Half-title

This collection of science-fiction stories by H.G. Wells (1866–1946) was first published as Seven Famous Novels in 1934. This edition by Heinemann/Octopus from 1977 has no explicit title. Cover and spine only mention the author’s name, and the full-title lists the names of the included novels; The Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, In the Days of the Comet, and The War of the Worlds. It uses Koloss for the cover, spine, endpapers, titles, and contents.

The cover and spine are debossed and printed with a gold-coloured metallic ink on a dark red hardcover. The endpapers use a shift-and-repeat design, with the shift chosen so that the left-hand slopes of the W on successive lines all line up.

The half-title, again featuring only the text “H.G.WELLS” uses an expanding crop-and-repeat design. The same design idea is used on the full title and the contents page, which share a similar design except for minor details such as the publisher's imprint on the title, and the text “CONTENTS” and page numbers on the contents page.

I assume the book came with a jacket, but sadly I do not have it.

[More info on ISFDB]

Front cover

Endpapers

Full-title

Contents page

Spine

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New York: The Viking Press, 1945. First Edition. Second issue with canary yellow cloth.

When John Steinbeck’s famous novel was published in January 1945, ATF’s Brush (1942) wasn’t brand-new anymore, but it still was fresh and certainly far away from being the overused stereotype of informal script typefaces that it became in later years. In fact, the jacket design by Arthur Hawkins, Jr. may have been among its first uses of note.

The book and the typeface are strongly linked: “Cannery Row” in Brush can be seen on the dust jacket and the cover — front and spine — as well as on the title page of the first US edition by The Viking Press. Brush also adorns the jacket and the cover of the first UK edition by William Heinemann. It even appears in print ads accompanying the book release — it’s not just a one-off cover face, but acquires logo-like qualities. Unsurprisingly, this strong visual identity is maintained in later editions, see e.g. this Viking Compass Book from 1969.

In American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century, Mac McGrew notes that Robert E. Smith’s design “has a handlettered, freely-drawn appearance, with the letters joined skillfully so the connections are not obvious.” Off-the-shelf, its connections weren’t considered good enough, though. If you look closely, you’ll see that the exit stroke of the second ‘n’ is flatter than of the first one, allowing it to flow more smoothly into the loop of ‘e’. Furthermore, the ‘ow’ pair is joined at the top. To my knowledge, Brush didn’t come with such alternates or ligatures — the title must have been fine-tuned by hand. With these modifications, the “Cannery Row” wordmark essentially isn’t type, but lettering — closely modeled after a typeface that in turn emulates lettering.

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First Edition Third Printing (January 1945). Printed in U.S.A. by the Haddon Craftsmen.
Like the title on the jacket, the cloth binding now is in bright canary yellow as well — too good a pun to miss. There was also a Wartime Edition in blue boards.

Source: www.fineeditionsltd.com Fine Editions. License: All Rights Reserved.

“First Edition First Printing (January 1945) in the First State buff-colored cloth binding, one of only 2500.” — Fine Editions

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Title page

Source: www.vialibri.net License: All Rights Reserved.

Dust jacket of the first edition by William Heinemann, London/Toronto, 1945.
Printed in Great Britain, Windmill Press

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Cover (William Heinemann, London/Toronto, 1945)

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Title page (William Heinemann, London/Toronto, 1945)

Heinemann’s New Windmill Series edition, as seen on Alexis Orloff’s Flickr stream.