Better scans from LHJ!

A few weeks ago, I posted about the Nine Coaches Waiting condensation that was published in Ladies Home Journal in 1958. I'd scanned some images from a microfilm copy, and the quality was really sad. I have a wonderful mother who loves to shop online (she can find anything!) and who also loves Mary Stewart. So I was surprised by a package on my stoop -- a print copy of the September 1958 Ladies Home Journal. Yay! Here are much improved scans (in color!). They're so pretty.






The table of contents page has a little biography of Mary Stewart. It says that in her spare time she "directs college plays and exercises race horses." I knew about her passion for drama, but exercising race horses? So glamorous! I guess that's why The Ivy Tree's horse-whisperer heroine seems so authentic.


Thanks, Mama!!

Nine Coaches Waiting in Ladies Home Journal, 1958

Many of Mary Stewart's novels were condensed and published in women's magazines around the time that the novels were first published. Though this sort of thing is done infrequently now, back in the day I think it was a fairly common way to publicize a new book by a well-known author. I was unable to find print copies of any of them (I guess women's magazines weren't considered worthy of preservation), but my local university library has many of them on microfilm.


The image above is the illustration by Harry Anderson that accompanied the condensation of Nine Coaches Waiting in the September 1958 issue of Ladies Home Journal. I'm sorry the quality isn't great -- the microfilm was black and white and a bit fuzzy. But it's a lovely picture. It must depict the scene when Linda is in Madame de Valmy's room trying on the ballgown she'd made. Raoul finds her there and they have a nice little interlude. ;)

I pushed away from him at last, both hands against his chest. "But Raoul, why?"
"What d'you mean why?"
"Why me? Your father called me 'Jane Eyre,' and he wasn't far wrong. And you--you could have anyone. So ... why?"
"Do you want to know why?" His hands turned me around to face the mirror again, holding me back against him. I could feel his heart hammering against my shoulder blade. His eyes met mind in the glass. "You don't have to be humble, ma belle. That's why."

*sigh*

The title page is below -- the typography is so, so pretty. If you click on the picture it'll take you to a larger version, though I'm not sure you'll be able to read the text. The condensation is quite long -- I think around 15 pages or so. I found it sort of odd that they decided to condense the whole thing rather than just print an excerpt (and who did the condensing, I wonder, and what did Mary Stewart think of it?!). It was discomfiting to read an abridged version since I'm so familiar with the original text.


I've only had time to locate this one article so far, but I'll try to scan the others soon. If anyone has an attic full of Ladies Home Journals or Good Housekeeping from the 1950s and 60s, let me know! I'd love to see color scans of these!