The Hidden Flower by Pearl S. Buck (Cardinal)
First published by John Day in 1952, this is Cardinal’s paperback edition (C-387) from 1959:
A New York Times-bestselling novel by the author of The Good Earth: An affecting portrait of interracial love in postwar Japan. Pearl S. Buck’s The Hidden Flower centers on the relationship between a Japanese student and an American soldier stationed in postwar Japan. The Japanese student’s father worked in the United States as a doctor, but had to flee to Kyoto to avoid imprisonment in an internment camp. The American soldier has inherited his family’s estate in Virginia, where interracial marriage is forbidden. Against such forces, and without the help of their families, how can the love between the young pair—and the future of their child—flourish? The Hidden Flower is an emotionally astute and moving exploration of a taboo love across cultures.
Cover art by Charles Binger. While the title itself is hand-lettered, most of the other text is set in a typeface that has similar qualities of broad-nib pen writing: it’s Post-Antiqua.
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The small type on the left (“A Cardinal Edition”, “The Complete Book”) is set in caps from Lydian Condensed. If you feel this typeface is somewhat similar to Post-Antiqua, you’re onto something: they are both works by designers who studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Offenbach under Rudolf Koch. Post-Antiqua is by Herbert Post, who was Koch’s student from 1921 to 1924. And Lydian is by Warren Chappell, who studied in Offenbach in 1931/1932.