Condition

Collectors of mass market commodities are always concerned with condition. Top quality means rare which equals desirable which equals price. 

The dearest White Circle from Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada, I, the Jury, is a good example. Often described as rare or scare it isn't. There are always copies to be found which is not the case for many of the WCs. There are now five copies of the first printing available for purchase on the web - four on ABE, one on eBay. The prices vary from $10 to $320. One is signed by Spillane. Since Spillane would have signed his liver if presented to him this makes this copy nothing special. The only fairly priced copy is the $10.

Below are three copies. They cost $275, $40, $15 top to bottom. The condition premium is clear. Although $40 is a low price for a copy in this condition.



White Circle and Spillane Part II

Firsts The Book Collectors Magazine has been in business for 20 years. Only once has a vintage Canadian paperback been mentioned in an article. The June 1996 Firsts' cover article is "Collecting Mickey Spillane". Along with the American paperbacks of Spillane's first seven novels, the White Circle edition of I, the Jury is noted in the article as well as the accompanying checklist of editions. Normally only the first editions of books (usually hardcover) are discussed in Firsts as paperback reprints have no collecting value for most book collectors. But the significance of the hugely successful Spillane paperback reprints make them collectible. To quote the article -

"the publishing pattern [of the first six books] was basically the same as for I, the Jury: small first printings (about 7,500 each) and a few reprints followed by multiple printings in paperback and huge sales. Signet issued a 2.5 million copy reprint of The Big Kill [the fifth book], at the time the largest printing in paperback history."

The price for the White Circle edition in the checklist is $100 - $250. This is still a good price range. The book is not rare. There are 13 copies for sale on ABE, seven of the first printing ranging in price from $15 to two copies at $300. The condition of the $300 copies do not support that price. The $15 is very fair for a poor but complete copy.

Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd published its White Circle imprint from 1942 until 1952. In late 1948 I, the Jury was published as CD384. A second printing followed in 1949. Note that the cover colours are slightly different on the reprint. The reprint is clearly marked as such on the copyright page so one doesn't need to compare the cover colours to establish the printing. There is a dealer on line who notes a third printing which doesn't exist. Unfortunately this has found its way into Holroyd's Paperback Prices and Checklist. Even the Firsts article talks about "later printings."

White Circle CD384

White Circle CD384 second printing

Canadian Paperbacks - Other Editions Part IV

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

Collins White Circle Artists - Part VI

I've mentioned in a few posts that Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. published 459 books in their White Circle imprint from 1942 until 1952. Three books (50, 51 and 99) had a new cover when reprinted and two books had the same cover (210 and 532 which was a new edition of 210). So there were 461 covers in the imprint. Fifty-two were text-only covers and 33 were photo-only covers, leaving 376 that were illustrated. The artist is known for approximately 1/3 of the illustrated covers.

To date I've noted the work of four artists for the imprint and in this post I'll start commenting on the unknown artists. The first one is the artist on the best known WC cover, I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane. Some others he/she did are easily identified.

White Circle CD384

White Circle 344

White Circle CD360

White Circle CD365

White Circle CD366

White Circle CD371

White Circle CD381

White Circle CD383

White Circle and Spillane - Tough, Torrid, Terrific!

Between 1942 and 1952 Wm. Collins Canada published 459 of their White Circle paperback imprint. Some of these were new editions of books published earlier in the series leaving 429 published titles. By far the best known of the 429 White Circles is CD384, Mickey Spillane's I, the Jury. The artist is unknown.

This is the first paperback edition of Spillane's first and best known book, published in 1947. The White Circle edition was published in late 1948 and precedes the American edition, New American Library's (NAL) Signet #699, by a couple of months. The NAL edition is famous for the impact it had on publishing. The hardcover had sold a few thousands of copies but the NAL paperback sold 2,000,000 in two years. NAL then went on to publish in paperback the rest of Spillane's novels in the early fifties with 17,000,000 in total sold by 1953 (figures from Kenneth Davis, Two-Bit Culture (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), p. 180.) These figures shocked the cultural critics of the day and amazed the publishers.

"But the law couldn't break an arm, or shove his teeth in with the muzzle of a gun to remind him that he wasn't fooling. Mike could - and did. Among the suspects were a former gangster gone society, a peculiar kid he was putting through college, a beautiful and sexy psychiatrist, a subtle nymphomaniac with a normal twin sister, a cured drug addict, and a likable moron who raised bees."

The White Circle was reprinted in 1949 and therefore sold a bit better than most of the titles. Still sales were likely no more than 40,000. It was the only Spillane White Circle. The Canadian market thereafter was covered by Canadian editions of NAL Signets. The sixth edition from the late 1950s is below. Note that sales are now 28,000,000. The artist is Barye Phillips.