Women by Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press
First edition cover. Limited edition of 300 copies signed by Bukowski, bound in publisher’s brown paper covered boards over blue-gray corduroy backstrip. The cover drawing is by the author.
What a joy and delight it is find fine books covers using Lydian. The first edition of Charles Bukowski’s Women uses Lydian for author and title on the cover (in all caps, naturally). And also, at least judging by photos found on Abebooks, Lydian is used for the interior title page, with the title in red, repeated several times above in gold.
There is no doubt that choosing Lydian for a book cover in the 1970s was unusual. Matthijs notes a gap after the 1960s and this 1978 cover may be an exception that proves the rule, or merely soften the exact boundaries of Matthijs’s void.
I haven’t read the book, but Wikipedia attests that “One of the first women featured in the book […] is a character named Lydia”, so this may qualify as an LTypI.
Title page. Secondary typefaces are Century Expanded (left) and Trump-Mediäval (publisher credit).
A straight look on the title page, from a paperback edition
The colophon is set in Janson Text.
Signed limited deluxe edition
Cover of the second edition (1979)
1 Comment on “Women by Charles Bukowski, Black Sparrow Press”
Thank you, David!
I’ve found two alternative images of the title page (now in the post): on those, the repeated title looks like it’s printed in a halftone red, not in a distinct third (golden) color.
The rules of LTypI prescribe that (key parts of) the typeface name must appear in text set in said typeface. As this isn’t the case here, the tag doesn’t apply, I’m afraid. The Lydia reference is a cool factoid nonetheless!