Maigret on the Beach

Perhaps to make amends for their Morrissey shenanigans, Penguin Classics UK is embarking on the admirable project of publishing all of the 75 Maigret novels by Georges Simenon, in new translations. Coming out roughly one per month (not dissimilar from the speed with which they were sometimes written), it would have been easy to just go for the stock photo option--that is a lot of books to cover, after all.

Happily, Penguin have commissioned Magnum photographer Harry Gruyeart to produce new images for each of the books. His photograph for the first book is especially appealing, with a man who could be Maigret wandering along a seafront in end-of-the-world light.

The next five covers are these...

..the last of which nicely echoes this frame from the 1932 Renoir movie of the book.

As yet another example of why stock photos can be a problem, have a look at these books. In each case the image is well chosen and nicely used, but they've ended up looking the same.

A "funky for young persons" edition of the Bible

It's also been on a CD:

There's more Simenon cover coverage in these posts.

Mëlvïllës

Two sets of books coming from Melville House late this year and in the middle of next year. The latter set are the first books in a projected 'Neversink Library', and use a simple but stylish series of cover designs based on silhouettes.

I'm completely up for this series, because Irmgard Keun is great, that Simenon is really good, and the little-known (in English) Ödön von Horváth is fucking awesome.

More Germanic shenanigans start in December with these Heinrich Böll reprints, each of which uses stark symbols (mostly made up of circles and other simple shapes) to represent the book

And that title font has to be Mrs Eaves Italic, which is one of my favourites.

I have no information on the designers for either of these books. The Böll books are designed by Kelly Blair, and the Neversinks by Christopher King.

Signets, or the Bathos of "Had I But Groaned"

A bit of a filler while I put together something of a little more substance; a bunch of old Signet covers, good and bad (both the covers and the books).

Beyond Miffy

Dutch illustrator and graphic designer Dick Bruna (born 1927) is best known for his hugely popular rabbit creation, Miffy.



Significantly less well-known outside Holland are his many bold, occasionally comic, and always eye-catching book cover designs for crime novels. 9For everything here, click for bigger, better versions.)

These include a number of Georges Simenons (some of which he also translated into Dutch)...








..Ian Fleming's James Bond books...



..as well as books by Havank (pen-name for Dutch journalist and novelist Hans van der Kallen, who, despite living most of his life outside the Netherlands, died of a heart attack in a hotel room only a few metres from his birthplace)...






..and the comic Tanner novels of Lawrence Block, about an adventurer who, unable to sleep due to a Korean War injury, devotes all his extra time to learning strange new skills.




Bruna has also done covers for a number of other authors.









Almost all of these covers were for Dutch publishing house Zwarte Beertjes (Black Bears), which was started by his father and then taken over by his brother (Bruna was offered the job, but wanted to keep working in design and illustration).

A huge and expensive catalogue of his Zwarte Beertjes work has been produced. Here are the front and back covers (click for huge, detailed versions).




Much more Bruniana (including most of the above) can be found in this excellent Flickr collection, and this other excellent Flickr collection. An interview with the man himself is online here.