Everyman's Library 1991 - 2022

When Everyman's Library was reborn in 1991 there were only "classics" - Everyman's Library was a library of classics. New series were added that were still under the Everyman's umbrella, but were distinctly different - Children's Classics, then the Pocket Poets series, and then, at some point the US publisher decided to split the classics into two branches, "Classics" and "Contemporary Classics". Contemporary Classics begin at roughly the start of the first world war.

The main distinction between the Classics and Contemporary Classics in in the jacket design. Contemporary Classics usually have a photograph of the author on the cover, but there are exceptions to this. There are a few titles that by date must logically be considered part of the Contemporary side of the Classics, but went out of prints before the period when the publisher began updating their covers. And there are a few where the cover is painting, and definitely not a portrait of the author, such as Lawrence's Women in Love and George MacDonald Fraser's three Flashman novels. Updated jackets for the main line of classics are usually reproductions of paintings. And there are exceptions to that as well - the Edith Wharton book covers are photographics portraits.

I count, through the end of 2022, 169 titles that can be included as "Contemporary Classics". The list is being activly expanded. Six new titles were published in 2002. There were just two in 2021, but there were seven in 2019. There seem to be a few every year. There are twelve titles for which I can not find a UK edition. Since these books all have Everyman Library numbers their UK ISBN can be predicted. Since searching by ISBN is quite reliable, it seems highly likely they never were published by the UK Publisher. The titles are:

• Cain. The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, Mildred Pierce, and Selected Stories. No. 267.
• Cather. Death Comes for the Archbishop. No. 89.
• Didion. We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live. Collected Nonfiction. No. 304.
• Forster. A Room with a View, Where Angels Fear to Tread. No. 340.
• Frank. The Diary of a Young Girl. No. 333.
• Herr. Dispatches. No. 318.
• Kingston. The Woman Warrior, China Men. No. 285.
• Mann. Death in Venice And Other Stories. No. 47.
• Maugham. The Skeptical Romancer. Selected Travel Writing. No. 324.
• Naipaul. Collected Short Fiction. No. 334.
• Plath. The Bell Jar. No. 212.
• du Maurier. Rebecca. No. 381.

There are fewer contemporary classics for which a US edition can not be identified.

• Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury. No. 69.
• 1993 Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms. No. 149.
• Hemingway. Collected Stories. No. 187.
• Levi. If This Be Man; The Truce. No. 222.
• Mann. Collected Stories. No. 196.
• Yeats. The Poems. No. 103.

In most these cases it seems reasonable to assume that they were not published on one side of the Atlantic or the other due to copyright reasons.