Front and back cover of Morphology of the Folktale by Soviet folklorist and scholar Vladimir Propp (1895–1970), first published in Leningrad in 1928. The English translation by University of Texas Press was first issued in 1968. The images show the eleventh edition, printed in 1990. Chances are the same design with Serpentine (VGC, 1972) was already used for previous editions.

Data 70 in use for the jacket of Voices From the Tapes: Recordings From the Other World. Authored by British psychologist Peter Bander (1930–2004), the book was published by Drake in 1973. From the back flap:

Peter Bander is a psychologist who has been closely associated with the research done on the mystery of Voices for the past several years. Intensely interested in all facets of the occult, Mr. Bander has taken part in numerous experiments dealing with various psychic phenomena.

"Dorothee L. Mella—author, lecturer, and communications consultant—is a pioneer in the field of color psychology. Ms. Mella is owner and president of Domel, Inc., a color communications firm consulting with individuals as well as business, industry, and educational institutions. The firm specializes in the application of color as a language and the use of color in the practical arts of living. Over the past fifteen years, Ms. Mella, previously a design and art teacher, has appeared on national and local television, was a cooperative gallery owner, and has authored five books on the practical uses of color."

The Forest People is an ethnographic study of the Mbuti pygmies in the African Congo region, authored by the British-American anthropologist Colin M. Turnbull (1924–1994). First published by Simon and Schuster in 1961, this is the paperback edition, issued in 1962 in their Touchstone imprint. The cover was designed by John and Mary Condon, using tightly spaced Akzidenz-Grotesk against a posterized photograph printed in green and black.

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Zabalin. Die Müllmenschen von Mokattam, Cairo is a book by German photographer Anno Wilms (1935–2016), published by Edition CON in 1985. Starting in 1972, Wilms made many trips to the Middle East and to North Africa. In 1981 and 1982, she portrayed the Zabaleen (“garbage people”) of Mokattam, Egypt. The photographs are accompanied by texts by Christine Bücking and Claus Kühne. Some of the images are shown on the website of the Anno Wilms Foundation.

The title is presented in tightly spaced lowercase letters from a bold and somewhat condensed phototype version of Helvetica.

Catalogue, front cover using partially tight set Helvetica.

Two catalogues and a pamphlet for The Chinese Exhibition – The Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of The People’s Republic of China, a travelling exhibition that was shown at various galleries and museums throughout the United States in 1974 – 75.

From A Compendium to Museum Studies (Ed. Sharon Macdonald):

Communist China, after its 1949 takeover, signaled a new diplomacy with America to its threatening neighbors, beginning with tours of lightning-speed games of “ping-pong” in 1971. A quarter-century after World War II ended and the Cold War began, President Richard Nixon’s visit famously “opened” American diplomatic relations with China in 1972.

In 1974, China sent the first of many exhibitions of national treasures to solidify its new diplomacy with America and to encourage positive public opinion during the Cold War matches. The Chinese Exhibition: The Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the People’s Republic of China traveled to the East Coast in December 1974, to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; then to middle America, at the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; and ended its tour, in August 1975, at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, on the West Coast of California (personal communication, Barry Till 2004).

A rare archaeological find, which the press called the “Jade Lady,” excited much admiration. Her mortuary suit from the second century bc was made of more than two thousand pieces of jade. It was sewn with gold thread by Western Han Dynasty master craftsmen for Princess Dou Wan. It was widely published and illustrated, an indication of the “Jade Lady’s” success in capturing the public’s imagination across America.

Catalogue interior, using Optima throughout.

A second catalogue shows miniature horsemen, as found in a grave. Typography (Latin part) uses Trump Mediaeval.

Pamphlet, front cover, using the same photograph (and type) as the catalogue, but with additional information.

Pamphlet, interior, using Optima, just like the catalogue.

Front

The Space Story was a radio program aimed at educating the public about NASA’s discoveries in the field of space science as well as their technological achievements. Each track (program) in this series was to be broadcast for one week, and had specific dates for broadcasting, as shown on the label. — Discogs

The narrator is Willard Scott. The front cover shows Wexford Ultra Bold, set in all caps on a curve. “Easy Open / Lift Here” features the lighter Bold weight from Richard A. Schlatter’s typeface family.

Back

Detail

Front Cover

The account is that unidentified scientists were conducting a study of macaque monkeys on the Japanese island of Kōjima in 1952. These scientists observed that some of these monkeys learned to wash sweet potatoes, and gradually this new behaviour spread through the younger generation of monkeys—in the usual fashion, through observation and repetition. (...) the researchers observed that once a critical number of monkeys was reached, i.e., the hundredth monkey, this previously learned behaviour instantly spread across the water to monkeys on nearby islands. 

This story was further popularised by Ken Keyes Jr. with the publication of his book The Hundredth Monkey. Keyes's book was about the devastating effects of nuclear war on the planet, presenting the hundredth monkey effect story as an inspirational parable, applying it to human society and the effecting of positive change. — Wikipedia (edited)

On the book cover, intense red clouds spread from a bright yellow island containing a blurb text using Helvetica. The book title and author name — both all lowercase — and the small print on the bottom use ITC Bauhaus.

Arthur Siegel (1913–1978) was an American photographer noted for his experimental photography. In 1965, he edited Chicago’s Famous Buildings, a book describing the architecture of Chicago. The images show the second, revised and enlarged edition, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1969. Helvetica is used throughout.

Uniqueness and Diversity in Human Evolution: Morphometric Studies of Australopithecines is a textbook written by Charles Oxnard (b. 1933) and publised by the University of Chicago Press in 1975.

The dust jacket features Helvetica in three narrow columns and two weights. This arrangement is picked up for the title page. The interior is set in Times New Roman.

This is the first edition of Messages from the Stars. Communication and Contact with Extraterrestrial Life, a book about life on other planets. It was designed by Eve Callahan, using Helvetica in two sizes, with the title arranged in four diagonal lines.

Catalogue from the exhibition Sculpture in the Highlands: Landmark and Glenshee in the Landmark Sculpture Park, Carrbridge, 1980.
Publisher: The Landmark Sculpture Park.

Front Cover

Cover of the English edition of Vägmärken, a book by former UN secretary general, Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961). Walbaum is used in roman and italic styles, with rotated Albertus for “Faber paper covered editions”.

After the original Swedish version was published in 1963, the English translation came out in 1964. The translation was done by noted Swedish scholar Leif Sjöberg, and was refined by the poet W. H. Auden, who also wrote a foreword. This brought the book immediate literary notice, and even a front-page rave in The New York Times Book Review. It is highly regarded as a classic of contemporary spiritual literature. — Wikipedia

Front cover

Open Office Planning is a handbook for interior design and architecture, edited by John Pile. It was co-published in 1978 by the Whitney Library of Design, an imprint of Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, and the Architectural Press Ltd, London.

Two weights of Helvetica are used for the jacket. The interior typography (not pictured) pairs Times and Helvetica.

Back cover

Front cover

Paperback, 593 pages. Cover design by Sydney Butchkes (1920–2015), with reversed Univers on a photograph. The text on the back cover is set in Trade Gothic.

The agrarian population of Latin America includes some 100 million of the world’s most oppressed people. These people are the victims of a rigid stratification system which has existed in that continent for centuries. There has been much talk in recent years about land reform in Latin America, but few analysts have come to grips with the fact that effective reform must involve revolutionary institutional change, not simply modernization of agricultural techniques.
In an attempt to explore all the ramifications of this vital subject, Rodolfo Stavenhagen has collected papers by anthropologists, economists, political scientists, and sociologists. The authors of the selections represent a wide range of nationality, including Latin American, North American, and European. Many of the selections appear here in English for the first time, and several are original contributions to this volume.

This volume is part of a publishing program on Latin America, under the general editorship of Otto Feinstein and Rodolfo Stavenhagen.

Back cover and spine

Front cover

The Gender Trap, a three-part series of books which analyses the expected behaviour and accepted sex roles of men and women in our society.

ITC Korinna is used throughout the front and back cover. The publisher’s logo is in solid Desdemona.

Back cover

Front cover

Architektura drewniana (“wooden architecture”) is a photobook by Polish architect and architectural theorist Jan Władysław Rączka (1928–2011). The cover contrasts Kabel Black with ITC Avant Garde Gothic Light. The interior is set in Helvetica.

In the 1970s, Jan Władysław Rączka, an expert in wooden construction and a lover of mountains, walked the Tatra Mountains and photographed the decaying huts. He wanted to record something that was dying before his eyes – a shepherd culture whose visible marks, the wooden buildings, were deteriorating, but still beautiful. His photographs, however, are not just a document. Seen through Rączka’s lens, the huts take on the features of vivid graphics. The texture of the wood, traces of bark beetles, rays of light falling between the beams, the jagged edges of the roof form a unique rhythm of song for the departing world. — MEK Kraków [translated]

Interior 1

Interior 2

Front cover. Photograph: Giulielmo Sasinini.

Conceived by architectural consultants Robert Maltz and Kenneth Freidus (who took care of the book design), this issue of the Harvard Educational Review deals with architecture in relation to schools, children, imagination.

The periodical presents essays by James S Ackerman, Topper Carew, Robert Coles, Giancarlo De Carlo, Aldo van Eyck, Robert Goodman, Herman Hertzberger, Peter Prangnell, Maurice K. Smith, Shadrach Woods and drawings by Saul Steinberg.

The book format is unusual. Not square, but hardly an oblong, its ratio is approximately 11:12. The front and back cover use News Gothic, the interior is set in Akzidenz Grotesk (or Standard, as the typeface family was named in the US).

Back cover

Interior

Imprint (left) and title page (right).

Editorial statement (left) and table of contents (right).

Editorial statement (detail).

Front Cover

The Stone Circles of the British Isles is the first major publication by Aubrey Burl (b. 1926), a British archaeologist best known for his studies into megalithic monuments. The image shows the jacket of the hardcover edition published in 1977 by Yale University Press, New Haven and London. The typography pairs Times New Roman and Helvetica in white caps against an aerial photograph of the Callanish Stones in Lewis, Scotland. The book interior (not pictured, see images on this auction page) was designed by John Nicoll and is set in Monophoto Times. Filmset and printed by BAS Printers Limited, Wallop, Hampshire.

The author provides a hypothetical chronological framework for the circles and considers their origins and purpose, examining in particular their possible astronomical function. He then discusses each regional grouping of circles, describing their architectural types and the finds from excavations. Special attention is paid to Stonehenge and Avebury, the two best known and most spectacular rings.

Front Cover

A wacky book about immortality and the paranormal, written by Alson Jesse Smith (1908–1965) in 1954. This is the jacket of the Book Club edition published by Prentice-Hall sometime after 1965.

The title in red is set in the solid Davison Carousel B. It is repeated above in the outlined Carousel A. “The Scientific Evidence” is in caps from Folio Extra Bold (1959), while the italic text appears to be in News Gothic or similar.