White Circle Twins Part I

Many of the paperbacks published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co Canada in their 1940s White Circle imprint were also published in the US. One example is Edgar Lustgarten's (1907-1978) first novel One More Unfortunate. First published as A Case to Answer in the UK (London, 1947), the American edition was renamed.

The first American paperback edition is distinguished by being one of 27 books published by Bantam from 1945 to 1949 with a dust jacket. Interesting how the DJ version cover has the same scene as the White Circle edition. Both are tamer than the original Bantam cover.

 

White Circle 374 - 1948

 

White Circle 374 back



 

Bantam 360 - February 1949

 

Bantam 360 back

 

Bantam 360 Dust jacket

Canadian Collins White Circle Collecting

Long time readers of this blog know that one of the three significant early paperback publishers in Canada was Wm. Collins Sons & Co Canada Limited. They were the earliest, starting in 1942, and by any measure the best. The  imprint was White Circle Pocket Library and 459 books were published between 1942 and 1952. But, if you are a collector of these lovely early paperbacks, you'll need to find more that 459 books to complete the collection. How many? I don't know.

At least sixty-three of the books come in two or more variants. That can be another printing or different ads or different back cover or edge stain or anything else that distinguishes one version from another. The variant total is 143. The remaining 396 books exist in one version. So there are at least 539 books a collector needs to find. But I'm sure there are some variants of which I'm not aware. So if anyone would like to help make sure there is a complete count of the books let me know and I will send lists.

Meanwhile for your viewing pleasure.

 

White Circle "P" - 1942

 

White Circle 88 - 1944

 

White Circle 208 - 1944

 

White Circle 281 - 1946

 

White Circle 329 - 1947

 

White Circle CD 411 - 1949

 

White Circle CD 471 - 1950

 

White Circle C.D. 516 - 1951