Gold Medal 643 - Canadian Printing

The second Gold Medal I Am Legend was also printed north of the border in Canada in 1956. Easily confused with the American second printing, it is quite easy to determine if you have a Canadian edition.

The clue on the front cover is the price - 35¢ instead of the 25¢ of the American edition.


The copyright page does not reference that the book is a second printing, however it does contain the line: PRINTED IN CANADA.


Finally, the back cover also includes the notation: LITHOGRAPHED IN CANADA.

Gold Medal 643 - Second Big Printing!

After Gold Medal published Matheson's follow-up novel The Shrinking Man in 1956, they brought I Am Legend back into print. The cover trumpeted the fact that this was the 'Second Big Printing!'

Internally, there were a few other modifications from the first printing. Cover artist Stan Meltzoff's name was dropped from the title page, and the last page lost the notation about this never having been a book before.

Several years back I picked up a pristine copy of the book with a label on the inside front cover designating it as a file copy from the printer. Whether it truly was or not, it's an amazingly sharp copy for a 40+ year old paperback.