Two Solitudes Part III

In the first of the posts on the Canadian novel Two Solitudes I highlighted the new edition from McGill-Queen's University Press. McGill holds Hugh MacLennan's archives, including this correspondence between him and Margaret Paull about Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada's paperback editions of two of his novels.

Did Collins eventually cut 39 pages? A quick comparison of the two editions shows that the foreword and chapter 39 are missing. But these are 3 or 4 pages. Only a close reading will establish if more is cut. The Collins's edition is 320 pages, the maximum they published in this series.

White Circle CD540 - 1952

McGill-Queen's Press - 2018

Two Solitudes Part II

In Part I I discussed the new edition of Canadian author Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes from McGill-Queen's University Press. One of the editions discussed in the introduction is a 1951 abridgement done for the high school market. Not discussed is another abridgement from 1945. Omnibook Magazine was an American digest in which four current books were abridged. Interestingly they were authorized and in the "Author's Own Words." I estimate 75% to 80% has been cut.

Omnibook Magazine Vol 7 #4, March 1945

Two Solitudes Part I

One of the best known Canadian mid-century novels, Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes, is now back in print thanks to McGill-Queen's University Press. An aspect I like is the reproduction of the covers of a number of editions, including the first paperback from Wm. Collins & Sons Co. Canada. This edition is discussed in the introduction.

Collins published the hardcover edition in early 1945 but waited seven years to get out the paperback version. This delay would not happen today. With a Chateau Frontenac-like building in the background, both suggest the story takes place in Quebec City, rather than Montreal.

White Circle C.D.540 - 1952

White Circle C.D.540 back

148 and Counting

The British North American Act, enacted March 29, 1867 by the British Parliament, provided for Confederation of the three British North American colonies, Canada (Upper and Lower), Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Now much amended as the Constitution Act, 1867, it was proclaimed into law on July 1, 1867 and Canada was born. The first official birthday celebration was in 1868, July 1 being named Dominion Day in 1879 and Canada Day in 1982.

I work at an institution that was founded in one of the BNA colonies, Nova Scotia, 78 years before Confederation - the University of King's College. One of our early graduates (1815) was Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865) whose The Clockmaker was published in 1836 by Joseph Howe later a premier of Nova Scotia. Still in print the latest edition is from Peterborough's Broadview Press. Joining Sam Slick is Canadian author Hugh MacLennan's Barometer Rising which takes place in 1917 Halifax. 

 

 

 

White Circle C.D. 529 - 1952

 

White Circle C.D. 529 - back

Halifax Part I

This past December 6 was the 94th anniversary of the Halifax Explosion. Hugh MacLennan's 1941 novel about the explosion was published by New York's Duell, Sloan & Pearce. The Canadian edition was published in hardcover by Toronto's Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd in 1941 and in paperback in 1943 and 1952. The 1952 version has an illustration with one identifiable Halifax landmark, the Town Clock on Citadel Hill, seen through the window at middle right.

But there is a problem with the illustration which shows the shipbuilder's office at least on the same level as the top of the clock if not higher. As the photographs below show this wouldn't have been possible since the only spot on higher ground than the clock is Fort George behind it on Citadel Hill.

White circle C.D. 529 - 1952

Halifax Town Clock

Fort George with Town Clock 

Collins White Circle Artists Part XV - Margaret Paull (4)

Parts I, II and III presented the first 20 of the 67 signed covers that Margaret Paull did for the White Circle imprint published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. Here are four more from 1944 plus one of her dust jackets for a Collins's hard cover. Paull was an employee of Collins and as such was in a very uncommon position. Most cover artists of the day were free lance commercial artists whose work might be seen largely with one publisher but also with others.

Paull's dust jacket is for one of Hugh MacLennan's lesser known works, The Precipice, published by Collins Canada in 1948. The cover is described in a Quill & Quire (November 1948, p. 17) story on Canadian dust jacket design as presenting "the contrasts between the warm if simple and humdrum life of the small Canadian town, and the bleak, skyscraper existence of the great American city." Never reprinted as a White Circle paperback, The Precipice can't have been as successful as Two Solitudes and Barometer Rising. The art is unattributed in the book.

White Circle 98

White Circle 112

White Circle 113

White Circle 114

Where Did the White Circles Come From? Part I

Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada  Ltd. published 429 titles in their White Circle imprint from 1942 to 1952. All but 10 were reprints. Where did Collins find their books to reprint? Some three-quarters were originally published by the Scottish-English parent company Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. The rest came from over 40 publishers including five reprints of their own books originally published in hard cover:

Thorn-apple Tree by Grace Campbell (first edition 1942), Serpent's Tooth by Isabelle Hughes (1947), Storm Below by Hugh Garner (1949), A Pocketful of Canada by John D. Robins (1948) and Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan (1945). A Pocketful of Canada was published twice in paperback - outside of the WC line in 1948 and as a WC in 1952. The WC version is 32 pages shorter and has slightly different contents.

White Circle 310 - 1947

White Circle CD 412 -1949

White Circle CD 451 - 1950

White Circle C.D. 531 - 1952

1948

White Circle C.D. 540 - 1952