Source: www.baumanrarebooks.com Bauman Rare Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Roger Zelazny’s science fantasy novel Lord of Light was first published by Doubleday in 1967. The dust jacket features mesmerizing art by Howard “Howie” Bernstein, who passed away last year at the age of 81.

The perfect typeface to go with the psychedelic art is Kismet. First cast by the Boston Type Foundry in 1879 after designs by John F. Cumming, the swirly face had a new lease of life in the 1960s and 1970s.

Note how the leg in R was made diagonal instead of vertical in this application. Such an alteration can not be found back in the phototype adaptations by Headliners and Photo-Lettering.

[More info on ISFDB]

Source: www.abebooks.com Quintessential Rare Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Detail from a specimen for Kismet as shown in a 1892 catalog with “Popular Designs for Artistic Printers. Selected trom the novelties manufactured by the Central Type Foundry, of St. Louis, and Boston Type Foundry, of Boston.”

This undated album with polka music by Vic Latauska and His Orchestra was released on Colonial Records probably sometime in the mid-1960s. The swirling caps used for “POLKAS” are from Kismet. Designed by John F. Cumming and first released by the Boston Type Foundry in 1879, it was revived for phototypesetting around that time. The sans is Standard Bold, the export name of Akzidenz-Grotesk fett.

Source: www.facebook.com Royal Opera House. License: All Rights Reserved.

Kismet is the most enchanting, downright hypnotic of the many swirling typefaces from the last quarter of the 19th century. Don’t stare too long into the M’s owl eyes!

John F. Cumming’s 1879 design for the Boston Type Foundry foundry can here be seen in use on the poster for Claude Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Melisande, performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 1978. Richard Bird and Michael Mayhew combined it with golden scrolls that resemble flowing hair or water, echoing its spiraling forms. The central “et” is neither the ampersand glyph as included in the typeface, nor a combination of E and t: it rather is a custom ligature consisting of the left part of Kismet’s & and a t, with the ampersand’s swash transplanted to the right of the latter.

Accompanying text is set in Rockwell. The Royal Opera House logo is based on Belwe Bold (1976). G&B Arts Ltd. printed the poster (via V&A’s Theatre and Performance Collection).

Written by Solveig Paulson Russell, with drawings by Ralph J. McDonald. Published by Abingdon Press in 1970. From the flap:

Peanuts, popcorn, ice cream, candy, soda pop—foods as everyday as telephone poles, as festive as a birthday party or a circus.

Do you know that jars shaped like peanuts have been found in ancient Inca tombs? Or that popcorn was part of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving? That Nero may have been the first to serve an iced dessert? Products of more than 25 countries are used in making candy? Or that cola drinks were first thought to have curative powers?
True. All true … and more besides.

Title page.

Detail: The face used for “Popcorn” is shown in The Solotype Catalog of 4.147 Display Typefaces (1992) as Fatima.

Detail: The face used for “Candy” is shown in the Solotype catalog as Stars & Stripes.

Environments was a long running series of field recordings meant for therapeutic effects. With sounds of the seashore or maybe a lush forest, it would take the listener into distant lands and give rise to all kinds of wonderful psychedelic effects. The front cover is fairly standard for 1969, so I suggest we turn to the smörgåsbord of phototype on the back instead. A typophile’s therapy!