Most people will have not have heard of the above authors, I suspect, but the jacket designs are great. Below are some of Hawkins' jackets for books by certain Detection Club luminaries:
In the 1930s books evaluating the Soviet "experiment" were popular in the United States as well. Here are a couple impressive Hawkins jackets for such books, plus one more mystery novel--one with a similarly "exotic" setting--by the greatest of them all:
More lovely covers. If I were rich, that is where I would spend my money.
ReplyDeleteTracy, I added a link to facsimiledustjackets.com. Even with facsimiles, one still need old editions of the books though! I wish so many of these books from the 1930s could be reprinted, the physical quality of the book themselves as well as the jackets often was terrific.
ReplyDeleteIf anybody wants to read any Arthur Gask then they should head over to Gutenberg Australia where they have around thirty of his Gilbert Larose novels and the one short story that he featured in (I scanned that one myself). They are very much of their time, more 30's thriller than detective novel but all of them are very enjoyable. The publishing house of Herbert Jenkins seemed to corner the market in quirky mystery fiction in that era.My favourite title of theirs being Lois Austen Leigh's "The Gobblecock Mystery" I'm guessing not many publishers would get away with that title these days. They also published the early thrillers that Hammond Innes refused to allow to be reprinted and some very early mysteries by Edith Pargeter writing as Jolyon Carr.
ReplyDelete"My favourite title of theirs being Lois Austen Leigh's "The Gobblecock Mystery" I'm guessing not many publishers would get away with that title these days."
DeleteIndeed not!
Delicious designs, and Hawkins had a great eye for a typeface, too.
ReplyDeleteDesigns of such class all round.
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