Back in March 2021, librarian HeatherS emailed us about the Classics of Romance hardcover edition:
I purchased this signed hardcover copy of Skye O’Malley by Bertrice Small about 3 years ago in a used bookstore. It was published in 1996. I thought it was an interesting and unusual edition and think it might have been a special order-by-mail book club of some kind.
Any help you or the community can give me would be much appreciated. I’m sure this isn’t the only copy out there!
Well, get ready, we have an update from Heather!
I wanted to follow up with you on the Classics of Romance HaBO you posted for me a while back.
I haven’t been able to find out anything else about the line yet, but I have enlisted the Browne Popular Culture Library for aid.
I got the two books mentioned in the comments, so now I have 3 titles total.
Pink ribbon bookmarks and inset cover art for all, though only the original Bertrice Small is signed.
The search for info and/or more books in this series continues!
Are you ready for some pictures? 
They look like a cross between romances and library reference books or bound periodical collections.
But hot diggity, we have stepbacks.
So! Much! MULLET!
Aren’t those cool? I am so curious to know if more were made.
I asked Heather if she’d heard of any others in the series, and she says they’re very hard to find: “I haven’t been able to find anything about them at all. It’s like they never existed… but they do, since they’re on my bookshelf. They aren’t in WorldCat or Goodreads, either.”
Oooh, mysterious edition is mysterious-er!
It also strikes me as very interesting that many of the Kickstarters of custom or collector’s editions of romances (I did a podcast about this with Katee Robert and Lucy Eden) are producing intricate and elegant hardcovers like these.
I know the hard bound editions of much loved books are very popular with YA readers, especially in special collector’s boxes or subscription services, too. (And don’t get me started on how much I loved the art for the Subterranean Press Murderbot edition).
What romance would you want a collector’s edition of?
Oh my lord, those are so SNAZZY! I hope the Bitchery can unravel the mystery.
Seeing the Kinsale makes me think I’d want a miniature bound edition of Midsummer Moon, with some sort of hedgehog pattern in gold embossed in the leather. And perhaps a collection of Virginia Kantra’s Children of the Sea novels, since they were the first romances (other than 19th century classics) I ever read and they seem, alas, to be largely forgotten.
Where are the stepbacks from? The one for Seize the Fire is the stepback from the original Avon Edition. I don’t think art usually travels to different publishers.
Laura Kinsale shows it here as “Old Covers”: https://web.archive.org/web/20100209012440/http://www.laurakinsale.com/books/detail/seize-the-fire
I have some Doubleday Romance Library editions – https://www.biblio.com/book/doubleday-romance-library-escape-happiness-varleigh/d/83097705 – and some Romance Treasury editions – https://www.abebooks.com/9780919860032/Romance-Treasury-Enchanted-Island-Kindled-0919860036/plp – that I’ve picked up at various used book sales. They all look similar to these when the dust jackets are removed though I don’t remember them having color photos. https://www.biblio.com/book/romance-treasury-kingfisher-morning-springs-love/d/907661629?aid=frg&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1ZDs4f7M_QIV1G1vBB0UCwNgEAkYAyABEgJuxvD_BwE
(FYI, these are random examples from the web, not listings by me.)
I realllly wanted that Murderbot special edition but couldn’t justify the expense.
I a link heavy comment that’s gone to moderation.
@WS: Since I can’t find any information on the series anywhere outside of the books themselves, it’s hard to say, but copyright info in the books does indicate they were printed with permission of the original publishers. These editions were all published in 1995/96. I might have to reach out to the publishers and see if they have any record of it.
*posted, obviously
There’s an ad above “Add Your Comments” that I clicked on and got a generic page for. It’s rotating too fast for me to read the address for the buy link. Help?
@WS: The stepback for “The Flame and the Flower” was also the cover art for a hardcover edition published by William Morrow and Company in 1995, per Goodreads.
The stepback for “Skye O’Malley” appears to be reproduced from the 1980 Ballantine paperback edition.
Interesting. I’ve found the Skye O’Malley art on the 1980 Ballantine edition: https://sweetsavageflame.com/book-review-skye-omalley-by-bertrice-small/
The Woodiwiss is from an Avon edition: https://www.carousell.ph/p/the-flame-and-the-flower-by-kathleen-woodiwiss-1121250123/
They would have had to separately license the art, since it would have belonged to those publishing houses.
(Ballantine and Avon are I think owned by different large groups. If the art had all been from Avon editions, say, it would have struck me as likely they were really special editions contracted by Avon. But it looks like that’s a dead end, also.)
(Oops, sorry for duplication. I see I was searching and typing while you were replying.)
Those are very cool!
Penny Reid is about to launch 10th Anniversary Special Editions of her amazing Knitting in the City Series with gorgeous Art Deco Covers.
Here’s a Ballentine hardcover from 1980. The cover matches the picture inside the book from the previous 2021 post. Ballentine is in NY and was acquired by Random House in the 70s (per wikipedia). PRH has a publishing site in Shelton, CT (per google). Perhaps Classics of Romance was a special imprint of Ballantine? Random reach.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/skye-omalley-the-list-book-in-the-omalley-series/7495132/all-editions/?resultid=1b26942e-ffec-41b3-827b-b3041584510e
this 1995 Hardcover is William Morrow & Co, which along with Avon, was sold by Hearst to HarperCollins. Scroll down for the Purple Hardcover. The Avon from 2000 has a matching cover.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-flame-and-the-flower_kathleen-e-woodiwiss/268066/all-editions/?resultid=d7cf430a-ca77-4efb-bfb6-76e633f4b4cf
probably means nothing
This is so cool! It reminds me of what Easton Press puts out, but I don’t think these are Easton editions.
These made my day – especially the comment “so much mullet!” Thanks for sharing!!!
My husband the librarian suggested looking in the publisher itself. The info might only exist in a corporate archive.