The best known White Circle from Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd is I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane. As noted in an earlier post the WC edition is the first paperback edition anywhere but within a few months New American Library (NAL) published it's Signet edition. This book is one of the most successful paperbacks of all time with an average of two printings a year for the next forty years. It remains in print as part of an omnibus of Spillane novels. Here we'll look at some of those printings as well as the first British. The scene illustrated on that first WC edition has been interpreted by various artists for many years - likely the longest lived series in paperback history.
White Circle 384 (1948) - artist unknown
NAL Signet 699 1st printing (December 1948) artist unknown
Arthur Barker 1st British (1952) - artist unknown
NAL Signet 699 6th Canadian printing (April 1957) Art by Barye Phillips
NAL Signet S1775 50th printing (March 1960) - Autographed art by James Avati
NAL Signet D2070 54th printing (January 1964) artist unknown
NAL Signet AE6592 78th printing [undated but 1989] Art by Barye Phillips
