don’s handwriting on the original book as it was placed into his collection in chronological order. It’s only by virtue of his meticulous record-keeping that I’m able to embark on this project with any degree of certainty. I plan on interviewing Lawrence Block in the near future and clearing up a few loose ends with him in the process. It is my hope that the end result will be the definitive, and completely accurate, catalog of the entire Westlake lexicon.
I hope you enjoy the improved photo galleries.
This is great! Thanks much for your effort and stamina in doing this project. I’ll be checking in regularly and look forward to seeing more of the library. Bookmarked to be sure!
Jeffrey,
Thanks for the comment and your enthusiastic response to the effort. It’ll be slow going at times but I’ll keep the updates coming as often as possible.
All the best,
Pw