He Just Wants to Smoke in Peace, and Instead He's the Hardest-Working Man on Book Covers

Longer-term readers might remember the 'Man in Fog', a 1935 photo by Arthur Tanner that featured in this sites's first proper post, and which, when I last talked about it, had appeared on the covers of at least nine books (more, really, since the Simenon below stands in for a whole series of books featuring that image as an inset).

Here's his latest appearance, snowed-in and Berlin-ified for Dan Vyleta's Pavel & I's latest edition.

Furthermore, I've found him on another nine books since I last posted about him:

So with the earlier, previously logged, appearances displayed below, that's at least 19 books he's graced. He was also going to be on a 20th, an Alma Classics edition of a book by Céline, until I let them know about his ubiquity.

Man in Fog

Before getting to the man in the fog, a bit of self-promotion. I have a piece coming up in the next issue of McSweeney's The Believer magazine (the one with the great Charles Burns covers). Due out in under a week, buy your copy for a pittance here! I also co-wrote a piece for The Huffington Post, which will theoretically turn up at some point.

Anyway, back to the man in the fog. In the first proper post here, I talked about an image that turned up on a number (five at the time) of book covers. The photo is 'Man in Fog' from 1935, by Arthur Tanner.

I now know of it appearing on nine books (more, in fact, since the Simenon below stands in for a whole series of Maigret books, all of which used the image).