In the 1950s and 60s, my grandparents bought and read loads of paperbacks including the iconic rororo ones with the cloth strip round the spine - easy to spot on any shelf. Their collection of several hundred volumes of this series still resides in the house where they lived in the 1960s through to the 1980s, but in the last few years I was worried it might go awol and therefore started building a collection of my own with the rororo paperbacks I found at street libraries in Düsseldorf and further afield. I just love the cover designs.
My grandparents left a typescript list of their collection (up to number 5,000 which must have been in the 70s and a while after they stopped using the cloth backs), and my collection is now reaching the point where I have to produce a list too, such as not to lose the overview. I'll note the date when it was first published, and also if my copy is a first edition. Where my collection overlaps with that of my grandparents, I put the number in bold (there's not that much overlap).
So here's the family portrait (in numerical order):
(compare and contrast with the photos of my grandparents' collection below)
... and here's the list:
__4 Kurt Tucholsky: Schloss Gripsholm (first published May 1950)
_11 Graham Greene: Orientexpress (9/1950)
_25 Betty McDonald: Das Ei und ich (first ed. 3/1951)
_29 Honore de Balzac: Die Frau von dreissig Jahren (first ed. 5/1951)
_36 Winston S. Churchill: Weltabenteuer im Dienst (8/1951) Second printing Sept. 1952, so Churchill was still alive when this translation of his memoir was printed, sold and possibly read. Signed illegibly, could be U. or W. Mertens.
_37-38 Theodore Dreiser: Eine amerikanische Tragödie (first ed. 10/1951)
_39/40 AJ Cronin: Die Zitadelle (first ed. 11/1951)
_41 Pearl S. Buck: Ostwind-Westwind (9/1951)
_42 R.G. Waldeck: Venus am Abendhimmel (12/1951)
_50 rororoTucholsky (3/1952) - a selection of Tucholsky's writings obviously in celebration of the 50th volume, in just two years.
_53 Gabor von Vaszary: Sie (5/1952)
_62 Frank Thiess: Stürmischer Frühling (9/1952)
_65 Allen Roy Evans: Der Zug der Renntiere (10/1952)
_70 Bruno Frank: Cervantes (12/1952)
_75 Graham Greene: Ein Sohn Englands (first ed. 2/1953)
_89 Gabor von Vaszary: Wenn man Freunde hat, Pariser Geschichten (8/1953)
_92 Nancy Mitford: Liebe eisgekühlt (first ed. 9/1953)
117 Sinclair Lewis: Benzinstation (Free air) (first ed. 7/1954)
120 Colette: Die Fessel (8/1954)
127 AJ Cronin: Der spanische Gärtner (10/1954)
133 Tania Blixen: Afrika, dunkel lockende Welt (12/1954)
136 Hans Fallada: Damals bei uns daheim (1/1955)
145 Richard Mason: Denn der Wind kann nicht lesen (4/1955)
147 Arthur Miller: Brennpunkt (first ed. 5/1955)
151 Jean Duché: Drei unter einem Dach (6/1955)
170 Wolfgang Borchert: Draußen vor der Tür (1/1956)
175 Mascha Kaléko: Das lyrische Stenogrammheft (first ed. 2/1956)
176 Richard Gordon: Aber Herr Doktor! (3/1956)
BR>179/180 Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (first ed. 1956)
192 Alain Fournier: Der große Kamerad (first ed. 8/1956) - Le grand Meaulnes
195 Pierre Boulle: Die Brücke am Kwai (9/1956)
197 Damon Runyon: Schwere Jungen, leichte Mädchen (first ed. 9/1956)
201 Friedrich Sieburg: Blick durchs Fenster (11/1956)
212 Jean Hougron: Das Mädchen von Saigon (first ed. 2/1957)
215 G. Guareschi: Don Camillo und Peppone (3/1957)
225 Heinrich Spoerl: wenn wir alle Engel wären (6/1957)
231 G. Guareschi: Don Camillo und seine Herde (8/1957)
233 Richard Gordon: Hilfe! Der Doktor kommt (9/1957)
234 Aubrey Menen: Eine unmoderne Frau (first ed. 9/1957)
235 L. Bemelmans: Incognito durch Frankreich und Paris (first ed. 10/1957) This is from the author of the Madeline books for children - as I'm a great fan of these, I am tempted to go and find the English original: How to travel incognito.
248 Peter Fleming: Brasilianisches Abenteuer (first ed. 1/1958)
251 Allen Roy Evans: Wind über weißen Wegen (first ed. 2/1958)
285/286 Jules Romain: Der Gott des Fleisches (first ed. 11/1958
290 Allen Roy Evans: Ein glückliches Paar (first ed. 12/1958)
295 Richard Gordon: Käpt'n Ebbs, Seebär und Salonlöwe (first ed. 1/1959)
305 Pierre Boulle: Die Kehrseite der Medaille (first ed. 4/1959)
306 Erich Kuby: das ist des Deutschen Vaterland (first ed. 4/1959)
325-326 Richard Mason: Suzie Wong (9/1959)
330 Leo Slezak: Der Wortbruch (first ed. 10/1959)
337 Richard Mason: Schatten über den Blauen Bergen (12/1959)
339 Marcel Ayme: Der Mann, der durch die Wand gehen konnte (first ed. 12/1959)
359 J. Mario Simmel: Affäre Nina B. (first ed. 5/1960) Simmel's rather works were popular in the 20th century but considered too low-brow in my family, but my grandparents had this one too, so maybe it was one of the very few by this author that were considered acceptable.
373 Colette: Duett (first ed. 6/1960)
376 AJ Cronin: Das Licht (first ed. 9/1960) 359, 373 and this one include an ad for cigarettes at the front!
448 Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Der Verdacht (first ed. 10/1961)
UPDATE 24.9. Added three titles found on my latest visit, numbers 39/40, 50 and 197. The first two also present in my grandparents' collection I never liked the way they designed the double volume to look like two books.
UPDATE 25.2.2024 Added four titles: 41, 65, 285/286, 339
UPDATE 23.5.2024 Only found two this time, numbers 117 and 195
UPDATE 26.8.2024 I'm beginning to worry that these books may be dying out - only found two this time, namely number 41, which I already had, and 325-326.
UPDATE 9.5.2025 After slim pickings in November and February, May is looking better, so I've now added the whole lot accumulated since last August.
UPDATE 10.8.2025 Another 6 titles added - naturally, the overlap with my grandparents' collection is increasing over time. Also, some of these books are falling apart, I need to investigate how best to restore them.
UPDATE 13.8.2025 Added five new titles (six numbers as there is a double issue 37/38 among them) discovered this week and it turns out all of them are first editions. What a lucky streak. Later editions likely explain the thinning out of my list from the first hundred (17 titles) to the fourth (9 titles). Assuming they stopped using the cloth backs shortly after 448, the higher numbers have had less time to be re-issued in the same outfit than the earlier ones. (And I'm ignoring reissues of early numbers if they don't have the cloth.)
Here are some from my grandparents' collection:
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