Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Penguin Things Round-Up Addendum

I was interested to read here that Penguin is planning an edition of Alice in Wonderland designed by Yayoi Kusama. I didn't know much about Kusama until I read this intriguing interview (and was especially interested by the bit about her having committed herself to a mental hospital in 1975, and having lived there ever since), but I did know of her previous Alice-related art, the 'Alice in Wonderland Happening' of 1968, in New York's Central Park.



Quite how this will translate to a book design I do not know, but I'm intrigued to find out.

As a follow-up to the last post, here are a few more of the hardback classics covers, not terribly well scanned.

 

Again, I'm assuming these are the work of Coralie Bickford-Smith, as she designed the earlier books in this set. There are also several similar books from Penguin India in a similar vein, all great Eastern religious works, with (I assume) a different deigner but a similar approach.

7 comments:

Chasch said...

I own a few of those hardback penguins (they are sold in the bargain section in Canadian bookstores) and while they are indeed very beautiful, I must add that unfortunately I found they offer an awkward reading experience because the pages and binding are so stiff... But then I am very picky about that sort of thing!

JRSM said...

I'll use that as an excuse to resist buying them. So far I don't own any, as they keep pitting out books I already own as paperbacks, but sometimes I see them in a shop and feel my resistance fading...

JRSM said...

"pUtting out", I mean to say.

Anna said...

I saw Coralie Bickford-Smith speaking at a conference on cover design last year. I love her work. See it all at www.cb-smith.com

JRSM said...

I envy you! I was lucky enough to be able to interview her last year, though: http://causticcovercritic.blogspot.com/2009/02/coralies-caustic-cover-critic.html

Vintage Reading said...

I really want Jane Austen's Emma in the Penguin hardback. It has Regency chairs embossed on the cover. I like the scissors and the Alcott cover, too.

ghrency said...

Cool post..

thanks


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