Nearly seven months ago now, I created a new permanent page over on Existential Ennui (my personal books blog, as if you didn’t know), dedicated to the finest examples of British dust jacket design—or rather, my idea of the finest examples, taken from my own collection of books, and including a fair number of Donald E. Westlake titles—from the 1950s and 1960s. I posted about it over here at the time, and ever since I’ve been adding jackets to the page; mostly wrappers from crime fiction novels or spy fiction, but some science fiction as well, along with more literary works. Well I’m pleased to announce that I’ve now reached the milestone of 100 covers on the page—a milestone that coincides, oddly enough, with a change of domain name for Existential Ennui, from “existentialennui.blogspot.com” to “www.existentialennui.com.”
If you follow this link:
Beautiful British Book Jacket Design
you’ll find lots and lots of covers, just like these ones:
So go take a gander, and maybe let me know what you think.
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I went over to EE and checked them out. Awesome. I have some British First Editions of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee books from Rober Hale. They’re superior to the American Hardcover editions.
In fact, as the McGees were originally, like the Parkers, first put out as Paperback Originals, the British Hale editions were the only McGee Hardcovers available in English for while. Hale put out some lovely books. Attractive Dust Jackets, thick, quality paper, vivid fonts, the works. The ink on the pages still look strong and vividly black after all these years, much more so than the American Lippincott editions, which are more faded. They’ve even retained their distinctive scent, which I like to breath in now and then, as it brings back memories from my teens/early twenties.
I also have some Ross Thomas British firsts that I picked up at a ridiculously low price from a Bookseller in Redondo Beach, CA years ago. Same place I got most of the JDM Hales. That dude from CA was almost giving his stock away. I wish he was still in business.
I love Nick’s EE site. I spend a lot of time browsing through those book covers. Beautiful is a good word for them.
Too kind, cluelo. Ta for coming over.
Dave, those Hale editions of the MacDonalds – and especially the McGees – are highly sought after, and the early ones are somewhat outside my price range (that is, when you can find ’em). Great wrappers on them too, many by Barbara Walton, who’s a fine cover artist. A book dealer friend of mine, Jamie Sturgeon, is a big fan of her excellent work; he has a great Barbara Walton set on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamie179/sets/72157623785499813/
Which Ross Thomas UK firsts did you find? Some of those are hard to come by too.
Nick, I have the three Wu & Durant books, Chinaman’s Chance, Out on the Rim and Voodoo, LTD. I have all the Oliver Bleecks (The British Edition of The Procane Chronicle is The Thief Who Painted Sunlight), The Mordida Man, and The Fools in Town are on Our Side, quite possibly my favorite Thomas of all. I got them all for incredible prices from a bookseller in CA who visited the U.K. quite a bit.
I just checked ABE and a couple other spots and I see “Fools” in particular is quite pricey. I saw one for about 400 dollars which is about ten times what I paid for mine in the 90’s!
I agree with you about the Robert Hale McGees–so much better than the American Lippincotts. Most of the Lippincotts were sold to Libraries, so it’s extremely rare to find a McGee Lippincott in decent condition for a less tham exorbitant price. It’s easier–and cheaper–to find the Paperback Originals in decent shape, for some reason.
Nice Ross Thomas haul! Fools can be quite pricey, but the really scarce one out of that lot is The Thief Who Painted Sunlight: there are only three copies of the on ABE (I have one, needless to say!). Of the Thomas novels I’ve read thus far, it’s a toss-up for me between Fools and Chinaman’s Chance for my favourite. I’ve got a signed US first of Chance, but I also have a the same UK first as you. Gotta love that Beverley Le Barrow jacket! I’ve eulogized about him at length on EE; his real name is actually Beverley Goodway, and he was a Page 3 topless model photographer for The Sun newspaper.
I think most readers favorite Thomas novel is either Fools or Chinaman. I’d say Fools is my favorite, but by a narrow margin.
Yep. Fools and Chinaman for me too. Lucifer St. Dye, Artie Wu and Quincy Durant. RT could sure create some memorable characters. I love the Chub Dunjee character from The Mordida Man quite a lot too, he’s always reminded me of Bill Clinton for some reason.
And I discovered RT in a really weird way: from the St. Ives film with Charles Bronson (who was woefully miscast). I discovered the St. Ives books and loved them, then went on to read all the great novels written under his own name. He and Westlake were friends, and DEW wrote a funny intro for the latest reprinting of Out on the Rim.
Sorry, Lucifer Dye, not St. Dye. For some reason, I always do that.;-) lol
An absolutely tremendous collection in your linked post. Just gorgeous, gorgeous stuff.
A couple of questions: Is Johnny Fedora a parody? Do folks in Europe actually call it “The Lebanon” rather than just “Lebanon”?
Cheers, Trent! And to answer your questions:
Nope, definitely not. There is a lightness to the early Fedora adventures, but not the later ones, and Johnny, a secret agent, actually predates James Bond by two years. There’s lots about him (and his creator, Desmond Cory), on EE:
Johnny Fedora on Existential Ennui
And yes, I’m afraid we do – or rather, we Brits do (I can’t speak for the rest of Europe). Couldn’t tell you why, though!