November 2019: Transportation

The November 2019 meeting explored the topic of transportation.  A wide range of both fiction and nonfiction covered such subjects as public transportation planning, sports cars, trains and railway systems, and space travel.

The Trolley Titans

Carson, O. E.  The Trolley Titans: A Mobile History of Atlanta.  Glendale, CA: Interurban Press, 1981.  178 pages.  Telling the story of the struggle of two barons seeking control of the trolley lines, Carson provides a detailed history of mass transit in Atlanta from horse-drawn cars during the Civil War to the 1980s sleek MARTA system.  This history, illustrated throughout with vintage photographs and maps, shows the important role the street railways played in the development of Atlanta.

An Atlanta trolley car

Our Auto Trip

Edsall, Marian.  Our Auto Trip.  Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1952.  Illustrated by Dorothy Grider.  From at least the 1940s through the 1960s, under the imprint of Tip-Top Elf Books, Rand McNally published a large number of children's books including well known fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  Original stories included books about pets and animals, siblings and family relationships, and manners and etiquette.  The Tip-Top Elf books also included many titles about travel and various forms of transportation including, trains, airplanes, and automobiles (natural subjects for a publisher best known for their maps and atlases).  Our Auto Trip tells the story of a family taking a long road trip with a surprise destination as the children arrive at their grandparents' house.

October 2019: Time

The October 2019 meeting considered the concept of time.  From fiction to French philosophy to collectible pocket watches, members shared a spectrum of books interpreting the theme of time.

Time and Narrative, Volumes 1-3

In three volumes of Time and Narrative, French philosopher Paul Ricoeur sets forth his phenomenological description of the relationship between time and narrative.  He posits that humans experience time in two different ways: as "cosmological time"—a linear succession of hours, days, months, etc.—and "phenomenological time"—time expressed in terms of past, present, and future.  As self-aware beings, humans experience time not only chronologically but also in terms of what has been, what is, and what will be.  "Human time," then, is the complex experience of the integration of cosmological and phenomenological time.

Ricoeur, Paul.  Time and Narrative.  Volume 1.  Translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.

Ricoeur, Paul.  Time and Narrative.  Volume 2.  Translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Ricoeur, Paul.  Time and Narrative.  Volume 3.  Translated by Kathleen Blamey and David Pellauer.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

In Volume 2, Ricoeur examines the relationship between time and narrative as experienced in fiction and theories of literature.  He analyzes three novels about time—Virginial Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, and Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past (or In Search of Lost Time)—to argue how fiction depends on the reader's understanding of narrative traditions, which necessarily include a temporal dimension.  He explains, using examples from fiction, how the reader experiences distortions in time within the narrative.  He shows how, for example, an entire, lengthy novel may cover only a very brief amount of time in the fictional linear story, or how a vast amount of time may be condensed to only a few short paragraphs.

In Graham Greene's "A Day Saved," the main character, a hired killer, ponders the repeated advice unwitting characters give his intended victim as he tracks and follows him.  Well-meaning people suggest ways the man might speed up his travel and arrive at his destination earlier: "If you fly, you will save a day."  Throughout the story, the narrator contemplates the futility of a day saved:

I ask you, I should like to ask all who are listening to me, what does a day saved matter to him or to you?  A day saved from what?  for what?  Instead of spending the day traveling, you will see your friend a day earlier, but you cannot stay indefinitely, you will travel home twenty-four hours sooner, that is all.  You will begin work a day earlier, but you cannot work on indefinitely.  It only means that you will cease work a day earlier.  And then for what?  You cannot die a day earlier.

Nine O'clock Stories

Fourteen Authors.  Nine O'clock Stories.  London: G. Bell & Sons Ltd., 1934.  First edition.  An anthology of short stories broadcast by the BBC in the National Programme during the nine o'clock hour.  The nameless radio program began with a voice asking, "Who's got a story to tell?"  A narrator would then read a story by such authors as Walter de la Mare, Peter Fleming, Richard Hughes, Graham Greene, and Dorothy L. Sayers.  Harcourt Williams narrated "A Day Saved" for the radio program.  This is the story's first appearance in print.

Nineteen Stories

Greene, Graham.  Nineteen Stories.  London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1947.  First edition.  Signed by the author on the title page.

The publication history of "A Day Saved" poses its own time issue.  In the short story collection Nineteen Stories, Greene dates the story as having been written in 1935, the year it was published in this first short story collection The Basement Room.  The story, however, first appears in book form in 1934 in Nine O'clock Stories.  The story, therefore, had to have been written in or before 1934.  Scholarship has since shown that Greene incorrectly remembered when several of his short stories were written, not just "A Day Saved."

Three by Finney

Finney, Jack.  Three by Finney.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987.  Omnibus containing three classic Finney novels: The Woodrow Wilson Dime, Marion’s Wall, and The Night People.  Finney is well-known for a number of stories focused on time.  The Woodrow Wilson Dime is an "alternate world" novel, not a time travel story.  By the sheer chance of a ten-cent coin being stood on its side, a man’s entire world is altered; thus, a single moment in time changes everything for the central character.  The Woodrow Wilson Dime was originally published in 1968 by Simon & Schuster.

Forgotten News

Finney, Jack.  Forgotten News: The Crime of the Century and Other Lost Stories.  New York: Doubleday, 1983.  Finney returns to an earlier time in this non-fiction volume filled with forgotten happenings from the 1800s.  Illustrated with drawings taken from newspapers of the period, Forgotten News reconstructs true stories best described as mysterious and lurid.  It took Finney three years to pull these complex stories together.  An overarching theme may be how easily time layers over time. Forgotten News shows how things happen, things are forgotten, and time continues.

Period newspaper drawings illustrate Forgotten News

September 2019: Photography

The September 2019 meeting looked at photography as the month's theme.  Many of the books chronicled through photographs the lives of individuals from well-known writers to American presidents.  Books on photography and collections by specific photographers rounded out the selection of books shown.

Photoviz

Felton, Nicholas.  Photoviz: Visualizing Information through Photography.  Berlin: Gestalten, 2016.  First edition.  Photographs by sixty-nine photographers from around the world show the intersection of photography, infographics, and data visualization.  Using both high-tech and classic photography techniques, these artists visualize information and tell stories about the subjects they capture.  Techniques such as panorama, long exposure, time lapse, and slit-scan photography allow the artists to show more than a single, brief moment in time.  For example, a single image can visualize the various planes taking off from the same runway in a given hour (see book cover above) or the dynamic of an entire basketball game or the full daily activity of single squirrel in a tree (see below).

Select images from Photoviz

C. S. Lewis: Images of His World

C. S. Lewis: Images of His World, as the title indicates, is filled with photos from Lewis's life, from Belfast to Oxford to Cambridge.  It includes an introductory essay by Douglas Gilbert, a professional photographer, and Clyde S. Kilby, the founder of the Marion E. Wade Collection at Wheaton College, one of the preeminent Inklings collections in the world.  Two editions of the book in slightly different formats.

Gilbert, Douglas and Clyde Kilby.  C. S. Lewis: Images of His World.  Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973.

Gilbert, Douglas and Clyde Kilby.  C. S. Lewis: Images of His World.  Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005.

A Positive Life

Huston, River and Mary Berridge.  A Positive Life: Portraits of Women Living with HIV.  Philadelphia: Running Press Book Publishers, 1997.  Interviews by River Huston and photography by Mary Berridge.  In candid interviews and original photographs, Huston and Berridge detail the lives of thirty women living with HIV to chronicle the emotional and physical struggles of living with the disease.  A Positive Life seeks to portray the strength, survival, and resolve of these women and to convey a message of hope and power to others.  Signed by River Huston on the title page.

Select images from A Positive Life

American Hollow

Kennedy, Rory.  American Hollow.  New York: Bulfinch Press, 1999.  Photography by Steve Lehman.  Kennedy, the daughter of Ethel and Robert Kennedy, examines issues of rural life in Appalachia by following Iree, the seventy-year-old matriarch of the Bowling family clan, in her routine, daily life.  The book is a companion volume to the HBO documentary of the same title and features Lehman's black-and-white photography.  The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999 and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Select image from American Hollow

The Man in the Sycamore Tree

Rice, Edward.  The Man in the Sycamore Tree: The Good Times and Hard Life of Thomas Merton.  New York: Doubleday & Company, 1970.  Photographs illustrate the author's record of the thought, life, work, and spiritual growth of the extraordinary Trappist monk and writer.  The Man in the Sycamore Tree offers an unconventional portrait of Thomas Merton by one of his long-time friends from college.

The Tolkien Family Album

Tolkien, John and Priscilla Tolkien.  The Tolkien Family Album.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992.  Using family photographs and keepsakes to trace the life of the popular British novelist, two of J. R. R. Tolkien's children describe his education, World War I experiences, and family life.  This charming, informal portrait fills in with affectionate, familial detail the events to Tolkien's life. 

August 2019: Crime - True or Otherwise

The August 2019 meeting investigated crime, true or otherwise.  From first-person true crime accounts to pioneering detective fiction, the topic spanned time and geography.  True crime sees accusations of treason extend throughout the history of the United States, from the Revolutionary War through World War II.  Fictional crime—the otherwise—transported the group to London and Paris to witness both elaborate plotting and reasoned deduction.

True

The Varick Court of Inquiry

Hart, Albert Bushnell, ed.  The Varick Court of Inquiry to Investigate the Implication of Colonel Varick (Arnold's Private Secretary) in the Arnold Treason.  Boston: The Bibliophile Society, 1907.  Limited edition of 470 copies.  Full brown pebbled leather with deckled fore-edge and gilt top edge.  217 pages, including over a dozen fold-out facsimiles of correspondence relating to the court case and several engravings.  Richard Varick (1753-1831) served as an aide to General Benedict Arnold during the American Revolution.  When Arnold defected, Varick was arrested for treason.  He was eventually cleared by the Court of Inquiry.  Varick went on to serve under General George Washington until Washington retired his commission in 1783; after Varick retired from his service in the Continental Army, he remained in service as a colonel in the New York State Militia until 1801.

The Trial of Ezra Pound

Cornell, Julien.  The Trial of Ezra Pound.  Omaha, NE: Gryphon Editions, 1992.  Introduction by Alan M. Dershowitz.  Facsimile of the 1966 first edition, privately printed for The Notable Trials Library.  Written and compiled by Julien Cornell, Pound's lawyer, the book contains facsimiles of letters Pound wrote to his editors and lawyers, transcripts of Pound's radio broadcasts, the text of the indictment, and a transcript of the legal proceedings.  Ezra Pound (1885-1972), the eccentric American poet, was arrested on charges of treason in 1945 in Italy.  During the war, Pound made hundreds of radio broadcasts criticizing the United States and President Roosevelt.  There was no actual trial, as Pound had a supposed mental breakdown and spent twelve years in a psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C.  He was never convicted of treason.  He returned to Italy where he died 14 years later.  In his introduction to this volume, Alan Dershowitz posits various legal means were used to save Pound from standing trial for treason.

Otherwise

"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe is the first modern detective story and one of the great short stories of American literature.  At the time Poe wrote this tale (1841), the word detective did not exist and for contemporary readers this was something of a profound novelty.  This tale and other Poe crime/detective stories helped to create and influenced a whole genre down to our present day.  Under Poe's editorship at Graham's Magazine, he increased the audience from 5,500 to over 40,000 making it the leading literary magazine in America in the 1840s.  Later in 1845, the tale made its first appearance in book form.

First appearance in Graham's Magazine

Poe, Edgar Allan.  "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."  Graham's Magazine, Vol. 18, No. 4 (April 1841): 166-179.  The April 1841 number bound in volume 18 for the whole year 1841.  Contains the first appearance of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

First appearance in book form in Tales

Poe, Edgar Allan.  Tales.  New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845.  First Edition.  Tales bound by the publisher with The Raven and Other Poems.  Contains the first appearance of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" in book form among many other first book appearances of his tales.

A. J. Raffles is a fictional gentleman thief, created in 1898 by E. W. Hornung, the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle.  Whereas Doyle created a master detective in Sherlock Holmes, Hornung created an expert thief and master of disguise.  Holmes has his Dr. Watson and Raffles has his Bunny Manders, a sidekick and accomplice burglar.  Doyle believed a criminal should never be the protagonist of a story, but Raffles's reception and popularity proved Doyle wrong.  Hornung wrote about Raffles and Bunny in 26 short stories published in three short story collections (1899, 1901, and 1904), one full-length novel (1909), and one play (1909).  Various writers have since adapted the Edwardian characters.  Graham Greene returned Raffles and Bunny to the stage in 1975 with the comedic play The Return of A. J. Raffles, in which Raffles plots to rob the Marquess of Queensbury not only for the money but also to exact revenge against the Marquess for his treatment of Oscar Wilde, whom he considers a friend.

Limited edition of The Return of A. J. Raffles

Greene, Graham.  The Return of A. J. Raffles.  London: The Bodley Head, 1975.  Limited edition of 250 copies, of which 80 copies were reserved for the author's use and copies 81-250 were sold.  Precedes the first commercial edition.  Signed by the author on the limitation page.

Stage script of The Return of A. J. Raffles

Greene, Graham.  The Return of A. J. Raffles.  London: Odanti Script Services, 1975.  Actor's working stage script for the premier production at the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by David Jones.  The play ran from December 1975 through February 1976.  The cast included Denholm Elliot (A. J. Raffles), Clive Francis (Bunny), Peter Blythe (Lord Alfred Douglas), Paul Rogers (Mr. Portland, Prince of Wales), and Michael Bryant (Captain von Blixen).  This copy belonged to Clive Francis, who originated the role of Bunny, and was acquired directly from him.

July 2019: Provenance and Association Copies

The July 2019 meeting considered the role of provenance in book collecting and the importance of association copies.  Provenance refers to the record of ownership of a book or manuscript, and considers such factors as its place of origin, historical importance, and ownership by famous or notable people or persons associated directly with the author, subject, or content of the book.  The provenance of association copies is usually supported by an inscription by the author to the owner or by some record of ownership in the book such as a bookplate, personal library seal, or ownership signature.

Back in Orbit

Montgomery, Scott and Timothy R Gaffney.  Back in Orbit: John Glenn's Return to Space.  Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1998.  Foreword by Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter.  First edition, first printing.  Inscribed by John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth and the oldest Shuttle astronaut, to Scott Carpenter, the second American to orbit the Earth.  Included is a letter of authenticity.  This book is both a great provenance and association copy.  Back in Orbit has become a scarce book unsigned and rare book if signed by John Glenn.  This book goes even beyond that, becoming a unique copy signed by the subject of the book to a fellow astronaut who wrote the foreword.

Three Plays

Greene, Graham.  Three Plays.  London: Mercury Books, 1961.  Omnibus of Greene's first three plays, The Living Room, The Potting Shed, and The Complaisant Lover.  This copy is inscribed by Greene to Max and Joan Reinhardt.  Max Reinhardt was a long-time publisher at The Bodley Head, Nonesuch Press, and Max Reinhardt Ltd.  He and Greene met in 1957 and after Greene fulfilled his contractual obligation with William Heinemann, Reinhardt published all of Greene's books from 1961 forward.  The two maintained both a close personal and professional relationship for 34 years, until Greene's death in 1991.  This copy was acquired from the collection of Clive Francis.

The Penguin New Writing, 30

Lehmann, John, ed.  The Penguin New Writing, No. 30.  London: Penguin Books, 1947.  An anthology of short stories by established writers such as V. S. Pritchett, Graham Greene, and John Lehmann, and young "new contributors" such as Boris Pasternak and Stuart Hood.  This copy is signed by V. S. Pritchett on the opening page of his story, "Men of the World," and came from the collection of American book collector Rolland Comstock.  Comstock's library contained an estimated 100,000 books, and he had a passion for attending readings and signings across the country in an effort to discover new writers—tomorrow's greats—before most readers heard of them.  In 2007, Comstock was shot twice while in his library and his murder remains legally unsolved; his ex-wife was sued by their daughter in civil court for wrongful death and found culpable for Comstock's death, but she was never criminally charged.

This Gun for Hire

Greene, Graham.  This Gun for Hire.  New York: Triangle Books, 1942.  Reprint movie tie-in edition.  This copy signed by actors Frank Ferguson and Marc Lawrence; Ferguson played Albert Baker in the film adaptation and Lawrence played Tommy.  Affixed is the personalized Ex Libris Picturis Moventibus (from books to moving pictures) bookplate of Art Ronnie.  Art Ronnie was a Hollywood unit publicist and a collector of books-to-film autographed books.  In his role as a unit publicist, he had access to actors and actresses on movie sets and sought them out for signatures in books adapted to films with which they were associated.

A Gentleman from Mississippi

Toombs, Frederick R.  A Gentleman from Mississippi.  New York: J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, 1909.  First edition in original blue illustrated cloth.  This copy is from the personal library of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., famed actor, director and producer, and bears his bookplate on the inside front cover.  Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was the son of Douglas Fairbanks, who starred in the title role of Bud Haines in the Broadway production of the play A Gentleman from Mississippi, on which this novelization is based.  Novelized by Frederick R. Toombs, the book contains 8 black-and-white illustration plates with photos of the original Broadway cast, including Fairbanks.  The play debuted on Broadway in 1908 and played for 407 performances before closing a few months before the birth of Fairbanks's son, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (Dec. 9, 1909). This novelization also first appeared in 1909.  Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was an avid book collector, and his collection was generously donated to a local non-profit by his widow, Vera Fairbanks.  His books were consigned to auction with the proceeds going to charity.

A Gentle Madness

Basbanes, Nicholas A.  A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books.  New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1995.  While this particular copy has no particular provenance or association, it is a great resource for book collectors.  Basbanes profiles a number of living book collectors, both famous and infamous in the book world.  For collectors who enjoy acquiring books from other collectors' libraries—as some of the books above demonstrate—this book is a veritable Who's Who of Twentieth Century collectors to keep an eye out for in the hope their collections one day reach the market.  This copy is signed by the author on the half title page. 

June 2019: Various Editions of One Title

The May 2019 meeting brought together various editions of the same title within a collector's library.  Some collectors "follow the flag" of international writers and seek out both the first edition from the author's native country and the first edition from the collector's country.  Collectors may also seek out significant later editions.  Later editions may be corrected, revised, or expanded.  Later editions also may be differently illustrated or include a new introduction by the author or a noted critic.  Other sought-after editions may include proofs and advance review copies, signed copies, association copies, limited editions, and anniversary editions.

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket… (1838)

During the nineteenth century the reading public was especially fascinated in reading about explorations and discoveries in far off lands and sea voyages.  Although a work of fiction, Poe's Pym gained immediate notoriety both because of its sensational subject matter and because it appeared to some to be a true report of a perilous voyage.  Poe's borrowings from Benjamin Morrell's Narrative of Four Voyages to the South Seas and Pacific (1832) and other sources were sufficient to give the tale an air of plausibility.  The American edition was not promoted as either fiction or non-fiction; the reader was left to decide.  The publisher of the British edition had other ideas.  He printed it with substantial—though unauthorized—changes to the title, added an additional preface, and omitted the last diary entry which introduced the "shrouded human figure" in the Antarctic which was the one clue that this was most likely a work of fiction. 

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...

Assembled here is a rare collection of Edgar Allan Poe's only novel, each first edition rare in its own right.  The first three (starting from the left) are each first American edition copies; the fourth (at right) is the first British edition.

Poe, Edgar Allan.  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.  First edition.  The first copy is unsophisticated in the original worn cloth binding with the original paper label title on the spine though somewhat chipped. 

          .  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.  First edition.  The second copy is a sophisticated volume having been repaired with the original spine laid down over a newer spine and a facsimile paper label on the spine. 

          .  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...  New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.  First edition.  The third copy has been rebound in a beautiful Stikeman & Co. gilt decorated leather binding sometime from the 1880's through the 1910's.

          .  The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket, North America...  London: Wiley and Putnam, 1838.  First British edition.  This copy is unsophisticated in the original brown cloth.  The British edition appeared about ten weeks after the American edition.

Title pages to the American (left) And British (right) first editions of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, of Nantucket...

The Power and the Glory (1940)

In the winter of 1937-38, Graham Greene traveled to the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, Mexico, to see the effects of the government-sponsored suppression of the Catholic church and its campaign for forced secularization.  Out of his journey, Greene wrote the nonfiction travel book The Lawless Roads (alternately titled Another Mexico in the United States) in 1939 and the novel The Power and the Glory in 1940.  In his 1962 introduction, Greene writes, "I think The Power and the Glory was the only novel I have ever written to a thesis"—to distinguish "between the man and his office"—thus creating the juxtaposition between the two central characters: "the idealistic police officer who stifled life from the best possible motives [and the] drunken priest who continued to pass life on."  In 1941, The Power and the Glory won the prestigious British literary award, The Hawthornden Prize, and in 2005, TIME magazine chose it as one of the hundred best English-language novels since 1923.

The Power and the Glory

The editions pictured are (from left to right, bottom row then top row) as follows:

Greene, Graham.  The Power and the Glory.  London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1940.  First edition.  3,500 copies.  In facsimile dust jacket.

          .  The Labyrinthine Ways.  New York: Viking Press, 1940.  First American edition, alternately titled, in both first state and second state.  The first state includes a printing error in the transposition of pages 165 and 256.  Second state copies are those which the publisher recalled then excised and replaced with corrected pages.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1946.  First American reprint edition with the original title.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  City: Vanguard Library, 1952.  Uniform series reprint.  This copy signed by Greene on the title page.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Time Inc., 1962.  First edition with a new introduction by Greene.  This introduction has been used in most reprints since this appearance.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1968.  First large print edition.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1970.  Viking Critical Library edition with text, background, and criticism.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Viking Press, 1990.  Special fiftieth anniversary edition with an introduction by John Updike.  This copy signed by Updike on the first preliminary page.

          .  The Power and the Glory.  New York: Easton Press, 2000.  Fine bound edition from the Great Books of the Twentieth Century series, with illustrations by Dennis Lyall.

Copies of The Power and the Glory signed by Graham Greene (left) and John Updyke (right)

Cold Mountain (1997)

This historical novel set during the Civil War is the first book written by Charles Frazier and spent 61 weeks at number one on the New York Times Bestseller list. It has sold over three million copies and received the 1997 National Book Award for Fiction.

Cold Mountain

Frazier, Charles.  Cold Mountain.  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.  First edition, first printing. 

          .  Cold Mountain.  New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997.  First edition, eighth printing.  Dedicated and signed by the author on the title page.

Copy of Cold Mountain inscribed by Charles Frazier

May 2019: Interesting Dust Jackets and Their Stories

The May 2019 meeting covered dust jackets.  Not literally.  The group did not sit around putting protective covers over dust jackets.  The topic was Interesting Dust Jackets and Their Stories.  Some books were shown because the collector liked the artwork or design of the jacket.  Other examples were shown because the art or design conveyed a scene, image, or concept central to the story.  Some showed points of issue between different editions of the same title, while others highlighted stories about the history of the artwork or printing of a particular jacket.  The nuance among the respective interpretations of the theme created a wide variety of books and dust jackets shown, making each story all the more interesting.  Several collectors also brought books about dust jackets, which included information about, and photographs of, several of the jackets shown at the meeting.

Modern Literature

Time and Again. First edition (left) and Book-of-the-Month Club edition (right).

Finney, Jack.  Time and Again.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1970.  Together with the Book-of-the-Month Club (BOMC) edition published the same year.  First editions in a dust jacket are hard to find in fine condition.  The first edition and the BOMC editions are extremely similar but there are several points of issue differentiating the editions.  On the book itself, both editions have the publishers' tinted top edge and mustard end papers (later BOMC are white).  The BOMC has the blind stamp to the rear book board, making the actual volume easy to spot.  It is the jacket that confuses, but several points distinguish the two.  First, both editions have the $7.95 price on the lower front flap, and both have the same photo on the front flap of an overhead train and a horse drawn trolley below it; but the editions have variant front flap verbiage wrapping around the photo.  The first edition states, "Fifth Avenue from 34th to 14th - is enchanted" while the BOMC states, "Broadway from 23rd to 8th - is enchanted by."  Second, the first edition has the numeric code #20497 on rear lower jacket panel, while the BOMC shows #1521.  Third, the BOMC also states in red on the front flap "BOMC Selection."  

Front flap of both editions, showing points of issue

The Great Gatsby

Fitzgerald, F. Scott.  The Great Gatsby.  New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925.  First edition in a facsimile dust jacket.  This dust jacket is one of the greatest dust jackets ever designed and is now quite rare and very expensive since few have survived.  The original printing of the book in 1925 was 20,870 copies, but when one comes on the market with an original dust jacket the bidding can go well over $100,000.  The dust jacket has an interesting story behind it, as an unusual case where the dust jacket art influenced the final version of a classic book.  Fitzgerald's editor at Scribner's, the legendary Max Perkins, commissioned the jacket art seven months before Fitzgerald finished writing the book.  The author was so taken with the image of the eyes when he first saw the artwork, he wrote to his editor saying, "For Christ's sake don't give anyone that jacket, I've written it into the book."

Orient Express

Greene, Graham.  Orient Express.  Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., 1933.  First American edition, alternately titled, of Stamboul Train.  Only 4,334 copies sold.  In addition to age and the small first printing, the dust jacket is rare, in part, because it was often removed in order to display the decorative binding with the train and tracks curving from the spine around to the front cover.  Also, book dealers later misidentified the images on the dust jacket as stills from the 1934 film adaptation and concluded it could not be an original jacket; a modified version of the jacket was used for the 1933 Grosset & Dunlop and the 1942 Sun Dial Press reprints.  The photos for the Doubleday Doran jacket design were, in fact, created specifically for this purpose; the same period-style photomontage design was also used for the first American edition of Greene's next novel, It's a Battlefield, the following year.

View of full dust jacket

The Ministry of Fear

Greene, Graham.  The Ministry of Fear.  London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1943.  Published in 1943, the first edition was printed in compliance with the 1942 Book Production War Economy Agreement, a set of standards set by the Ministry of Supply and the Publishers Association during wartime.  The guidelines sought to conserve paper during war rationing by regulating paper size, words per page, blank pages, paper quality, and other factors.  Dust jackets were often printed on the backs of unused jacket stock of other titles, some of which were quite old.  This diminished the quality of the paper causing many jackets to deteriorate quickly.  On some jackets, the darker printing on the verso of a jacket showed through the paper, making them undesirable.  Because wartime jackets either fell apart more easily or because they were quickly discarded, many have become scarce.  The verso of the jackets for The Ministry of Fear included such titles as J. B. Priestley's Faraway (1932), Margery Allingham's Traitor's Purse (1941) [noted in Author Price Guides], and Burton Hendrick's The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page (1923).  This copy shows Priestley's Faraway on the verso.

View of full dust jacket with previously-published jacket on verso

Shoeless Joe

Kinsella, W. P.  Shoeless Joe.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982.  The dust jacket elements reflect many aspects of the story about the beauty and history of baseball: the corn field and the ghostly ball player framed by a baseball diamond. The basis for the film adaptation Field of Dreams, Shoeless Joe is one of the great baseball novels.

The Things They Carried

O'Brien, Tim.  The Things They Carried.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990.  What is striking about this dust jacket is its starkness, reflecting the stories it tells about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. The title and author in large, bold sans serif over a black background indicate a straightforward tale of darkness. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four

Orwell, George.  Nineteen Eighty-Four.  New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949.  Book club edition, but identical to the first American edition.  The simplicity of the dust jacket design, with the title depicting a torn newspaper headline, visually references newspeak, one of the invented terms or concepts in the book.  Like newspeak, many of Nineteen Eighty-Four's terms and concepts, such as doublethink, thoughtcrime, memory hole, and Big Brother have entered common English usage since its publication in 1949.  The novel also popularized the adjective Orwellian, to connote such things as official deception, secret surveillance, misleading terminology, and the manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state, as described by the author.

  

Book about Dust Jackets

Classic Book Jackets

Hansen, Thomas S., Classic Book Jackets: The Design Legacy of George Salter.  New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005.  Hansen provides an overview of the life and work of George Salter, a pioneer in cover art and design who helped revolutionize the role of the dust jacket and created some of the most iconic book covers in modern literature.  The book is a comprehensive guide to Salter's book covers and includes 218 full-color images of his book jackets, original concepts, and sketches.  It includes two appendices detailing Salter's designs for the German book market (1922-1934) and the American book market (1934-1967).

Front Cover

Powers, Alan.  Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design.  London: Mitchell Beazley, 2001.  144 pages with 300 full-color images of book jackets and covers, including hardbacks, paperbacks, and wraparound paper covers.  Powers provides the historical context of and evolution of dust jackets in the twentieth century, dividing them into four categories: the impact of modernism (1920s and 1930s), the creation of style (1940s through 1960s), a revolution in print (1960s and 1970s), and design in the digital age (1980s and 1990s).

Sample page of Front Cover

Bradbury: An Illustrated Life

Weist, Jerry.  Bradbury: An Illustrated Life, A Journey to Far Metaphor.  New York: William Morrow and Co., 2002.  With an Introduction by Ray Bradbury.  Weist provides a "visual biography" of the life and work of Bradbury, including his influence in publishing, radio, theatre, and film.  Full-color images illustrate the biography, including the jacket art for nearly 50 years of hardcover and paperback books, along with descriptions and explanations of the artwork.

Sample page of Bradbury: An Illustrated Life