I am fascinated by the photo of Peter De Vries on the jacket of his best-selling novel, The Tunnel of Love. I was surprised that he looks so ordinary: I had pictured him as a young Groucho Marx, because in one of De Vries’s novels, the hero believes he is Groucho Marx. But, no, De Vries has that rumpled writerish aura that you can presumably get away with in New York but not in the provinces. In profile, I can see the bags under his eyes. No cigar.
My question is: where are all these books? Is he at home? Who arranges books like this at home? Is he at a bookstore? If you can write a cogent explanation, I will “like” your blog posts, Instagram, etc., every day for a year.
AND NOW FOR 8 ICONIC BOOK COVERS.
Some book covers stick with me forever. Take the cover art of the mass market paperback of Kurt Vonnegut’s essays, Wampeters Foma & Granfalloons. Kurt drew the caricature of himself with a tear in his eye, but there is no information about the designer of the lettering and the cover.
This is one of Vonnegut’s greatest books. And if only I had read the essay, “Teaching the Unteachable,” before I went to a writers’ conference, I would not have wept when the professor informed me that I could sell my story to a feminist magazine but not because of the writing.
I did not need to hear that on my two-week summer vacation at a writers’ conference. Perhaps this is the kind of tough criticism writers receive in writing programs.
“Then why was I accepted?” I asked.
Vonnegut explains what we students need to know: that the conference is a way for writers to make some money. He says that most people know you can’t be taught to write well.
…writers’ conferences continue to multiply in the good old American summertime. Sixty-eight of them are listed in last April’s issue of The Writer. Next year there will be more. They are harmless. They are shmoos.
And then he goes on:
“Who comes to writers’ conferences?” you ask. A random sample of twenty people will contain six recent divorcees, three wives in middle life, five schoolteachers of no particular age or sex, two foxy grandmas, one sweet old widower with true tales to tell about railroading in Idaho, one real writer, one not merely angry but absolutely furious young man, and one physician with forty years worth of privileged information that he wants to sell for a blue million.
I was one of the schoolteachers, for God’s sake! But I did enjoy the company of the other students. And the professor was kind after our initial meeting. Really, it is the teacher’s job at these conferences to encourage amateurs !
I love the covers of Hermann Hesse’s books, especially the ones designed by Milton Glaser. There were, however, also mass market paperbacks with the unsuitable covers we are all resigned to. What do you think? Milton Glaser’s Gertrude, or the mass market cover art of Steppenwolf?
Although my Popular Library mass market paperbacks of Margaret Drabble’s novels are falling apart, I love the cover photos of her , which were taken by Jill Krementz, Vonnegut’s second wife. Drabble looks young and casual with her long hair, unpretentious sweater, and floral skirt on the cover of Jerusalem the Golden. This edition was published in 1977.
I love the greems on the cover of the Vintage Hardy edition of Far from the Madding Crowd. There is a second-hand book sticker on the back cover, which presumably blocks the name of the designer. Too bad!
Dover editions are always a pleasure, and I love this 2005 edition of George MacDonald’s Phantastes: A Faery Romance. The illustrations are by pre-Raphaelite artist Arthur Hughes, and they fit the mood beautifully.
The Noonday Press’s covers of Colette’s books, designed by Jacqueline Schuman, are gorgeous. I have a 1999 edition, the 19th printing of Colette’s My Mother’s House and Sido. FSG has reissued these books with new covers, but I like the graceful lines of the sketches on the earlier covers.
I keep meaning to read Now, Voyager, by Olive Higgins Prouty, who also wrote Stella Dallas. The Feminist Press has reprinted both novels in their Femmes Fatales series. I am afraid to read Stella Dallas, because I wept buckets over the movie, so Now, Voyager seems the safer place to start. I love the scene from from the movie with Bette Davis on the cover!
What is your favorite book cover? Do you go for Folio Society hardbacks or cheap paperbacks? And do you ever buy books for the cover?
Writers’ conferences: Two that I went to in the late 1990s in western Montana were great because I got excellent advice from Kim Barnes and Mary Clearman Blew, which eventually led to the publication of my first book. On book covers: I admit that nekkid people on the cover turn me off, I figure the book is boring if they have to market it that way. On Now, Voyager: I love how lots of smoking is a stand-in for sex in the scenes with Bette Davis and Paul Henreid.
Louise. congrats on your publication! I know these conferences can be helpful, with the right teachers.
I love Kim Barnes and will have to look for more of her books.
Louse, I looked up your books and they look fascinating!