I'll be adding to this gallery as and when I find further suitable examples, so do check back regularly for updates (although I will be posting reminders on the main blog when I update). The jackets – which are all, unless otherwise stated, from the British first edition of each book – are arranged alphabetically by designer (unless the designer is unknown, in which case they're grouped at the bottom of the page; do please leave a comment if you have any information on those ones), with links to whatever (if anything) I've written or found out about that particular title or author or cover artist – including, in many cases, full wrappers and back covers. Oh, and should you stumble upon this page in an image search and decide to "borrow" a cover or two for whatever purpose, by all means do (within reason: don't take the whole blummin' lot), but please link back to the page and to Existential Ennui. Since I went to the trouble of photographing the covers, researching them and assembling the gallery, I figure it's the least you can do.
This, then, is Existential Ennui's Beautiful British Book Jacket Design of the 1950s and 1960s. Enjoy.
UPDATE 4/4/13: Now with over 100 dust jackets!
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Eric Ayers
The John Wyndham Omnibus by John Wyndham (Michael Joseph, 1964)
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John Bance
The Cry of the Owl by Patricia Highsmith (Heinemann, 1963)
The Two Faces of January by Patricia Highsmith (Heinemann, 1964)
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Margaret Benyon
The Red and the Green by Iris Murdoch (Chatto & Windus, 1965); cover courtesy Rachel Day
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Val Biro
A Time to Kill by Geoffrey Household (Michael Joseph, 1952)
Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute (Heinemann, 1955)
A Dread of Burning by Rosemary Timperley (James Barrie, 1956); image courtesy Mike Ripley
The Dragon Tree by Victor Canning (Hodder & Stoughton, 1958)
The Burning Eye by Victor Canning (Hodder & Stoughton, 1960)
A Delivery of Furies by Victor Canning (Hodder & Stoughton, 1961)
I Would Rather Stay Poor by James Hadley Chase (Robert Hale, 1962)
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Bernard Blatch
The Quest by Frederick Karl (Heinemann, 1961)
Xenophon's Adventure by Geoffrey Household (The Bodley Head, 1961)
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S. R. Boldero
Johnny Goes South by Desmond Cory (Frederick Muller, 1959)
Kinds of Love, Kinds of Death by Tucker Coe, alias Donald E. Westlake (Souvenir Press, 1967)
Murder Among Children by Tucker Coe, alias Donald E. Westlake (Souvenir Press, 1968)
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Peter Calcott
The Naked Runner by Francis Clifford (Hodder & Stoughton, 1966)
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Chambers (First Name Unknown)
Johnny Goes North by Desmond Cory (Frederick Muller, 1956)
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Michael Dempsey
The Damsel by Richard Stark, alias Donald E. Westlake (Hodder & Stoughton, 1968); cover illustration by Ken Sequin
The Tremor of Forgery by Patricia Highsmith (Heinemann, 1969)
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Craig Dodd
The Dame by Richard Stark, alias Donald E. Westlake (Hodder & Stoughton, 1969)
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A. S. Douthwaite
The Spy's Bedside Book by Graham Greene and Hugh Greene (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957)
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John Dugan
The Mythmaker by Sarah Gainham (Arthur Barker, 1957)
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A. H. Eisner
Dead Man Falling by Desmond Cory (Frederick Muller, 1953)
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Lacey Everett
A Burnt-Out Case by Graham Greene (Heinemann, 1961)
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Kenneth Farnhill
Flush as May by P. M. Hubbard (Michael Joseph, 1963)
Picture of Millie by P. M. Hubbard (Michael Joseph, 1964)
Third Girl by Agatha Christie (Collins, 1966); cover courtesy Rachel Day
Endless Night by Agatha Christie (Collins, 1967); cover courtesy Rachel Day
By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie (Collins, 1968); cover courtesy Rachel Day
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Klim Forster
Feramontov by Desmond Cory (Frederick Muller, 1966)
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Patrick Gierth
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John Strickland Goodall
Rat Trap Island by P. M. Hubbard (Cassell, 1964)
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Charles Gorham
Towards the End of the Morning by Michael Frayn (Collins, 1967)
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Graphics Partners
The Blackbird by Richard Stark, alias Donald E. Westlake (Hodder & Stoughton, 1970)
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Donald Green
The General by C. S. Forester (Michael Joseph, 1958 re-set; first published 1936) NB: credited to "Ronald" Green on jacket flap, but "DG" initials on cover suggest it is indeed by Donald Green
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (Constable, 1959)
Most Unnatural Murder by Fiona Sinclair (Geoffrey Bles, 1965)
The Tower by P. M. Hubbard (Geoffrey Bles, 1967)
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John Heseltine
The Golden Rendezvous by Alistair MacLean (Collins, 1962); image courtesy Mike Ripley
Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean (Collins, 1963)
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Gavin Lyall
The Wrong Side of the Sky by Gavin Lyall (Hodder & Stoughton, 1961... and yes, that's correct: Lyall painted his own cover)
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Christopher Macartney-Filgate
The Stone Roses by Sarah Gainham (Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1958)
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Denis McLoughlin
The Doom-Maker by B. X. Sanborn, alias Bill S. Ballinger (T. V. Boardman, 1959)
Epitaph for a Blonde by Ian Mercer (T. V. Boardman, 1960)
The Mercenaries by Donald E. Westlake (T. V. Boardman, 1961)
The Time of Terror by Lionel White (T. V. Boardman, 1961)
Killing Time by Donald E. Westlake (T. V. Boardman, 1962)
361 by Donald E. Westlake (T. V. Boardman, 1962)
The Siamese Coup Affair by Sidney Weintraub (T. V. Boardman, 1963)
Killy by Donald E. Westlake (T. V. Boardman, 1964)
Amateur Agent by Christopher Adams, alias Kenneth Hopkins (T. V. Boardman, 1964)
The Fugitive Pigeon by Donald E. Westlake (T. V. Boardman, 1966)
The Busy Body by Donald E. Westlake (T. V. Boardman, 1966)
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M. Mohan
The Glass Cell by Patricia Highsmith (Heinemann, 1965)
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John Minton
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1952)
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Charles Mozley
The Loving Eye by William Sansom (The Hogarth Press, 1956); cover courtesy Rachel Day
The Bell by Iris Murdoch (Chatto & Windus, 1958); cover courtesy Rachel Day
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Sheila Perry
Watcher in the Shadows by Geoffrey Household (Michael Joseph, 1960); image courtesy Mike Ripley
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Bruce Petty
Pray for a Brave Heart by Helen MacInnes (Collins, 1955)
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Peter Probyn
Time is an Ambush by Francis Clifford (Hodder & Stoughton, 1962)
The Green Fields of Eden by Francis Clifford (Hodder & Stoughton, 1963)
The Hunting-Ground by Francis Clifford (Hodder & Stoughton, 1964)
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William Randell
A Question of Time by Harry Carmichael (Collins, 1958)
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Victor Reinganum
Nuncle and Other Stories by John Wain (Macmillan, 1960)
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Ian Robertson
Where Eagles Dare by Alistair MacLean (Collins, 1967)
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John Rose
H.M.S. Ulysses by Alistair MacLean (Collins, 1955); image courtesy Mike Ripley
The Watering Place of Good Peace by Geoffrey Jenkins (Collins, 1960); image courtesy Mike Ripley
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Evadne Rowan
Ti-Coyo and His Shark by Clement Richer (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1951)
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John Rowland
The Killing-Ground by Elleston Trevor (Heinemann, 1956)
On the Beach by Nevil Shute (Heinemann, 1957)
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Peter Rudland
The Tall Dark Man by Anne Chamberlain (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1955)
A Cold Coming by Mary Kelly (Secker & Warburg, 1956)
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Stephen Russ
Sometime Never by Roald Dahl (Collins, 1949)
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Brian Russell
Undertow by Desmond Cory (Frederick Muller, 1962)
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Jim Russell
Alfred Hitchcock's Sinister Spies by various (Max Reinheardt, 1967)
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Roy Sanford
The Silver Locusts (The Martian Chronicles) by Ray Bradbury (Rupert Hart-Davis, 1951)
The Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb (Hamish Hamilton, 1954)
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Derrick Sayer
Peregrination 22 by Philip Purser (Jonathan Cape, 1962); images courtesy Mike Ripley
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John Sewell
Anatomy of a Killer by Peter Rabe (Abelard-Schuman, 1960)
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Stein
A Game for the Living by Patricia Highsmith (Heinemann, 1959)
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Abis Sida Stridley
Timelock by Desmond Cory (Frederick Muller, 1967)
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Ray Theobald
The Head by Desmond Cory (Frederick Muller, 1960)
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Michael Trevithick
Dance of the Dwarfs by Geoffrey Household (Michael Joseph, 1968)
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Hugh Walker
The Accomplices by Leonard Cooper (Cresset Press, 1960)
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Jack Whitsett
This Sweet Sickness by Patricia Highsmith (Heinemann, 1961)
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Brian Wildsmith
Fellow Passenger by Geoffrey Household (Michael Joseph, 1955)
White August by John Boland (Michael Joseph, 1955)
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Alan Williams
Snake Water by Alan Williams (Anthony Blond, 1965); jacket designed by author; images courtesy Mike Ripley
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Designer Unknown
The Cold Dark Night by Sarah Gainham (Arthur Barker, 1957)
Slow Burner by William Haggard (Cassell, 1958)
Venetian Blind by William Haggard (Cassell, 1959)
Midnight Plus One by Gavin Lyall (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965)
Shooting Script by Gavin Lyall (Hodder & Stoughton, 1966)
11 comments:
A British author whose book covers (during the 1950s) are displayed is Desmond Cory at:
http://www.desmondcory.com/Gallery/Desmond__Cory__Book_Gallery_-_1950s1.htm
I notice you selected the cover to his first novel already, 'Secret Ministry', but for my money 'This Traitor, Death" or "This is Jezebel" are the best.
You can see the covers in full glory by simply clicking on them on the above url.
There is also something very nice about "Pilgrim at the Gate" that captures the Cold War spirit with simple design at
http://www.desmondcory.com/Gallery/Desmond__Cory__Book_Gallery_-_1950s2.htm
In contrast if you look at many British book covers of the 1960s when they used photography more, you see a big deterioration in the quality of the covers:
http://www.desmondcory.com/Gallery/Desmond_Cory_Book_Gallery_-_1960s3.htm
I hope you select "This Traitor, Death" to add to your gallery.
I'm more than familiar with the covers on the Desmond Cory site, Ricardo, and I do have a couple of other Cory jackets waiting in the wings to be added – not the ones you mention, unfortunately, as I don't have those yet, but the ones I do have are very nice examples of 50s Cory cover art...
I appreciate the effort you took in presenting this. I have a slow internet connection, however, and it took *forever* to load this single page. It would have been nice if you spread the images out over several pages or perhaps used thumbnails. Thanks for the "gallery."
Apologies for the slow load, Anonymous, but there's not much I can do about that. The point of the page is to gather the best of the disparate covers scattered about the rest of the blog in one place, but you can still find many of them in their original posts (those that I've blogged about, that is). Use the "search" box just under the permanent link to the page from the main blog, and you'll be able to see many of the jackets in individual blog posts. Glad you enjoyed the gallery, though – once it actually loaded!
Very interesting selection, some of which I remember, and one or two I even read at the time.
You and Margaret Atwood both, mater!
Interesting that you think it worth noting that Tucker Coe is a pseudonym of Westlake, but not Richard Stark! A foolish consistency may be the hobgoblin of small minds, but a mindful consistency is the friend of bibliographers everywhere.
That said, there's lovely design work there. For a little more on the breadth of design, might I ask for one of the Gollancz yellow jackets (some interesting typography on e.g. the Kenneth Giles thrillers)? One doesn't need many (they're all so similar) but a sample would be nice. I'd send you a scan of Margery Lawrence's Master of Shadows but mine has some smoke damage -- it's a really lovely Dali-esque picture signed "Biro". Thanks for some amusing moments!
Just looked it up, Tom – very nice. That'll be Val Biro, a designer already heavily featured on this page, and who you'll find a number of posts about on the main Existential Ennui blog; just click on his tag in the right hand column.
You have a point on Richard Stark, but I've written about Westlake and Stark so many times, not just on EE (again, click on their tags) but over on The Violent World of Parker, where I'm co-blogger, I guess I just didn't think there'd be anyone reading EE who DIDN'T know Westlake was Stark. But on reflection, the Beautiful British Book Jacket page has received well over 7,000 hits now, many of whom I expect haven't visited the main EE blog itself. So for those folk, it's not a bad idea to make the connection plain, which I'll do as soon as I finish typing this.
Interesting idea on the Gollancz jackets too. I do have a good number of those, some of which I may well add to the gallery. Thanks for the suggestion!
I can't say enough about the fantastic work that you do over here on EE (and VWOP). This new 100 covers page really brings together some beautiful illustration and design that could very easily be lost without folks like you highlighting it.
I'm envious of your collection and would love to see another 100 hardcovers although I must admit that I am preferential to paperback covers of the era. I think a page featuring paperbacks would be great especially for us North Americans who don't get to see too many of the British editions.
Cheers, Jason! Interesting idea on a British paperback page. It's an area that Steve Holland's covered fairly extensively on his Bear Alley site, but I might be able to offer something different. I'll have a think.
Very good Jason, there are some crackers there. Some are definitely 'of their time' but others quite timeless. Not sure about Graham Greene' "A Burnt-out Case" though on account of the typography.... how could they put the line break there?
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