Friedrich Christian Accum. A Treatise on Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons. London, Longman, 1822.
The question was posed on the Long and Short Reviews blog: What do I wish would come back into fashion? Never really being a follower of fashion, I nearly admitted defeat. Then I thought about old book covers. Some of these are true works of art!
W. T. Horton. A Book of Images. London: The Unicorn Press, 1898
The title promises more awe-inspiring images to ponder. I honestly am not familiar with its contents, but if I saw it in a bookstore or library, I'd at least take a look at it.
Neil Munro. Gilian the Dreamer, His Fancy, His Love and Adventure. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1899. Cover by Thomas Watson Ball
Gilian sounds like the kind of guy who got scolded by his teachers for daydreaming. Pay attention, Gilian! Stop woolgathering, Gilian! Do your math problems, Gilian! Meanwhile, Gilian just wanted to wander among the tall, skinny trees and find a little adventure, a little fancy, and a bit of love.
William Wesley Cook. Practical Lessons in Hypnotism. Chicago: Charles Thompson, 1901.
You'll be on top of the world when you learn William Wesley Cook's secret method for knocking your enemies out with lightning from your fingertips!
I actually love this cover. It's very dramatic, and being a bit over the top is one of the things that sets the book covers of old apart from their modern counterparts.
Arthur Stringer. The Loom of Destiny. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company, 1899.
I wonder if M. C. Escher ever saw this book cover. Its clever maze of lines certainly would have appealed to his sensibilities.
Ignatius Donnelly. Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1883.
I bought a copy of Ignatius Donnelly's book about Atlantis in the 1980s. It was a reprint, of course. If I could get hold of a first edition, I would keep it in a glass case and allow no one to touch it.
You can see many more of these old-time masterpieces on this page.
Whatever you do, don't look at Mr. Sweet Potatoes.
Mr. Sweet Potatoes and Other Stories. New York: Werner, 1899.
I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. He made me do it.
I hope you enjoyed this exploration of the fantastic book covers from a bygone era.
I admit, my book covers suck by comparison.
In fairness, my book covers suck in comparison to most book covers. I'm a graphic design school dropout working with no budget, designing my own.
I wonder if Mr. Sweet Potatoes influenced H. P. Lovecraft's descent into madness. Young Howard would have been nine years old at the time that abomination was unleashed upon the world. Who knows how many children's minds were permanently warped by the sight of Mr. Sweet Potatoes?
Right, this is just getting silly. It's late, and I've had a hard couple of days. I've been kicking around the idea of creating my own limited-edition book covers for my poetry volumes, but I'm not an artist. I could end up creating an even worse eldritch abomination than Mr. Sweet Potatoes.
Enjoy some holiday romance, including a sweet second-chance story by C. L. Hart in the For the Love of Winter collection. Guaranteed free of Mr. Sweet Potatoes.
1 comment:
I like the Mr. Sweet Potato one. When I was a kid, I would've definitely picked that one up. :)
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