Calvert Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd.

Little is known for certain about Calvert Publishing, a major publisher of romance, war and crime pulp novels until about 1971. Its most known novel series was Carl Dekker (1951-1965). Cavert also produced the long-running western pulp series, A Six-Gun Western, and the brief Sports Shorts.

This publisher also produced comics for about a decade in the fifties, These included US reprints and original Australian work. Its reprints included some 30 titles with material from US publishers Ace, ACG, Atlas/Marvel, Dell, EC, Harle and Youthful, as well as newspaper strip reprints such as Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates.

Calvert's earliest local work was K.O. Comics, soon renamed Kayo Comic and followed up by the similar Trig Matson Comic. The company also published long runs of Virgil Reilly's Silver Flash and Monty Wedd's Captain Justice. In the second half of the fifties, it published romance one-shot comics featuring the work of Moira Bertram, sometimes alongside US reprints and other Australian original work.

Calvert's Atomic Attack comic series was banned in Queensland by the State Literature Board of Review on 28 August 1954. In July 1956, the Board banned Calvert's romance one-shot, Stolen Dreams.

Calvert Publishing Co. Pty. Limited was initially registered on 11 May 1949 'to carry on the business of proprietors and publishers of newspapers, journals, magazines and books, etc.' Its initial shareholders were Percy N. Lansdown and Geraldine Lansdown. (https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-806333257)

It is also reported to have been founded by Denny White in 1951, a former Catalina flying boat pilot during the war in the Pacific. He was a Sydney accountant who seems to have run Calvert as a profitable side-line. In 1950, White was commissioning work from pulp writer Gordon Bleeck who is credited predominanly in Horwitz but also Calvert and other publishers' pulps at that time.

The company name appears to have been based on its official address, which is listed in government registration documents as 26 Calvert Avenue, Killara between at least December 1955 and December 1968 [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/220362825].

By 1955, it seems to have become an imprint of Horwitz. An advertisement in the trade magazine Newspaper News, 2 May 1955, referenced Calvert Publishing Co. Pty. Ltd as one of six companies amalgamated to form the new holding company, Horwitz Publications Inc. Pty.

Despite reports that the company ceased publishing in 1961, it was included on the register of distributors of printed matter (established under the Commonwealth Obscene and Indecent Publications Act) until at least November 1968.

By notice in the Commonwealth Gazette, it was dissolved as a company on 30 January 1990 and 13 February 1990. It was again (listed as CAN 000 079 121) formally dissolved on 27 February 1992. It may not be relevant for Calvert, but Horwitz property Grahame Book Company Pty Ltd was also deregistered at the same time in 1990.