Book cover club
At the risk of attracting snorts of derision from certain parties who have to share space with me, I try not to collect things. But I do have one little collection that sits on my mantlepiece. I got reminded to tell you about it because of a lovely picture posted by TootAsInFoot.
My collection, below, is of vintage Penguin Poetry collections.
Produced throughout the sixties, these collections of poetry featured gorgeous patterns across the whole cover, each one lovely, but nicer gathered together. Below is a much better selection of the covers, taken from the fabulous book Penguin by Design.
The covers were designed by Stephen Russ, and you can read more about his work for Penguin here. Apparently the commission paid for his caravaning holiday around Europe. Any freelancer will understand how sweet such a commission might be.
As usual, my collection is not very pure. (I take this as a sign of good mental health.) It has extra elements. The Penguin Plays editions from around the same time are also gorgeous to me, and this Dylan Thomas, bought very recently, is there just for the vivid colour combination.
Above, a (literally) mouse-eaten copy of Three European Plays, which includes Satre’s In Camera – ‘Hell is other people’ and all that. I was allowed to stay up and watch a TV play of it when I was little, and I understood it as a terrific ghost story.
Mixing up existentialism with supernaturalism. What a fool! My parents had shelves full of play scripts that I read avidly as a child, and I recognise the graphic stripy editions above, also from Penguin by Design. Pinter’s The Room also grabbed me for the same reason. Someone goes spontaneously blind at the end! Spooky…
Lastly, another (terrible, sorry) snap from Penguin by Design, of something I’m on the look out for to further dilute my little collection. The colours and simplicity of these two books by R D Laing still look thrillingly modern to my eyes. Psychosis, existentialism and anti-psychiatry. I bet I’m going to find the contents well spooky too.
Love this post. What better way to decorate one’s home than with collections of books. I always judge a book by its cover by the way!
I too loved this post. It sent me off to look through my book shelves in search of my copy of Penguin By Design – A Cover Story 1935-2005 by Phil Baines. I thought I’d ditched it in last year’s big clear out to make more shelf room but was really delighted to rediscover its joys and have lost an hour wandering through its pages.
Eh don’t be throwing away any other books without consulting here first. J x
Love this collection, books are always a great idea especially when they look like this.
Just stopped by to say “hello” as some friends (hi Jordan & Russ) told me about your blog and loving it. xo
Ah, thanks. J&R drumming up readers for us thrills me. I have loads of not so special-looking books on a huge inherited shelving system under my stairs, so the front room has only this little collection. Makes me look like a poetry-loving philistine to those people who like to snoop at your books when they come round…
Oh these are gorgeous! I’m about to reorganise my workshop and will be putting up some nice books on the shelves but my folders are very ugly so I’m thinking of covering them with vintage-style fabrics. The designs on these penguin books are inspiration enough!!
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