PEnguIn75 - Booktopia

Penguin
75
Designers | Authors | Commentary
( the good, the bad... )
Edited and Introduced by
Foreword by
Paul Buckley
CHRIS WARE
ADVANCE UNCORRECTED SAMPLE • ON SALE JUNE 29, 2010
Paul Buckley
Paul Buckley labors under the title of Executive Vice President Creative Director at Penguin, where he
and his talented team of Designers and Art Directors oversee the packaging for the following imprints:
Penguin, Viking, Penguin Press, Riverhead, Pamela Dorman Books, Portfolio, Sentinel, and Current. His
iconic design and singular art direction have graced countless bestsellers and garnered him hundreds
of awards and frequent invitations to speak in the U.S. and abroad. His work, and that of his staff, can be
seen in every major design annual, and of course, in every book store. Paul lives in Brooklyn with his wife,
Ingsu Liu, who is a publishing Art Director for W.W. Norton. They can talk about publishing for hours,
and often pretend to approve each others rejected covers.
To see more of Paul’s work, please visit paulbuckleydesign.com.
Chris Ware
Chris Ware lives in Oak Park, Illinois, and is the author of Jimmy Corrigan—the Smartest Kid on Earth.
He is currently serializing two new graphic novels in his ongoing periodical The ACME Novelty Library,
the 20th issue of which will be released in 2010. He has guest-edited McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern
and Houghton-Mifflin’s Best American Comics, and was the first cartoonist chosen to regularly serialize
an ongoing story in The New York Times Magazine. A contributor to the New Yorker and The Virginia
Quarterly Review, his work was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial, was favored with an exhibit
of its own at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 2006, and will be exhibited at the Gävle
Konstcentrum in Gävle, Sweden, in 2010.
Publishers and editors are used to hearing art directors and designers moan
endlessly about their best work being passed over by the philistines
that surround them on all sides. Conversely, they’re also hearing from the
authors how there is no way the designers read the material and these lousy
covers will surely bury their careers. Then these poor editors and publishers have to gently navigate us through, hopefully to a good conclusion for all.
Beautiful designs flourish. And massive book sales soon follow. Hopefully.
Not really. OK, sometimes. But never as often as we’d all like.
This being the case, design blogs are constantly asking “Why does this
cover look this way?” Often the designer appears online and diplomatically
attempts to answer. But in all my years, I’ve only seen one author chime in.
So with this book, I thought it would be fun to get both sides on one page
talking about one cover. And what I’ve learned is that, when faced with putting their thoughts on the printed page, authors are far more polite than designers. But I’ve seen the e-mails. I’ve heard the responses. An author who
dislikes a cover is often not very polite, and sometimes understandably so.
After years of crafting something that is immensely important, we come
along, and in a matter of weeks, an editor sends an e-mail that is usually
along the lines of “We are so excited to be showing you this! We hope you
love it as much as we do!!! XOXO.” (Really—I see the XOXO thing A LOT.) . . .
And then author panic ensues. Who wouldn’t hate something attached to an
e-mail with two sentences, thirty exclamation points, and XOXO?
So why can’t I get more than a handful of authors to honestly say what
they hate about their covers—in print? Maybe time heals all wounds? They
get used to it? Are they just polite in print and designers are reactionary in
and out of print? Probably. Designers are a passionate group, whip shy from
years of constant rejection over work they truly try to impress us all with.
We make terribly defensive husbands and wives, but we do have great taste.
Seriously . . . you should see the shoes I wear.
Who’s really telling the truth on these pages? You decide. Enjoy, and
thanks for buying my book!
XOXO,
Paul Buckley
_______________________________ _______________________________ ____________________________________________
i n t ro d u c t i o n
3
#
01
__________________________
The Angel Maker
Designer | Illustrator:
Jennifer Wang
Art Director:
Roseanne Serra
Jennifer Wang
Stefan Brijs
Designer | Illustrator
Author
The theme of the town’s
entwined relationships
resonated strongly with me
throughout my reading of
Stefan Brijs’s book. The novel is
permeated with dark, evocative
imagery that connotes a
writhing mass of inescapable
interconnectivity, and this is the
visceral experience that I wanted
to relate.
__________________________________
Hallelujah! Finally, a designer
who actually read my book! That’s
what I thought when I first saw
this cover. At that moment, my
book had already been published
in many languages with as many
different covers. The title, the
theme of the novel—clones
—and the gothic atmosphere
caused designers worldwide to
experiment with fluffy wings,
endearing angels, disfigured faces
and giant ova, some human and
some not. Dracula-like castles
and threatening clouds on the
horizon were also recurring
themes. This cover, however, was
totally different. Original. And for
the first time, the content, theme,
and mood of my novel were
summarized in a single image,
as I myself had also done in one
sentence, somewhere in the
middle of the final chapter:
“If you draw a line, see, from here,
the doctor’s house, where the
walnut tree used to stand, to the
three borders, you can see how
all the disasters seem to branch
out from that spot, just like the
roots of a tree.”
__________________________________
Editor:
Kathryn Court
The
ANGEL
MAKER
a
no
vel
S T E FA N B R I J S
Alternative cover.
4
01/75
#
02
__________________________
Paul Auster backlist
Designer:
Greg Mollica
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
Paul Slovak
6
Paul Auster
Greg Mollica
Author
Designer
From the mid-eighties to the
mid-nineties, I published ten
books with Penguin. I had mixed
feelings about the design of the
covers: some successes, some
failures, all in a hodgepodge. A
few years ago, the estimable Paul
Slovak decided to “repackage” the
backlist with a uniform look for
the covers. My only suggestion was
to consider a purely typographical
approach rather than use any
images. The result far exceeded
my expectations. Greg Mollica
came up with an extraordinarily
brilliant and elegant solution: a
set of variations using a few fixed
elements in different geometric
and color combinations from
book to book, making each volume
distinct from all the others and yet
unmistakably part of a series. In
my opinion, it is a masterpiece of
contemporary design.
__________________________________
I noticed a large stack of old
Paul Auster paperbacks on Paul
Buckley’s desk one night. I was
immediately curious about said
stack, being a big Auster fan. When
I asked Paul about it, he gave me
the answer I was fishing for:
“We’re redesigning our Auster
back list, why?” Before Paul could
finish, I asked/slightly begged to
take the project on. Paul was a
bit hesitant at first, but I think he
said yes so I would stop whining.
A nine-book redesign in total,
Buckley suggested “letter forms as
ART.” Ummm, ok, free typographic
solution for nine Paul Auster
covers?! God, I love my job,
I remember thinking.
Soon after their release, I was
invited to Paul Auster’s book party.
When I saw Mr. Auster, I didn’t
want to say anything, but my sister
approached his wife and insisted
I introduce myself. Mrs. Auster,
sensing my unease, took over and
brought us outside, where her
husband was speaking to another
man in the shadows. She was so
kind and introduced us and I said,
“Sorry to interrupt,” and the man
in shadow says, “Oh, it’s fine, I was
just leaving.” He walks off and
Paul Auster goes, “Good-bye, Don
DeLillo.” And I thought to myself,
well, that makes perfect sense.
__________________________________
01/75
ion of tAlent, scope,
meless, theft is so rampant it is no
a suicide or assassination—is the
of her brother. in her struggle to surects from the past to sell for food and
ven love—in this devastated world.
that reaffirms paul Auster’s stature
talents of his generation.
Auster creates within these pages a
ps, our very own city.”
he Atlanta Journal-Constitution
g Mollica
ww.penguin.com
paul
auster
in the country of last things
with artistry . . . one of the better
— The Washington Post
paul auster
New Republic
in the country
of last things
available online at www.Penguin.com
esign by greg MolliCa
ooK | fiction | WWW.penguin.com
In a Pennsylvania meadow, a young fireman and an angry gambler are forced
to build a wall of fifteenth-century stone. For Jim Nashe, it all started when he
came into a small inheritance and left Boston in pursuit of “a life of freedom.”
Careening back and forth across the United States, waiting for the money to run
out, Nashe met Jack Pozzi, a young man with a temper and a plan. With Nashe’s
last funds, they entered a poker game against two rich eccentrics, “risking
everything on the single blind turn of a card.” In Paul Auster’s world of fiendish
bargains and punitive whims, where chance is a shifting and powerful force,
there is redemption, nonetheless, in Nashe’s resolute quest for justice and his
capacity for love.
“A rich, dazzling performance . . . a tour de force about freedom and imprisonment,
motion and stasis, order and randomness . . . its story beautifully paced and shaped,
its tone powerfully omninous.”
—The Wall Street
Journal
“Witty, even jaunty . . . you won’t read much better writing anywhere about the lure of
the open road—and it catches the reader in a surprisingly strong spell.”
—The Washington Post
“Here is an exceptional novel of freedom and chance which takes you on an engrossing tour of a man’s inner life.”
—Los Angeles Times
cover design by greg mollica
A PeNgUIN Book | FICtIoN | WWW.PeNgUIN.Com
the music of chance
the music of chance
—The Miami
Mr. vertigo
to end.”
and pace of a bestselling thriller”
mr. vertigo
paul auster
tion of a raucous age, an ambitious and enduringly
h.
ness . . . nobody—nobody—has produced a better
he national consciousness at century’s end.”
—The Boston Globe
a novel praised by The New York Times for having “all the suspense
paul auster
e novel is the story of one Walter claireborne rawley,
he Wonder Boy.” it is the late 1920s, the era of Babe
capone, and Walt is a saint louis orphan rescued
s hungarian master yehudi, who teaches Walt to walk
sults from Walt’s marvelous new ability takes them
, where they meet and fall prey to sinners, thieves, and
x Klan to the chicago mob. Walt’s rise to fame and
coming of age, and his resilience, like that of the
gain.
From one of America’s most original and startlingly imaginative writers,
paul auster
er pure And simple . . .
n the story of AmericA itself.”
yardley, The Washington Post
paul auster
“Enormously compElling . . . AustEr hAs A rArE combinA-
ioNal BesTseller
ter Aaron about his best friend, Benjamin sachs.
envied, an intelligence he admired, a world he
ter a near-fatal fall that might or might not have
eared. now Aaron must piece together the life that
aim is to tell the truth and preserve it, before those
invent an account of their own.
ook | fiction | www.penguin.com
8
paul auster
“ Auster is a masterly storyteller. . . . Moon palace shimmers with
mysteries.”
—The washington post book world
“A beautiful and haunting book.”
chronicle
Cover design
—San Francisco
by greg MolliCa
A pEnguin book | fiction | www.pEnguin.com
Moon palaCe
esign by greg MolliCa
beginning during the summer that men first walked on the moon, and moving
backward and forward in time to span three generations, Moon palace is propelled
by coincidence and memory, marked by tragedy and redemption, and illuminated by
marvelous flights of lyricism and wit. here is the most entertaining and moving novel
yet from an author well known for his breathtaking imagination.
“this is a writer whose work shines with intelligence and originality. . . .
he blends modern surfaces with nineteenth-century interiors. . . . yet
he puts his storytelling techniques at the service of a very contemporary novel.”
—don delillo
leviathan
brary Association Notable Book
marco stanley fogg is an orphan, a child of the sixties, a quester tirelessly seeking the key to his past, the answers to the ultimate riddle of
his fate. As marco journeys from the canyons of manhattan to the deserts of utah, he encounters a gallery of characters and a series of events
as rich and surprising as any in modern fiction.
paul
auster
leviathan
eventh novel is about friendship and betrayal,
ent, and the unpredictable intrusions of violence
and immensely moving story by an author whom
t has called “one of America’s most spectacularly
h fully fleshed characters, a fast-paced plot,
d narrative cunning.”
—The Boston
of tAlEnt, scopE, And AudAcity.” —The New Republic
paul auster
elf up by the side of a road in northern wisconsin. . .
tion
paul auster
ho is perfecting A genre of his own.”
Wall STreeT Journal
moon
palace
xx/75
ery, City of Glass inaugurates the
Washington Post Book World has
. it’s as if kafka has gotten hooked
ver-spiraling version.” As a result
night, Quinn, a writer of detective
zling than any he might have writf Glass combines dark humor with
paul auster
r metAphysiciAns,
y And mAny-lAyered
ll BAnks
illiant installments in paul Auster’s
edition.
city
ull of suspense and action. . . .
er’s art.”
—The New York Times Book Review
g Mollica
ww.penguin.cOm
city of glass
f the storyteller’s art, guided
with just the facts.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
paul
auster
of
glass
Volume One
of
The New York Trilogy
01/75
9
#
03
__________________________
Bicycle Diaries
Author | Artist
David Byrne
Designer | Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
Paul Slovak
David Byrne
Author | Ar tist
Book covers are collaborations
based on contingencies and
practicalities . . . that’s part of the
fun—it’s a bit like puzzle solving.
Having watched the still-recent
evisceration of music packaging,
it’s clear that for physical books
to survive, they have to be lovely
to hold and view. Plastic CD
cases are ugly things that fall to
pieces—it’s no wonder customers
have abandoned them. Most books
aren’t very lovely as physical
objects, and won’t be missed either
when they go.
I realized that not having a
dust jacket accentuated the book’s
“objectness,” so I submitted some
jacketless book samples and a
drawing of myself on a bike to
Paul. After a little research on the
technical and pragmatic issues
(Blurb on back or inside? Bar code
on a sticker or bellyband?), Paul
came back with some nice layouts
and type options, and we were
off and running.
__________________________________
Proposed cover.
Paul Buckley
Designer
David Byrne has done so much
in quite a few art fields—we all
know he’s a brilliant musician
and showman, but he’s also a
highly respected visual artist
and consistently makes sure that
everything that bears his name is
designed spectacularly. So having
David Byrne come into your office
to discuss his cover is pretty cool,
but also sort of daunting.
1 0 Viking, hardcover.
David came well prepared with
some bicycle sketches and a clear
directive that he wanted something
very simple. I was fine with the
simple part, but I was a little leery
of bicycle imagery. With the title
Bicycle Diaries, using a bicycle
on the cover seemed so darn
redundant. . . . After we discussed
David’s sketches, I did manage to
politely bring up, “Hey, I did some
all-type designs for your book that
hint at movement indirectly—and
they just happen to be right here
on my desk. . . . ” While working on
them that week, I had convinced
myself that David might like them
due to things I’d seen of his in the
past. They were loud and energetic
and (I thought) very David Byrne.
I was very wrong. He looked
at them and quietly said, “I see,
hmmm . . . ” a few times too many.
So to put us both out of our misery,
I said “OK, so you’ll JPEG the
finished bike drawing when you’re
done?” and he said, “Yes, sure, sure
. . . ” And that was that—comps
meet recycling bin.
In the end, I went only one
round with the cleaner design,
and we were both very pleased
with the straightforward, bold
simplicity of the final cover. And
though I still believe it’s most
interesting to depict a book’s
content cover-wise, from a
slightly crooked path, this one
really works—David’s charming
drawing really pulled it together.
__________________________________
01/75
B i cyc l e
Diaries
DaviD
By r n e
#
04
__________________________
Cartoon Classics, Series
Philosophy in the Boudoir
Author:
Marquis de Sade
Designer:
Paul Buckley
+ Tomer Hanuka
Illustrator:
Tomer Hanuka
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
Caroline White
Paul Buckley
Tomer Hanuka
Designer
Illustrator
This edition of Philosophy
in the Boudoir is now a few
years old, but it’s still easily my
favorite in this series—it’s just
so rude, lewd, and gorgeous all
at the same time. Even though
every time I commission one of
these covers I tell my artists to
really go for it, Tomer made me
the most proud in this regard.
The one disappointment during
this project was my associate
publisher’s insistence that the
horse’s appendage be removed. I
remember the conversation:
“Wow, this is fantastic, but
Paul, yikes—castrate that horse.”
“C’mon Stephen, the Marquis
de Sade . . . . ”
“I think you got away with
enough here—be happy.”
I am happy, but is the horse
happy? A tad less so these days.
_______________________________
The content here is hard core,
with revolutionary aspirations.
Visually, it begs for an aroused
horse in a lavish living room. In
the sketch for the back cover, the
horse was juxtaposed with an
image of de Sade choking a
young woman. The front cover
was relatively clean: one indecent
gesture and half a nipple.
Sketches were submitted and
came back with mixed results. The
horse would have to be castrated,
but the nipple stayed. Despite
believing the penis was at the
heart of the concept, keeping half
a nipple on the front gave me a
sense of finishing the project with
nuts intact.
_______________________________
A big thank-you to Adrian
Tomine for liaising with
Mr. Tatsumi on our behalf. Also,
a huge thanks to Eric Roberts
of Fantagraphics for all his help
and guidance with this series.
Pre-castration.
12
01/75
xx/75
13
Cartoon Classics, Series
Chris Ware
Designer | Illustrator
Candide, or Optimism
Designer | Illustrator:
Chris Ware
Art Director:
Helen Yentus
Editor:
Michael Millman
14
The history of cartooning
is a troubled and embarrassing
one. When the Swiss educator
Rodolphe Töpffer noticed that
a way of grabbing his students’
attention was to draw little
caricatures and picture stories
relating to his subjects (not unlike,
one supposes, the ones with which
they were decorating their own
textbooks during his lectures), he
realized he’d hit on something,
and from there produced the first
genuine comic book in 1831. He
then spent the rest of his short
life trying to live the thing down,
insisting he wasn’t a cartoonist,
but a serious literary man. The
damage was done, however.
173 years later, when Helen
Yentus asked me to do a new cover
for the Penguin edition of Candide,
I at first declined, recalling the
annoyance and exasperation with
which I’d plodded through the text
in seventh grade while my English
teacher kept assuring us students
that it was actually a “funny book.”
I realized, however, that Helen was
offering me a rare opportunity to
speak directly to those seventh
graders who now found themselves
in the same dreary position I had
experienced. Candide is, after all,
a fairly dispiriting and hateful
story—how many other books
were we asked to read in high
school where characters get their
asses cut off? So I took all of these
conditions under advisement,
as well as Helen’s mention of
my McSweeney’s #13 cover as a
model (which had only recently
been released), and was off to
the races. I can’t say it was lots of
fun to do, rereading the book in
a couple of different translations
to be sure I “had it down,” but in
the process I realized that a likely
part of its appeal when originally
published was the ridiculous speed
at which events unfurl and tragedy
repeatedly strikes (aside from
all the philosophical pecking at
determinism, Leibniz, etc.).
A few weeks after the cover
was finished, Helen called to let
me know that since the cover had
found favorable enough truck
among the people at Penguin
(Paul Buckley in particular), it was
decided to begin a brand-new line
of classics predicated upon it, each
decorated by a different irreverent
cartoonist—who, presumably, also
hadn’t paid attention in school.
Imagine how proud old Töpffer
would be now, his little teaching
tool snowballing into a line of
successful, respected literary
classics. Determinism, indeed!
_______________________________
01/75
xx/75
15
#
05
__________________________
Couture Classics, Series
Designer | Illustrator:
Ruben Toledo
Art Director:
Roseanne Serra
Editor:
Elda Rotor
16
Elda Rotor
Roseanne Serra
Editor
Ar t Director
When I heard from art director
Roseanne Serra that fashion
illustrator Ruben Toledo had
agreed to design all three covers of
our Couture Classics (Wuthering
Heights, Pride and Prejudice, and
The Scarlet Letter), I was beside
myself. As a student, I used to cut
out his illustrations from earlier
incarnations of Paper and Details
magazines, and had admired his
murals in Barneys and his striking
Nordstrom’s national print ad
campaign. Although all three
covers of these Penguin Classics
Deluxe Editions are incredible,
my personal favorite is The Scarlet
Letter. Here we have a redheaded
Hester Prynne in what I imagine
as a cashmere knit dress with an
oversized embroidered letter A, the
threads of which she’s entangled
in. Ruben’s depiction of the iconic
wild child Pearl captures her in
Issey Miyake–like pleats and a
forbidding Anna Wintour–y stare.
How can any fashionista resist? But
what I love most is that Ruben’s
cover bridges between twentyfirst century fashion-forward
insight and nineteenth-century
symbolism. I’ve seen early-edition
illustrations of The Scarlet Letter
and was pleased to see the same
imagery inspire Ruben Toledo,
specifically the mob of gossiping
women, here spreading gossip
across our deluxe French flaps, and
the thorny red rose bush creeping
across the back cover. Finally, all
font-crazed fans will enjoy Ruben’s
take on the letter A—the mark of
adultery—in various serif and sansserif designs. Holy Toledo, indeed.
__________________________________
Penguin Classics Deluxe had
the graphic novel series which does
so well, and they wanted another
series to keep the momentum
going. What could I do? I tend to
think toward the feminine side, so
what else but fashion, of course—it
was that or food. What a way to
get young women inspired to read
the classics! I tried actual fashion
designers thinking they would
so get into doing this, but that
became a horror. They envision
3-D, not print; they promise, they
don’t return. They just didn’t get
the process—it was not pleasant.
I had to put the idea on hold. No
one thought it would ever happen.
I really wanted this, I had to prove
this could happen. I kept thinking
of how, and then it hit me—get
fashion illustrators to do the series.
Illustrators will get the idea. What
a pleasure it was to work with the
ever-famous Ruben Toledo and get
his fun and crazed e-mails! This
became one of my most favorite
projects to work on after all was
said and done.
__________________________________
01/75
0-14-310543-5
3 105435
5 1 6 0 0
Penguin
EAN
Classics
Deluxe
Edition
Penguin Classics
Deluxe Edition
Ruben Toledo
Illustrator
On Pride and Prejudice: I
wanted to capture the revolving
social diary aspect of the tone
here. It’s like The Dating Game
where everyone is supposed to
be matched up in order to win
the game. The writing style is
superb—a great balance between
the frivolous-flippant social whirl
and some very heavy underlying
commentary about how some
members of society especially
women, have to marry their way
into freedom . . . or how some
women are put into cages. The
black-and-white period silhouettes
help illustrate the anonymity that
can be facilitated by following
fashion—by adhering to a certain
style, you can disguise yourself
and become the type suitable for
marriage and participation in
society at large.
On Wuthering Heights: My
personal favorite. It’s such a big
story that spans across so many
people over so much time, but all
attached to this one particular
place. I felt I had to draw the place,
the geography itself, in order to be
true to the story. The actual twisted
landscape reflects the twisted story
and people that live there—in fact,
I believe that places shape us as
much as our DNA . The gloom and
doom of the atmosphere is like an
impossible romantic ghost story .
On The Scarlett Letter: What
can I say? I’m a sucker for
seamstresses as I’m married to
one. I wanted to capture the Zen-
18
like focus and intensity that I see
in my wife Isabel’s eyes when she
is embroidering or mending. The
idea that women can weave their
own story, sew up their destiny,
and try and mend their lives is a
captivating image to me. The idea
that children are forced to wear
the hand-me-down ideas of their
parents, and at some point can
shed those ideas like an old coat
and be happy in their own skin;
this idea of renewal, rejuvenation
and rebirth is particularly
American to me.
__________________________________
01/75
COVER DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION: RUBEN TOLEDO
Visit www.vpbookclub.com • www.penguinclassics.com
ISBN 978-0-14-310543-5
A Penguin Book
L iterAture
5 1 6 0 0
Penguin
Penguin Classics
U.S. $16.00
CAN. $20.00
U.K. £12.99
Deluxe Edition
EAN
9
Classics
Deluxe
780143 105435
Penguin Classics
Deluxe Edition
Edition
Penguin Classics
D e l u xe Ed i t i o n
COVER DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION: RUBEN TOLEDO
Visit www.vpbookclub.com • www.penguinclassics.com
ISBN 978-0-14-310544-2
A Penguin Book
L iterAture
5 1 6 0 0
Penguin
Penguin Classics
U.S. $16.00
U.S. $20.00
$15.00
CAN.
CAN. $16.50
U.K.
£12.99
Deluxe Edition
EAN
Classics
Deluxe
9
780143 105442
Edition
TITLE: 9780143105428_PrideandPrejudice_CoutureClassic_CVR.indd
ISBN 978-0-14-310542-8
A Penguin Book
L iterAture
COVER DESIGN AND ILLUSTRATION: RUBEN TOLEDO
Visit www.vpbookclub.com • www.penguinclassics.com
Penguin Classics
Deluxe Edition
U.S. $16.00
CAN. $20.00
U.K. £12.99
5.625 x 8.4375 SPINE: 0.875
5 1 6 0 0
EAN
9
780143 105428
Penguin
Classics
D eluxe
Penguin Classics
Deluxe Edition
Edition
xx/75
19
#
06
__________________________
Eat, Pray, Love
Designer:
Helen Yentus
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
Paul Slovak
Often the visually
simplest of things are the
most difficult. Helen’s styling of
those three little words was
nothing short of heroic. Suffice
it to say, a ton of work went into
this cover.
20
Helen Yentus
Designer
Of course no one had any idea
what would become of this book.
There was talk of what a great
writer Elizabeth was and what
potential this book had, but really,
who could have guessed? I could
also say, had anyone known, I’m
not sure I could have gotten away
with this cover. I wasn’t sure how
I’d feel about this book when it
was assigned to me, but as soon as
I started reading it, I think I felt
what so many millions felt. Here
was a completely sincere, lovely,
smart, and honest voice. I did not
expect to love this book, but I did.
So when the time came to design
it, I really wanted to do something
special. There was a lot of research
done on the various places that
Elizabeth visits in the story, but
I could not figure out a good
way to put it together. If I have
to be honest, I cannot actually
remember exactly how the idea for
this came about. I had previously
done a cover with some lettering
made out of three-dimensional
material, and I think my art
director, Paul Buckley, suggested
I try something along those lines.
All I know is that this was, in the
end, one of the most difficult
covers I have ever pulled off. The
pasta and the prayer beads were
difficult, but more or less ok. But
the flowers were a nightmare.
Each petal had to be arranged with
tweezers. And really, did it have to
be script? To make matters worse,
this cover had to be shot twice—
the first round of photos did not
come out well. Needless to say, the
flowers had wilted, so I had to do
it all again. In the end, however,
the time and obsessive efforts
were worth it—I think it’s the right
cover for the book.
_______________________________
Elizabeth Gilbert
Author
When people first started
asking me why I thought Eat,
Pray, Love became such a
phenomenon, I used to respond
honestly: “Because of the cover.”
I have since stopped saying this,
because it sounds like I’m being
dismissive or cheeky, but I still
believe it. And I have evidence!
Some readers have confessed to
me that they not only bought Eat,
Pray, Love because they liked the
cover, but that they kept the book
displayed openly in their homes
for many months, for the same
reason: they loved looking at it.
I do, too. I cannot imagine this
book with any other cover.
__________________________________
01/75
forms—love of
d most meaning-
bert’s wry, unfet-
ourney lets even
eam of someday
aps, over a tran-
ANGELES TIMES
modern Ameri-
ome, successful
elt consumed by
story of how she
ELI Z A BE TH GI LBERT
BOOK
#1
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
ELIZABETH GILBERT
Author of Committed
what she found
pression, Gilbert
n worldly enjoy-
x of Susan Orlean
INMENT WEEKLY
, I haven’t found
lligence, wit, and
ES BOOK REVIEW
0 0
Adapted from the Viking hardcover.
EAN
One Woman’s Search for Everything
Across Italy, India and Indonesia
OKCLUB.COM
E R T. C O M
EAT, PRAY, LOVE
, set against the
devotion in India,
“A wonderful book, brilliant and
personal, rich in spiritual insight.”
—ANNE LAMOTT
One Woman’s Search for Everything
Across Italy, India and Indonesia
#
07
__________________________
Graham Greene backlist
Designer:
Paul Buckley
Illustrator:
Brian Cronin
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
Kathryn Court
22
Paul Buckley
Brian Cronin
Designer
Illustrator
I follow illustrators the way
some people follow musicians.
I grew up on illustration, my
father coming home from work
when I was a kid, passing on every
illustration annual, book, or
mailer that landed into his in-box
to me. He was an art director in
advertising and a talented artist
that cultivated my very early love
for the art form. Illustration is
what I have my degree in, and
why my staff is populated with
designers who are also excellent
illustrators. So people like Brian
Cronin are rock stars to me, and I
love the days I can call up someone
like him and ask if they’d work
with me on something. . . . And if I
get a “yeah, sure” on a series of six
books, it’s a beautiful day.
Brian’s work is deceptively
naïve, but that’s because he needs
to make very few marks to convey
what’s needed—so much emotion
is packed into the odd distortion
here and there. Everything is
extremely controlled, though it
looks otherwise.
__________________________________
I remember thinking a lot
about the clothes I was going to
have the characters wear in my
paintings more than anything
else. In Brighton Rock, I had the
protagonist dressed as a teddy boy
(a big trend in 1950s Britain). I
myself wanted to be a teddy boy,
but was a tad young at that time
for that trend. When I came of age
in the 70s, I was a punk—which
had the same kind of anger
attached. Teddy boys always had
big ears.
In The End of the Affair, I
didn’t want to show a naked hand.
It seemed too revealing. So I put
a glove on the love interest to
suggest that someone was leaving.
In The Quiet American, I
have the title character wearing a
seersucker suit. A very light, cool
fabric suit that I would imagine
an American bureaucrat wearing
in Vietnam in the 1960s. I can’t
remember what I was wearing
when I made these images,
though.
__________________________________
01/75
-----------
“No serious writer of [the
has more thoroughly inva
public imagination as did
—Time
---
In this classic novel of m
Graham Greene lays bare
of seventeen who stalks
Brighton Rock
---
Graham Greene
---
boardwalk with apathy on
in his heart. Pinkie, the bo
fingertips, is not just bad,
temple of evil, just as his
in the house of God. Crim
is a release so deep and sa
e hours,
no need for drink or wo
his fellows. He is an as
sinister and fascinating—“
of the Adolf Hitler type,”
------ ---------------------- ---------------Bri g h t o n R o c k
------ ---------------------G r a h a m G r e e n e -----
0 4 –2 0 0 4
g r a H a m
g r e e n e
C e n t e n n i a l
1 9 0 4– 2 0 0 4
M. Coetzee.
Penguin ClassiCs
D e l u x e e D i t i o n
Originally published in
is a novel of profound ps
and chilling suspense. Th
Penguin
ClassiCs
D e l u x e
e D i t i o n
introduction by J. m. Coetzee
Graham Greene
“No serious writer of [the twe
has more thoroughly invaded
public imagination as did Gr
—Time
“This is a record of hate far mor
The end of The AffAir
writes Maurice Bendrix in th
ooses
sages of The End of the Affair. An
hate indeed that compels him
retrospective account of his a
with Sarah Miles—a hate bred o
ultimately lost out to God.
Now, a year after Sarah’s death
to exorcise the persistence of
retracing its course from ob
love-hate. At the start he be
Sarah and her husband, Hen
4 –2 0 0 4
g r a h a M
g r e e n e
C e n t e n n i a l
of the book, Bendrix’s hatred
1 9 0 4 –2 0 0 4
the God he feels has broken hi
Penguin ClassiCs
D e l u x e e D i t i o n
existence he has at last come to
The end of T he Aff Air
Penguin
ClassiCs
D e l u x e
Originally published in 1951,
Affair was acclaimed by Wi
e D i t i o n
as “for me one of the best,
Graham Greene
moving novels
language.” This Graham Gre
introduction by Michael gorra
24
of my time
xx/75
Christopher Hitchens.
it kind of a mental battlefield, inducing a sense
remarkable piece of work, splendidly writ-
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
moments of unexpected power and reality.”
public imagination as did Graham Greene.”
—Time
Described by Graham Greene as “the only book
As the Orient Express hurtles across Europe
I have written for the fun of it,” Travels with My
on its three-day journey from Ostend to
Constantinople, the driven lives of several
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
and complacent bank manager, who meets
of its passengers become bound together in a
his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first
fateful interlock. The menagerie of characters
time at what he supposes to be his mother’s
include Coral Musker, a beautiful chorus girl;
funeral. She soon persuades Henry to abandon
Carleton Myatt, a rich Jewish businessman;
his dull suburban existence to travel her way—
Richard John, a mysterious and kind doctor
to Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay. Through
returning to his native Belgrade; the spiteful
Aunt Augusta, one of Greene’s greatest comic
journalist Mabel Warren; and Josef Grunlich,
creations, Henry joins a shiftless, twilight soci-
a cunning, murderous burglar.
“the purser took the last landing-card in his hand and
watched the passengers cross the wet quay, over a wilderness of rails and points, round the corners of abandoned trucks.”
through and through with the consciousness
ety; mixes with hippies, war criminals, and
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
••
••
••
••
••
••
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
••••••••••••••••••
of the onrushing train, with that curious sense
e e n e
C e n t e n n i a l
D e l u x e
e D i t i o n
www.PenguinClassiCs.Com
Travels with My Aunt
Penguin
ClassiCs
nguin ClassiCs
perplexing human dilemmas. ThisP eGraham
e D i t i o n
Graham Greene
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
www.PenguinClassiCs.Com
=
=
qwertyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcc
e D i t i o n
Graham Greene
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
“A continuously intriguing piece of storytelling
Matter tells the story of a good man enmeshed
The Heart of the Matter
The Quiet American
Graham Greene’s masterpiece The Heart of the
universal human problem—the fearful price of
in love, intrigue, and evil in a West African
cence there lurk unconscious arrogance and a
coastal town. Scobie is bound by strict integrity
self-righteous streak of moral blindness.”
to his role as assistant police commissioner and
=
=
innocence—and has shown that behind inno-
=
bines] the psychological novel with the novel
n sat on the balcony of the Bedford Hotel with his
of
violence and suspense, a rare accomink knees thrust against the ironwork.”
plishment for any writer.”
—Saturday
1 9 0 4 –2 0 0 4
and when midnight struck i couldn’t stay quiet any longer
widow Helen, he finds vital passion again
and went down into the street.”
yielding
g R a h a m g R e e n e C e n t e n n i –a l 1 9 0 4 –2 0 0 4
g r e e n e C e n t e n n i a l 1 9 0 4 2 0 0 4
Penguin ClassiCs
D e l u x e e D i t i o n
op’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./qwertyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./
The Heart of the Matter
tyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./qwertyuiop’;lkjhgqwert
’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbfzqwertyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./
op’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./qwertyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./
Graham Greene
tyuiop’;lkjhgqwertyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbfzqwertyui
introduction by James Wood
kjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./qwertyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcvbnm,./
which rises to a magnificent climax.” —New
Leader
“The best novel written about the war in
Cover design by Paul BuCkley
Indo-China.”
Cover illustration by BRian CRonin
Back cover photograph by
Times
P e n g u i n
a Penguin Book | literature
Penguin
ClassiCs
D e l u x e
e D i t i o n
—Chicago Sun-
y o u s u f k a R s h / Camera Press/Retna ltd.
C l a s s i C s
D e l u x e
e D i t i o n
WWW.PenguinClassiCs.Com
“Unless I am very much mistaken, The Quiet
American is as near a masterpiece as anything
a Penguin Book | liteRatuRe
www.PenguinClassiCs.Com
==
narrator Fowler remarks of Alden Pyle, the
eponymous “Quiet American” of what is
perhaps the most controversial novel of his
career. Pyle is the brash young idealist sent
out by Washington on a mysterious mission
against the Vietminh guerillas.
As young Pyle’s well-intentioned policies blun-
to pity, integrity giving way to
der into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and
dishonor—a vortex leading
cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to
bles, his personal crisis makes for
g Raanovel
h a mthatg R e e n e
C e n t e n n i a l
1 9 0 4–2 0 0 4
is suspenseful, fascinating, and, finally, tragic.
Penguin ClassiCs
D e l u x e e D i t i o n
clearly revealed in the structure of the novel,
g r a H a m
success. This Graham Greene Centennial
to Saigon, where the French Army struggles
When Scobie falls in love with the young
deceit and
“Greene at his best. The hand of the master is
C e n t e n n i a l
in 1933, Orient Express was Greene’s first major
all the trouble he caused,” Graham Greene’s
directly to murder. As Scobie’s world crumg r e e n e
and suspenseful stories. Originally published
“I never knew a man who had better motives for
whom he cares with a fatal pity.
rue Catinat; he had said, ‘i’ll be with you at latest by ten,’
Review Syndicate
for one of Graham Greene’s most exciting
—Time
by severe responsibility to his wife, Louise, for
“after dinner i sat and waited for Pyle in my room over the
“veracious air” of the onrushing train, makes
public imagination as did Graham Greene.”
sasz
. . . Greene has brought into vivid relief a
=
ing, and reaching out to one another in the
has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the
has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the
—Time
passion, all the while confessing, prevaricat-
“No serious writer of [the twentieth century]
“No serious writer of [the twentieth century]
public imagination as did Graham Greene.”
—The New York
—The Atlantic
D e l u x e
on and take off their masks of identity and
introduction by Christopher Hitchens
Graham Greene
Times
=
=
Graham Greene
“Written with Greene’s great technical skill and
rtyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcc
“A superb accomplishment . . . [Greene com-
m
D e l u x e
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Edition includes a new introductory essay by
rtyuiop’;lkjhgfdsazxcc
imagination.”
1 9 0 4–2 0 0 4
yet
some of the most
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
G also
G confronts
G G us
Gwith
GG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
introduction by gloria emerson
Robert Stone.
C e n t e n n i a l
Originally published in 1970, Travels with My
a Penguin Book | literature
guin Book | literature
Penguin ClassiCs
D e l u x e e D i t i o n
Penguin ClassiCs
D e l u x e e D i t i o n
—Saturday Review of Literature
C l a s s i C s
g r e e n e
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Ggives
G usGanGintoxicating
G G Gentertainment
G G GOrient
G G G G Express
GGGGGGGGGGGG
Aunt
Cover design by Paul BuCkley
Cover illustration by Brian Cronin
B a c k c o v e r p h o t o g r a p h b y y o u s u f k a r s H / Camera Press/retna ltd.
P e n g u i n
g r a H a m
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
“One of THE most exciting and successful
novels of its type that I have read.”
regulations.
g r a H a m g r e e n e C e n t e n n i a l 1 9 0 4 –2 0 0 4
g r a h a m g r e e n e C e n t e n n i a l 1 9 0 4–2 0 0 4
—The New
York Times
What happens to these strangers as they put
CIA men; smokes pot; and breaks all currency
of the temporary suspension of one’s ordinary
1 9 0 4 –2which
0 0 4comes to many on ship or
existence
train.”
GGG
Aunt is the story of Henry Pulling, a retired
GGGGG
“Orient Express has movement, variety, interest:
aunt augusta for the first time at my
taken on the surface, it is an interesting and
funeral.”
entertaining story of adventure, penetrated
••
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
—The New
has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the
—Time
Orient Express
Travels with My Aunt
vides, in addition to excellent entertainment,
“No serious writer of [the twentieth century]
public imagination as did Graham Greene.”
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
—L.
“Mr. Greene’s gift for spirited storytelling pro-
Republic
has more thoroughly invaded and shaped the
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
of breathlessness and urgency. It is a very
ten, exciting, disturbing.”
“No serious writer of [the twentieth century]
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
struggle with each other in this book, making
P. Hartley
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Edition features a new introductory essay by
“A tour de force . . . The realist and romantic
stand safely aside as an observer. But Fowler’s
motives for intervening are suspect, both to
the police and himself, for Pyle has stolen
The Quiet American
==============
Originally published in 1948, The Heart of the
Fowler’s beautiful Vietnamese mistress.
Matter is the unforgettable portrait of one man,
Penguin
flawed yet heroic, destroyed and redeemed
by
ClassiCs
D e l u x e
e D i t i o n
a terrible conflict of passion and faith. This
Graham Greene
Graham Greene Centennial Edition includes a
introduction by Robert stone
Originally published in 1956 and twice adapted to film, The Quiet American remains a terrifying and prescient portrait of innocence
at large. This Graham Greene Centennial
#
08
__________________________
I Love Dollars
Designer:
Matt Dorfman
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
John Siciliano
Julia Lovell
Matt Dorfman
Translator
Designer
I’m a great fan of this cover,
too. With beautiful economy,
it seems to catch a couple
of the fundamentals of Zhu
Wen’s fiction: his surprising,
sometimes scandalous humor;
his pleasure in debunking China’s
traditionally pious father-son
relationship. The British edition
used another striking image—a
busily psychedelic Chinese street
scene—but I still think I prefer
the simple outrageousness of the
American version.
__________________________________
My first round of comps for
this cover featured multiple
attempts at repurposing Chairman
Mao’s head. Given that this route
was already well trodden by other
designers through the years, Paul
Buckley wisely dismissed all of
them and suggested that I start
again. Fifteen comps later, the
final treatment that won out is as
much a result of the art director
and editor’s patience and trust as
it is of my design work.
Whatever Zhu Wen’s opinions
may be regarding the cover for
his book, I sincerely hope that
he values the absence of Mao—
because the comps that featured
Mao were, in retrospect, truly
terrible.
__________________________________
Matt clearly enjoyed
working on this book
and I was happy with quite a
few of his proposed designs. My
wife, her family, and many of our
friends are from Taiwan or mainland China and I’ve witnessed
firsthand how hungry they can
be for good Chinese fiction—it’s
not easy to find. So I narrowed
the cover choices to three or
four and sent them via e-mail to
roughly ten Chinese Americans,
and hands down everyone
picked “the cover with that old
guy.” Field research!
A N D OT H E R STO R I E S O F C H I N A
ZHU WEN
“Brilliant…
Fresh and very funny.”
AND
OT H E R
STO R I E S
OF
CHINA
—The Seattle Times
ZHU
WEN
“Brilliant…
Fresh and
very funny.”
—The Seattle Times
I Love Dollars. Penguin UK, 2008.
“BRIllIANT…
FRESH AND
v E Ry F u N N y. ”
— T h e S e aT T l e T i m e S
I LOVE DOLLARS
AND OTHER STORIES OF CHINA
H
“BRIllIANT…
F R E S H A N D v E Ry F u N N y. ”
— T h e S e aT T l e T i m e S
H
ZHU WEn
H
Proposed covers.
26
01/75
#
09
__________________________
Love Me
Designer | Illustrator:
Jamie Keenan
Art Director:
Roseanne Serra
Editor:
Molly Stern
28
Garrison Keillor
Jamie Keenan
Author
Designer | Illustrator
This cover gives me a bad case
of the yips. Love Me is a comic
novel in which the protagonist
Larry comes to New York and
realizes his great dream of
working at The New Yorker and,
in a moment of great courage, he
shoots the publisher in the Oak
Room of the Algonquin Hotel
and returns to his beloved wife,
Iris, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The
cover doesn’t suggest any of that.
At first glance, it looks like oak
beams drying at the lumberyard,
or a bad dream about coffins, or a
child’s rendering of an aerial view
of Dupont Circle, or an explosion
at LEGOLAND. It doesn’t suggest
anything that is in the book.
Maybe it was designed for the
Penguin edition of The Trial by
Franz Kafka and Kafka didn’t
like it, so they stuck me with it.
Anyway, it could’ve been worse, as
we say. It could’ve been fruit bats
hanging from bare, knobby limbs,
or a color photo of suppurating
bedsores. So I bear no ill will, even
though Love Me only reached
234,851 on Amazon’s fiction
list and the book was quickly
remaindered—and sold almost a
thousand copies at fifty-nine cents
—and the rest were baled up and
hauled to a recycling plant. I still
have a copy and I enjoy reading
it very much. It’s a funny book,
though you’d never know it from
this.
__________________________________
I spent ages trying to put this
idea together using different
photographs of New York
skyscrapers. They all had slightly
different perspectives and trying
to get them to work together was
a nightmare—it looked terrible.
Then I noticed my original
scribble—the original scribble
is always best.
__________________________________
01/75
on books purport to tell the
wn, Love Me tells wonderfully
n . . . deliciously clever.”
—The Wall Street Journal
an zingers, Love Me is surpris—The New York Times Book Review
n a sweet love story . . . as wise
—USA Today
l o v e Me
ds a quiet, decent life in St. Paul,
While his wife, Iris, an earnest
, works with the less fortunate,
reat American novel. When his
is wildest dreams, he departs for
The New Yorker, and—best of all—
reat editor William Shawn.
bs, Wyler discovers that success—
ne–is a fickle mistress, indeed. A
ues. Nearly destitute, and longriting “Ask Mr. Blue,” a column
. It may not be glamorous work,
hat’s really important. He consher Tony Crossandotti and sets
t behind.
Garrison Keillor
s N otA ble book
t h e
N e w
Y o r k
T i m e s
b e s t s e l l e r
G a r r i s o n
K eillor
“Keillor’s funniest and most ambitious novel to date.”
—The Washington Post Book World
love Me
a novel
Cover design and
www.penguin.com illustration by KEENAN
xx/75
29
#
10
__________________________
Penguin Ink Series
Series Editor:
Tom Roberge
Waiting for the Barbarians
Author:
J.M. Coetzee
Illustrator:
C.C. Askew
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
30
Paul Buckley
Ar t Director
The Penguin Ink series
came to me during the course
of researching tattoo artists
for personal reasons. For over
a decade I’d wanted a tattoo,
but as a picky art director, this
decision was very difficult for me.
. . . What image was so perfect
that I’d want to look at it for the
next fifty years? And, for the
very same reason, which artist
was talented enough? I made my
first appointment only to call
two hours before the appointed
time and shyly back out, having
convinced myself that the artist’s
gradations were all wrong. . . .
How could I have missed that?
It took me another five years
to choose another artist who
I thought flawless, and then
another two years to land the
appointment. I had plenty of
time to research a lot of tattoo
artists, and the talent in this field
is staggering. And while I can’t
say it’s untapped, I do think it fair
to say that they are underutilized
as far as commercial assignments
are concerned. Before officially pitching this
series, I discussed the idea with
one of our editors, Tom Roberge
(who is fairly well covered in ink),
and he thought it was a good idea.
Later, I made my pitch to our
Penguin publishing team, and
they got far more excited than I
expected. Soon after, they chose
Tom as the editor on the series.
Using Duke Riley for The Broom
of the System was Tom’s idea. It’s a
beautiful cover.
Through art directing this
project, I’ve learned the hard way
that some tattoo artists thrive
on the immediacy of someone
like you walking through the
door, telling them what you want,
and doing it. You pay them, you
leave—on to the next person.
Unfortunately in book publishing,
cover art projects can plod along
for weeks as we wait for agents
and authors and estates to weigh
in. Then minor changes are
requested, and everyone weighs
in again. For some tattoo artists,
this can seem a very alien way to
work. Some became unreliable in
the revision stage—one artist was
so enraged with the slow pace that
during our last conversation, he
just kept barking into the phone,
"Do you have any idea JUST WHO
I AM??!"
(Yes, that’s why I hired you,
Angry Fellow. And why I won’t do
so ever again.) It’s been great fun trying to
match these artists to authors, but
it has also been a steep learning
curve. This is not an art form in
which I can claim much expertise,
and I’m still learning the ropes—
and occasionally getting thrown
against them.
_______________________________
xx/75
Money
Author:
Martin Amis
Illustrator:
Bert Krak
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Author:
Helen Fielding
Illustrator:
Tara McPherson
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Bert Krak
Paul Buckley
Illustrator
Ar t Director
When I first accepted the task
of illustrating the cover of Money,
I had no idea what to do. After a
little back-and-forth with Paul, we
decided to go with what I know:
classic tattoo patterns. The gritty
world of the book meshes perfectly
with the rough, bold designs of
traditional tattoo flash. The first
rough sketch was too much like a
painting—we ended up going with
something that was more like a
sheet you would find in any worldclass tattooing establishment.
_______________________________
Tara McPherson is not a tattoo
artist, though she is certainly
covered in them and is wellknown in tattoo culture. I needed
something a bit out of the norm
for Bridget Jones, and I had been
mulling over whether to ask her
to try her hand at doing flash art
for a while. But I first had to justify
how I could truly state this series
was done all by tattoo artists if
she wasn’t one herself. During
this time my wife and I decided
to take a quick vacation in Miami,
where we went to the infamous
Joe’s Stone Crab for dinner . . .
and eating dinner right across
from us was Tara. I didn’t know
her personally, nor am I the sort
to interrupt people at dinner, so
rather than introducing myself and
running the idea by her, I let her eat
in peace. But I’m a bit of a believer
in serendipity, so I did contact her
as soon as I got back to NYC, and
she liked the idea.
I’m glad I followed through on
this slight departure in the series as
Tara did such an outstanding job.
_______________________________
Tara McPherson
Illustrator
The cover for Bridget Jones was
interesting because, being part
of the tattoo cover series, I had to
shift my style a bit to translate to
the flash sensibility. It was fun to
work in a different style, though.
Also, I did it while traveling
through the U.S. and Australia—
not an easy thing to work on in
hotel rooms, but it came together
beautifully.
_______________________________
32
xx/75
PENGUIN
INK
PENGUIN
INK
Cover by Bert Krak
Art direction by Paul Buckley
8-0-14-311695-0
5 1 5 0 0
EAN
43 116950
xx/75
33
#
11
__________________________
The Royal Family
Designer:
Paul Buckley
Author | Photographer:
William T. Vollmann
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
Paul Slovak
34
William T. Vollmann
Paul Buckley
Author | Photographer
Designer
It was a pleasure to be given
Viking money for the cover of The
Royal Family. I set out with my
8 x 10 camera, some film holders,
and a plug-in shop lamp.
Wandering into a fine crack hotel
of my acquaintance, I booked a
room for an hour and knocked
on the nearest door. The lady
within had two friends available.
I asked one woman to pose as the
Queen of the Prostitutes, and the
others as her courtiers. In twenty
minutes, we were all happy. A day
later, my sheet film was developed
and I was happily sun-printing
the best negative with silver
chloride—printing out the paper
and toning it in gold, as befitted
royalty. My only regret was seeing
the fig leaves on the published
version.
_______________________________
I was pretty thrilled and
more than a little curious when
Vollmann told me he’d like to try
his hand at taking the cover photo
for this. These ladies are the real
deal—what folks tend to refer to
as “crack whores.” That said, how
can you not be impressed? When
it comes to authors wanting to
work on their own covers, I am
no wilting flower, and am the first
to say this or that just does not
work—but this image was just so
perfect. Was it reportage? Posed?
Who are they, and how did the
shoot get from point A to B? So
many questions, but I’m not sure
I want the answers. When
Vollmann sent me his bill, I had
to say, “You know, I’m just not
sure accounts payable is going
to understand . . . do you think
you could leave out some of the
details?” Due to not having fullname model releases, I had to
cover their faces. In closing, I have
to say I’m pretty impressed with
the amount of nudity on this cover
—you try getting that past your
publisher and sales.
_______________________________
01/75
WILLIAM T. VoLLMAnn
a novel
WILLIAM T.
Adapted from the Viking hardcover.
VoLLMAnn
“Vollmann’s funky, salivary, spermatic, bloody, tearful novel successfully illustrates his total artistic
commitment to embracing raunchy, sacred life in all its holy infamy.”—The Washington Post Book World
#
12
__________________________
The Short Novels
of John Steinbeck
Designer:
Jennifer Wang
Illustrators:
Various
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
Elda Rotor
38
Susan Shillinglaw
Jennifer Wang
Steinbeck scholar
Designer
Typeface concerns a designer
and perhaps an editor; the buying
public often pays scant attention.
This stack of first-edition covers,
however, insists that type matters.
Lettering suggests content. On
the 1935 dust jacket, the squat
Tortilla Flat—Monterey Bay
peeking from behind the type—is
very like the paisanos’ tiny houses
seen lining the Bay. Of Mice and
Men is stick-like, vulnerable. The
Pearl (in small and large type) is
suspended in scallop waves circa
the 1947 dust jacket. Other titles
are stamped on cloth covers,
letters stark. The assemblage of
titles thus resists consistency, just
as Steinbeck insisted that each
book was an “experiment,” each
different from the one before.
In the stack of titles, letters are
squeezed, slightly discomforting
to a would-be reader—“move that
book down a bit, give titles more
space.” But crowding Cannery
Row up against Of Mice and Men,
with slight shading behind each
book, conveys the amplitude of
Steinbeck’s performance—so
many short novels resulting in the
accolade “Winner of the Nobel
Prize in Literature.” Nor are
titles placed chronologically, also
dislodging reader expectations. An
impressive and eclectic stack—
John Steinbeck, I suspect, would
be pleased.
_______________________________
From the beginning of
this project I had a notion of
referencing the original designs
of the selected novels, but was not
sure just how to do it. Some of my
original ideas played off my ideas
of Steinbeck as being a celebration
of masculinity, but after they were
rejected, I went back to the idea
of the designs from the original
covers. I suppose it had a lot of
time to mature in my brain, as
the final design seemed much
more effortless than its original
conception.
_______________________________
P
E
TH
E
RE
TH
N
G
U
DP
IN
C
L
A
S
S
IC
S
THE
ON
R
TO
TIL
Y
S H O RT N O V E L S
E
O
MO
N
AT
FL
LA
IS
DO
NN
CA
WN
OF
O
I
FM
CE
ER
AN
YR
DM
JOHN STEINBECK
TH
EP
EA
RL
D
E
L
U
X
OW
EN
E
D
I
T
I
O
N
E
WINNER of the NOBEL PRIZE
i n L I T E R AT U R E
01/75
T h e S h o r t N ovels of
“Steinbeck shap
of conscience.”
JOHN STEINBECK
W
inner of the Nobe
Steinbeck was one of Am
influential authors. Now,
first time in a single pap
John Steinbeck’s most w
novels——Tortilla Flat, The
Men, The Moon Is Dow
Pearl. From Steinbeck’s t
ness, and hope in Of Mi
yet charming portrait of
society in Cannery Row
tion of the fallacy of the
beck created stories tha
PENGUIN
CLASSICS
D E L U X E
E D I T I O N
The Short Novels of
JOHN STEINBECK
Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
PE NG U I N
xx/75
and imbued with energy
C LASSIC S
DE LUXE
E DIT IO N
39
#
13
__________________________
Twitterature
Designer:
Amelia Cai
Art Director:
Paul Buckley
Editor:
John Siciliano
TK TK TK
Paul Buckley
Ar t Director
One Friday I received a frantic
call from editorial saying this book
had just become a crash project,
and we needed to get the cover done
immediately. I sent the commission
to Jamie Keenan, who turned the
cover around for me the following
Monday. And he just knocked it
out of the park. It was absolutely
perfect. Surely everyone could see
that—just not the book’s editor.
I oversee hundreds of covers
a year and have designs rejected
all the time, but this stunned me.
“Huh? Wait—you are actually saying that you don’t like this?”
“Yes. It’s ALL wrong.”
Then my associate publisher
agreed.
Then the authors blasted it.
40
Art directors working in corporate art departments absorb a lot of
rejection from Closet Art Directors
(or CADs, for short). If you lack
diplomacy skills and the ability to
let go and move on, you can quickly
become miserable. I know this.
But I also know which designs are
worth fighting for, and this was
going to be my 2009 cover design
poster child. I dug in. “Aren’t these
authors seventeen or something?
And we’re listening to them?”
Silence. Stony stares. Fidgety
fingers.
“Yes. Because they’re right.”
It seemed they all wanted it to
look like some old classic, the very
thing we strive not to do here at
Penguin. Twitter isn’t an old, dusty
topic from the nineteenth century.
Jamie’s design brilliantly married
the idea of classic literature to this
Name
technology. Why would anyone
Title
choose old over new-brilliantlymixed-with-old?
Quote.
Thus began a month-long
_______________________________
process where we went through
cover after cover. (“I thought
you said this was a huge rush?”
I enjoyed reminding them.) After
weeks of this, I contacted Jamie to
apologize for torturing him over
this faux rush job and released
him from the unending situation.
Afterward, I walked out of my
office and asked my art manager,
“Judy, how old is your new intern?
What does she do for us?”
“Amelia’s sixteen. Mostly data
input. Why do you ask?”
I turned to Amelia. “Hey, do you
want to do a cover for me?”
I discussed with this amazingly
bright high school student what I
thought everyone was looking for.
“Take this info in,” I told her, “and
let’s see what you have in a few
days.”
About two minutes later,
reason kicked in, and I e-mailed
her to say, “Please don’t take this
personally, but I’ll be working on
this, too—because I can’t just hand
it over to some sixteen-year-old
without backup.”
I then banged out some cookie
cutter designs that I was sure would
look brilliant next to whatever a
sixteen-year-old might produce.
These people don’t know what they
want anyway, I told myself. Half
an hour later I thought, Hey these
don’t look so bad after all. I patted
myself on the back. Well, twenty
years experience has to add up to
something, right? Good job,
(continued on next page)
40
01/75
s so emo. Who cries about his girlfriend while
OL?
ISBN 978-0-14-311732-2
5 1 2 0 0
EAN
9
e e
man big tournament at my school this year!!
his year, and every year as if by clockwork.
twitterature
\’twi-t ů -r -‚chur\n: amalgamation of “twitter” and
“literature”;humorous reworkings of literary classics
for the twenty-first-century intellect, in digestible
portions of 20 tweets or fewer
twitterature
S DOING BEHIND THE CURTAIN???
AlexAnder AcimAn And
emmett rensin
H
atched in a dorm room by two
freshmen at the University
of Chicago, Twitterature is a
ious and irreverent reimagining of
classics as a series of 140-character
ts from the protagonist. Providing a
h course in more than eighty of the
d’s best-known books, from Homer
arry Potter, Virgil to Voltaire, Tolstoy
wilight, and Dante to The Da Vinci
, it’s the ultimate Cliffs Notes.
use as great as the classics are,
has time to read those big, long
ks anymore?
“Do you hear that? It’s the sound of Shakespeare, rolling over in his grave.”
—The Wall Street Journal
780143 117322
xx/75
41
Paul. Why thanks, Paul. Hey man,
seriously, you’re very welcome.
A few days later, Amelia gave
me her cover proposals and I said,
“This isn’t the book’s subtitle
. . . and where are the authors’
names?”
“Well, I rewrote the subtitle
’cause theirs was stupid, and I
figured we’d just put their names
on the spine.”
“You know, Amelia, you can’t
just do that.”
“Why not?”
“Never mind, I gotta get these
into my meeting. Thanks . . . ”
I walked up to my packaging
meeting. After we all sheepishly
batted around some mildly tense
banter about whether these cover
proposals will cause further
sparks today, I put both sets of
comps on the table. Immediately
everyone reached out, pushing my
designs aside to get a better look at
Amelia’s.
“OOOOOhh, these are great
. . . ABSOLUTELY great! Who did
these?”
“Intern downstairs.”
“Much better than these,” they
said, pointing to my designs. “Let’s
get these things off the table.”
“Hey! Hey, did you notice that
there are no author names, and
the subtitle is different?”
“Yes, it’s perfect. So smart! This
really reads much better now.”
“But . . . ” I say.
“No, Paul, this is what we’ve
been needing the whole time!”
Actually, it was a pretty
beautiful thing. That Amelia is
going places.
_______________________________
42
01/75
Twitter ature
Proposed sketch. Designer: Jamie Keenan
Alexander Aciman and Emmett L. Rensin
xx/75
43
#
__________________________
Wolf Totem
Designer | Illustrator:
Elsa Chiao
Art Director:
Darren Haggar
Editor:
Janie Fleming
PRAISE FOR JIANG RONG’S
WOLF TOTEM
“Jiang [Rong’s] first novel, Wolf Totem, [is] a stirring allegorical critique
—T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S
of Chinese civilization.”
“The Call of the Wild meets Dersu Uzala in the wilds of Inner Mongolia
in this sweeping debut novel by retired Chinese academician Jiang. In
China, it has emerged as a zeitgeist novel, outselling any other in Chinese
history short of Mao’s little red book. . . . A treasure.”
WO L F T O T E M
Designer | Illustrator
Where to start in designing
this cover couldn’t have been
a tough call: a wolf. I loved the
hardcover—three faces (phases)
of a single wolf that had a Jack
London feel, yet was slightly
ambiguous. At first the ambiguity
seemed lost in the paperback,
which I saw in black-and-white
only, and didn’t much like. It
needed color and definition,
which is what it got: the arresting
blue and a spiky, angry wolf at the
foot of a (Mongolian) mountain.
Adding the translator’s name
would have been nice, but this
tops the other covers I’ve seen.
_______________________________
I knew from the beginning
that I wanted Mongolian/Chinese
paper-cutting on the cover.
However, it was very hard to find
a Mongolian paper-cutting artist
who could turn it around in three
days. So I had to channel my inner
Mongolian grasslander to produce
the art myself. I also managed to
work my own Chinese calligraphy
into the design, which I am quite
proud of. You don’t really notice
it—at that miniscule size—next to
the title, but it’s there, and it says
“wolf totem.” My grade school
calligraphy teacher in Taiwan
would be proud.
_______________________________
An epic Chinese tale that depicts the dying
culture of the Mongols—the ancestors of the
Mongol hordes who at one time terrorized
the world—and the parallel extinction of the
animal they believe to be sacred: the fierce
and otherworldly Mongolian wolf
WO L F T O T E M
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
(starred review)
“This masterly work is also a passionate argument about the complex
interrelationship between nomads and settlers, animals and human beings,
nature and culture.”
—ADRIENNE CLARKSON,
Man Asian Literary Panel judge
“[Jiang Rong], the former book burner, book thief and book savior, is
on the way to becoming one of the most celebrated and controversial
Chinese novelists in the world: Jiang’s first book, Wolf Totem, has not
only escaped a ban since its publication three years ago, but has picked
up almost a dozen major literary awards in China—and has now gained
international recognition by winning the first Man Asian literary prize,
created to highlight authors from the region who have yet to be published
—T H E G U A R D I A N
in English.”
(U.K.)
Elsdale/Getty Images
Darren Haggar
JIANG RONG
n in Jiangsu in . His
move to Beijing in ,
tral Academy of Fine Art
short by events in China,
ang volunteered to work
Ujimqin Banner in ,
d with the native nomads
his life. He took with him
se translations of Western
ears immersed in personal
y, culture, and tradition. A
mythologies surrounding
s inspired him to learn all
he adopted and raised an
 he returned to Beijing,
at the Chinese Academy
later. Jiang worked as an
ment in . Wolf Totem
e in the s that draws
ence of the grasslands of
Elsa Chiao
Translator
.
nt from the cities to bring
olia. The age-old balance
e grasslands will never be
ble for modern days, Wolf
mmentary on the dangers
economic growth, and a
heart of Chinese and Mon-
14
Howard Goldblatt
j i a ng rong
ISBN 978-1-59420-156-1
Translated by
uin Group (USA) Inc.
, New York, N.Y. 10014
| Printed in U.S.A.
Wolf Totem was released in China in . Written
under the pen name Jiang Rong, the quasi autobiographical novel describing a young Han Chinese student’s experience living in Inner Mongolia became
an overnight sensation, breaking all sales records and
selling millions of copies. Now, beautifully translated by Howard Goldblatt, the foremost translator
of Chinese fiction, this fascinating book is available
in English.
Wolf Totem opens in s China during the Cultural Revolution. Searching for spirituality, Beijing
intellectual Chen Zhen travels to the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia to live among the nomadic
Mongols—a proud, brave, and ancient race of people
who coexist in perfect harmony with their beautiful
but exacting natural environment. At the core of their
belief is the notion of a triangular balance between the
earth, the wolf, and man, whose fates are all intricately
linked. There is prosperity and abundance when the
three work together; when they are at cross purposes
with each other, there is blight and suffering.
The fierce wolves that haunt the steppes of the
unforgiving grassland searching for food are locked
with the nomads in a profoundly spiritual battle for
survival—a life-and-death dance that has gone on
between them for thousands of years. The Mongols
believe that the wolf is a great and worthy foe that
they are divinely instructed to contend with, but also
to worship and to learn from. By adopting a wolf
cub of his own, Chen’s fascination with them blossoms into obsession, and ultimately reverence. But
then the peace is shattered with the arrival of Chen’s
H O WA R D G O L D B L AT T
(continued on back flap)

Penguin Press hard cover.
44
01/75
Title: Wolf Totem
nomads in a
own, Chen’s
hen the peace
srupted, and
art fable for
ngers of overt of Chinese
he Month)
controversial
(London)
errelationship
d culture.”
neL Judge
ookclub.com
0 0
EAN
wol f t o t e m
att’s excellent
triumph, but
n and undersubjugating
Ron g
Revolution,
ner Mongolia
l hordes who
eir beautiful
otion of a triy Mongolian
gols are both
Jian g
ization.”
Trim: 5 1/2 x 8 7/16 Spine: 1 3/32”
wol f
totem
A Novel
Jian g
Ro n g
“An intellectual adventure story . . .
Five hundred bloody and instructive pages
later, you just want to stand up and howl!”
—Alan Cheuse, San Francisco Chronicle