The Flame And The Flower, by Kathleen Woodiwiss

The Flame And The Flower: Its pivotal place in romance history, how to identify first printings, and an edition commonly identified as a “signed” that does not have Woodiwiss’s original signature

When The Flame And The Flower was published in 1972, nothing quite like it had ever appeared before and it was a sensation. A mass market paperback original at over 400 pages and featuring a continent-hopping 19^th century heroine whose sexual encounters were featured on-page, it was sold in all the places, like drug and grocery stores, romance readers had traditionally found the shorter, chaste gothic and category romances. By the mid-1970s it had sold at least one million copies. Despite the story and writing style being dated, it remains in print today.

Much has been written and discussed about its problematic elements, but there’s no denying its direct influence on the explosion of historical and erotic romances that ensued, beginning in the mid-1970s and continuing to this day. It revolutionized romance publishing, set the standard for readers’ expectations for historical feature-length romance, and opened the door to a world in which readers could experience heat with their happily ever after.

Copies with the original 1972 cover art are relatively plentiful, but first printings can be tricky to find and identify, even though there were supposedly 500,000 copies of them! Here are the three elements that must be present for a copy to be a first printing:

1. Original cover art
2. “TREMENDOUS!” in the flame on the cover
3. “First Avon Printing, April, 1972” on copyright page with no mention of any other printing number underneath this

It’s important to note that for the first several printings after the first, the word “TREMENDOUS!” continues to appear in the flame. However, on the copyright page it will specify “Second Printing” or “Third Printing.” I’m not yet sure at exactly which printing number the words in the flame changed to “Nearly one million copies in print!” The next cover change is “Over one million copies in print!” in the flame. Sometime in the later 70s, at a printing number I haven’t yet identified, the cover art changed completely to feature a new embracing couple and a lavender background. This is the cover design that appears on the first hardcover book club edition.

Facsimile Signature PSA

In 1975, Avon published a trade paperback edition of The Flame And The Flower under the Equinox imprint. This edition has a red background with the original illustration but without the flame. There appear to be two printings of this edition, each identified as “First” or “Second Equinox printing” on the copyright page. In all copies I’ve seen of both printings, there is what appears to be Woodiwiss’s signature at an angle on the lower half of the flyleaf (the blank page at the front of the book) — a place where it was common for her to sign. However, in this edition, the signature is a facsimile appearing in all copies of the book rather than Woodiwiss’s original signature.

Almost every time I’ve seen the edition for sale online, it’s described as “signed by Woodiwiss” and priced at a premium. This likely isn’t a deliberate misrepresentation by amateur booksellers but simply that they don’t know any better. I didn’t discover the signature was reproduced until I received the copy I’d purchased (at a premium!) and had a chance to do up close comparisons.

This edition remains interesting as an artifact of the phenomenon of this title and of romance publishing from this era, and it is less common than the mass market printings with the white background and the flame. I’m happy to have my copy, but I wouldn’t have paid $40 for it had I known the truth. This edition should not be priced at a premium because of the facsimile signature. My hope is that sellers will discover this information here or elsewhere and describe their copies accurately, and that buyers will now have the information to know exactly what they’re purchasing. This example also provides a compelling reason to purchase from knowledgeable and experienced booksellers whenever possible.