Nipper and Ngaio

I've been thinking of how to introduce a newly published book to the blog without compromising its raison d'etre. The book is The Collected Doug Wright staring Nipper, recently published by Montreal's Drawn & Quarterly which gets my vote for not only the best book published in 2009 on Canadian culture but the best book, fiction or non-fiction published last year. You need to buy and look for the second volume out this year.



The connection I found is Montreal where Doug Wright lived and worked. My blog's subtitle is Canadian paperbacks of the 40s and early 50s. This is not strictly true as paperbacks published in Quebec will rarely be seen - for the good reason that I know virtually nothing about them. But here is one published in 1950 in Montreal by La Revue Moderne in the Collection Petit Format imprint. The author is Ngaio Marsh who had eight books published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. in the White Circle imprint. Four of her "death" books are presented here. The first is 1943, the rest 1944.

White Circle 76

White Circle 113

White Circle 114

White Circle 117

Collins White Circle Artists - York Wilson Part I

This is the second in a series about cover artists for Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd.'s White Circle imprint. The first was Margaret Paull.



York Wilson was a Canadian artist who did commercial work until the late 1940s. He illustrated a number of covers for Collins in 1944 and 1945. We know this because, while he never signed his Collins work, his records (York and Lea Wilson Fonds - R4154) held at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa have a file ("Collins White Circle Pocket Novel" - Book Covers Container 10, File 20) on the work. In the file there are seven covers which I present below. In another post I'll speculate on other WC covers that, based on style, I believe he illustrated. The covers have a lightness and humour that I find appealing. The cover for Stuart Cloete's Congo Song has to be the funniest in the series.

White Circle 99 - first printing

White Circle 208

White Circle 210 - same cover used on new edition in 1952 - #532

White Circle 238

White Circle 239

White Circle 240

White Circle 241