Harlequin Logo

After 61+ years Harlequin Enterprises has changed their logo. The first book in their flagship line, Harlequin Romance, with the new logo is #4213, Crown Prince, Pregnant Bride! by Raye Morgan published in January 2011. 

The "Harlequin" has been streamlined and is now white on a black background. But the diamond remains and the books remain easily identified as Harlequin. Below is an example of the new logo from April 2011 plus an early example of the original.

Harlequin Romance 4232

Harlequin 706 - December 1962

Canadian Authors Part I - Earle Birney

Who is a Canadian author? Should be a simple question to answer - someone with Canadian citizenship. But what if they've lived out of Canada for the last 40 years and write novels about Australia? Or Canada? Or lives in Canada and writes about the country they were born in, Vietnam? Or not a Canadian citizen but lives in Canada and writes about depression era Saskatchewan? Or visits Canada for six months then writes about the immigrant experience in Toronto? Does it matter where the book is published? Does any of this matter? Yes if you want to win a Canadian writing award. I'll look at these in another post.

How many Canadian authors were published by the Canadian mass market paperback publishers of the 40s and 50s? Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd's White Circle imprint published 143 authors, 16 of whom were Canadian. No doubts here - all Canadians living in Canada writing about Canadian subjects. Number of titles was 23, of a total 429. Nine were paperback originals. Here is the list:

Aitken, Kate
Allen, Ralph (ed.)
Birney, Earle
Campbell, Grace
Carter, Dyson
Conner, Ralph
Denison, Merrill
Edgar, Keith
Garner, Hugh
Montrose, David (Graham, Charles Ross)
Hughes, Isabelle
Kelley, Thomas J.
Leacock, Stephen
MacLennan, Hugh
Niven, Frederick
Robins, John D.

Here is an author who has not yet been seen in this blog - Earle Birney (1904-1995). His WC book, Turvey (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1949), won the fourth Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 1950.  Below is the WC edition plus the New Canadian Library edition. The NCL imprint from McClelland & Stewart publishes only Canadian authors.

White Circle 534 - 1952

White Circle 534 back

New Canadian Library 34 - 1963

New Canadian Library 34 back

December 1950 Part I

Eric Hutton, the editor of the December 1950 issue of National Home Monthly from Winnipeg's Home Publishing Company, made an odd choice for the lead story in this Christmas issue. "The Black Book" by Austin Cross is subtitled "Canada's Blueprint for Survival". What we hope to survive is World War III. Art Worden has a lighter story to tell later in the issue - "Your Home in 1990". One quote will show how much Canada has changed in 60 years - "Functionalism has nothing to do with abstract art, cubism and the like. It simply means good old Scottish practicability."

Milton Cronenberg (father of film director David) lists six pocket books in his book column; none from a Canadian publisher. Two December 1950 books from Harlequin Books join the National Home Monthly.

Harlequin 88

Harlequin 88 back

Harlequin 89

Harlequin 89 back

Harlequin Historical Novels Part III

In a couple of posts I discussed six of the 45 (of 481) titles that Harlequin Books published between 1949 and 1959 that were historical. Here are a couple more, both with Captain in the title.

Captain for Elizabeth by Jan Westcott (New York: Crown, 1948) and Verne Fletcher's Captain Gentleman (London: Gerald Swan, 1942) are both of a genre little seen today - Pirate novels. They're around but likely grafted on to a horror or fantasy story and/or marketed as a youth novel. Or a clear romance such as here.

Harlequin 164 - April 1952

Harlequin 164 back

Harlequin 303 - June 1954

Harlequin 303 back

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.