Jack Williamson

The Humanoids by Jack Williamson (Nelson Doubleday)

Florian Hardwig — Sun, 08 Jun 2025 12:08:09 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Source: jellobiafrasays.tumblr.com License: All Rights Reserved.

The Humanoids is a 1949 dystopian science fiction novel by American author Jack Williamson (1908–2006). Originally published as a three-part serial called “…And Searching Mind” in Astounding Science-Fiction (March, April, May 1948), it was in fact a sequel to an earlier novelette, “With Folded Hands…”, appearing in the same magazine in July of the previous year of 1947. The Humanoids was published as a hardback book in 1949, but only in 1980 was the award-winning “With Folded Hands…” included in a reissue edition of The Humanoids.

This reissue edition by Nelson Doubleday comes in a jacket with art by Tony Fiyalko. The uncredited designer (perhaps John Lisco?) specified a typeface that was ninety years old at the time: it’s Algonquin by the Dickinson Type Foundry. An advert in the Inland Printer from October 1890 mentions that “Algonquin and Algonquin Ornamented are effectively used when printed in two colors, one over the other.” That’s exactly what the jacket designer did here. They likely didn’t tinker with registering the output of two fonts, and simply gave the open style a yellow color fill instead.

[More info on Discogs]

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

The Power of Blackness by Jack Williamson, Berkley Medallion

Fonts In Use Staff — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 14:14:00 +0000

Contributed by Fonts In Use Staff

Source: www.abebooks.com Dearly Departed Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Fat Albert by Ray Cruz, used in all caps for the first paperback edition of The Power of Blackness, published as a Berkley Medallion book in November 1976. Portions of Jack Williamson’s novel first appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, Galaxy Science Fiction, and Amazing Science Fiction, before it was published in hardback by Berkley/Putnam in January 1976.

[More info on ISFDB]

Title page (detail)

Back cover

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Farthest Star by Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson (Ballantine Books first edition)

Patrick Concannon — Sun, 18 Jun 2023 12:17:00 +0000

Contributed by Patrick Concannon

Source: www.ebay.com departedbooks. License: All Rights Reserved.

Front cover

From Wikipedia:

The Saga of Cuckoo is a series of science fiction novels by American writers Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson. It consists of two novels, Farthest Star and Wall Around a Star.

The books feature an interstellar teleporter that leaves the original being behind and sends only a duplicate. When a person is duplicated, the original can just pass out of the machine without a second thought. The copies also can be "edited" at destination.

Farthest Star was published by Ballantine Books in 1975, as a fix-up of the 1973 novella “Doomship” and the 1974 serial “The Org’s Egg”.

Author's names are set in Limited (see Corporate). The novel's title is set in Limited View (see Corporate Image). The minor differences between Corporate and its copy, Limited, are documented here. Additional text is set in Trade Gothic Extended.

Cover art by Philip Perlman.

[More info on ISFDB]

Spine

Back cover

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

SF Rediscovery series (Equinox/Avon)

Florian Hardwig — Fri, 26 May 2023 17:08:43 +0000

Contributed by Florian Hardwig

Source: www.isfdb.org The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. License: CC BY.

The covers of all 27 titles as compiled by the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

SF Rediscovery is a series of trade paperback editions of novels and anthologies by science fiction writers such as Philip José Farmer, Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison, and E.C. Tubb. Between 1974 and 1977, a total of 27 books were published by Equinox, an imprint of Avon Books. This probably makes it the most extensive use of Eightway, a shaded all-caps grotesque designed by Milton Glaser and George Leavitt.

All book covers feature the Shaded Southwest style, that is the variant with a shadow to the bottom left of the outlined letterforms. This treatment is echoed in the (custom) SF logo as well as the border around the cover art. The last ten books additionally show the series number in the top left corner, revealing that the Eightway typeface also comprised numerals.

Scans of individual covers courtesy of Cadwalader Ringgold.

[More info on ISFDB]

#1, Strange Relations by Philip José Farmer. Cover art by Vincent Calabrese.

#2, The Syndic by C.M. Kornbluth. Cover artist unknown.

#3, The Reproductive System by John T. Sladek. Cover art by Jack Gaughan

#4, Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. Cover art by William Maughan.

#5, The Man in the Maze by Robert Silverberg. Cover art by Michael Presley.

#6, The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad. Cover art by Bob Haberfield.

#7, Inside Outside by Philip José Farmer. Cover art by Jacques Wyrs.

#8, Omnivore by Piers Anthony. Cover art by Bill Maughan.

#9, The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell. Cover art by Chris Foss

#11, No Blade of Grass by John Christopher. Cover art by Michael Presley.

#12, A Mirror for Observers by Edgar Pangborn. Cover art by Stanislaw Fernandes.

#13, Bill, the Galactic Hero by Harry Harrison. Cover art by Michael Gross.

#14, Ultimate World by Hugo Gernsback. Cover art by .

#15, City Under the Sea by Kenneth Bulmer. Cover art by Bill Maughan.

#16, The Space-Born by E. C. Tubb. Cover art by Vicente Segrelles.

#17, The Humanoids by Jack Williamson. Cover art by Michael Presley.

#18, The Judgment of Eve by Edgar Pangborn. Cover art by Patrick Woodruffe.

#27, Black Easter by James Blish. Cover artist unknown.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

Invasion of the Robots by Roger Elwood (ed.)

Florian Hardwig — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 08:33:04 +0000

Huxley Vertical in alternating colors for the names of the eight authors whose short stories are included in Invasion of the Robots. The science fiction anthology was published by Paperback Library in 1969. Note the use of the two forms for K.

Released by ATF in 1935, Huxley Vertical is a condensed all-caps typeface with monolinear strokes, distinguished by the protruding bars that are so typical for the Art Deco period, see for instance Triennale, or later creations in this style, like Plaza, ITC Anna, Avenida, or Capitol Capitals. Huxley Vertical isn’t named after Aldous Huxley, of course, but after its designer, Walter Huxley (1890–1955). This didn’t stop Agfa/Monotype from naming their interpretation Aldous Vertical.

The other text including the title is set in Inserat-Grotesk. Cover art by Jack Gaughan.

[More info on ISFDB]