Penguin Popular Classics by David Pearson

This is the first in a series of ‘housekeeping’ posts in which I will show a number of recent series from Penguin that I haven’t yet blogged here, either because they came out before blogs existed (or at least before I had this blog), or simply because I haven’t had the time.

First up today are the latest covers for the Popular Classics from Penguin UK, designed by David Pearson and released in 2007. A little bit of retro magic, priced at £2 each, but not available in Canada.

This is just a small sampling of the titles available with this design (you get the jist, though). I think they ended up reiussing something like 120 of the old Popular Classics with this new/old cover design. For more info see:

• David Pearson
• We Made This
• Amazon UK

Random House Donald Antrim

I’m running the English-language section of the festival bookshop at of this year’s Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival, and as I was setting up the tables earlier today, I came across a rare American cover design that wasn’t utterly offensive. These covers were done up by Random House USA for their 2001 Vintage editions of two Donald Antrim novels.

Bloomsbury UK Patricia Highsmith (bis)

Following on from an earlier post about forthcoming titles in the Patricia Highsmith paperback edition from Blooomsbury UK, here are the original twelve covers from the same series, issued from February 2005 to May 2007.

As usual, these are not available in Canada.

Boy’s Own Books [Series 2]

Following on from the first series of Boy’s Own Books, a second series of 6 titles has been announced by Penguin UK, with new cover designs from Coralie Bickford-Smith. These are due to be published on 29 May 2008 in Britain and 29 July 2008 in Canada.

[Click on a cover for the full size image]

The spirit of Boy’s Own lives on!

When you consider that they’ll sell for £7.99 in Britain and only $10.99 in Canada, how can I afford not to buy them all?

Penguin UK Sherlock Holmes

A couple of weeks ago, Penguin UK issued a new paperback edition of Sherlock Holmes in the Red Classics series, designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith. Surprisingly, most of them have already been released in Canada, and the entire series will be available over here as of 1st May 2008.

[Click on a cover for the full size image]

The designer had the following to say about the concept:

Many people will have a fixed set of ideas about Holmes and I wanted to confound these expectations and show that there’s more to the character. The vibrant, two-tone covers use typefaces that evoke the Victorian era and an early cinema poster aesthetic emphasises the adventure and excitement of the stories.

I gotta say, at $10.99 each (which is a good price when you consider that they sell for £6.99 in Britain), these look like a heck of a lot of fun!

Penguin UK John Wyndham

Penguin UK paperback editions of John Wyndham, the only science fiction writer I have ever read.

[Click on a cover for the full size image]

Bloomsbury UK Patricia Highsmith

The first three cover designs for the new paperback editions of Patricia Highsmith from Bloomsbury UK, to be published from October 2008 onwards. The original twelve cover designs from this series can be found here.

They’re à la fois retro and modern, and I think they’re just brilliant. But then again, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have posted them here, would I?

HarperCollins UK Perennial Collection by Petra Borner

Last month, HarperCollins UK launched The Perennial Collection, a new series of modern classics for which Petra Borner has designed a series of brilliant covers. Presumably, all of the lush vegetation is a reference to the horticultural meaning of the word perennial.

[Click on a cover for the full size image]

The coolest thing about these designs is that they are actually one big illustration that was then divided up into fifteen different book covers, as seen in this example (click for a much larger format):

The idea is clever, and the covers are beautiful. I love it! If only they were available in Canada…

My Personal Blog

Several months ago, I abandoned my personal blog at Market Snodsbury Grammar school, due to technical problems with Blogger, compounded by my propensity to be easily discouraged. After a long struggle in the trenches of CSS and HTML, I’ve decided to have another go, and to see if I can keep it up for more than a couple of months this time. The blog has no particular focus; it is merely an outlet for me to randomly jot down ce qui me passe par la tête. That being said, my bibliophile and europhile (I’ve a keen interest in all things British, French, German and Scandinavian) tendancies, as well as my interest indie music, will likely play a large part in the proceedings. Book design will inevitably crop up as well, albeit indirectly.

While I struggle to come up with something interesting to say over there, this blog will continue as before.

Maigret Part 3: Zwarte Beertjes Maigret by Dick Bruna

Georges Simenon’s Maigret: Part 1    Part 2    Part 3

Best known for having created Miffy, the loveable bunny rabbit, Dick Bruna is also responible for some of the snazziest paperback cover designs in the history of publishing. Working for his family’s publishing firm in the 1960s, he designed hundreds of emblematic covers for the Zwarte Beertjes (translation: Black Bears) crime imprint. Presented below is a selection of some of my favourite covers that he designed for the Dutch editions of Maigret from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

Notice the branding, with the (nearly) omnipresent pipe and bear identifying the series and imprint respectively.

Further reading:

In 2004, Koichi Yanagimoto compiled what appears to be a complete illustrated catalogue of Bruna’s work for Zwarte Beertjes (front and back covers below), including novels from other series including The Saint, OSS 117, De Schaduw and Francis Coplan. It would seem that this book is out of print, so if anyone knows where I might find a copy I would be much obliged.

More of his Simenon covers can be found online at BoekenWebsite and De Boekenplank, and many more cover images from all series at utrecht.jp and The World of Kane. There have also been Dick Bruna exhibitions held in Tokyo, Rotterdam and Britain (Manchester, Newcastle, London, Edinburgh), and there’s now a Dick Bruna Museum in his hometown of Utrecht.

That’s all well and good, but the best way to satisfy one’s appetite for Dick Bruna book design must surely be Retrobook, a website which will sell you an original, vintage Dick Bruna designed Zwarte Beertjes paperback for only EUR 5.00 a pop. Brilliant!

Georges Simenon’s Maigret: Part 1    Part 2    Part 3