There was a time when most serious readers had a poetry section on their bookshelves but alas, no more I fear. These few gems were rediscovered by my friend Nick recently and I thought they were beautiful; elegantly understated but playful.
Penguin led in the design of these collections, but other publishers soon caught on and developed their own. A recent visit to a major High Street bookstore showed me that there were precious few poetry books on the shelves, and those that were used banal stock imagery.
So take a deep breath and settle into a moment of calm and let the patterns do their work…
The Browning, Chinese Verse and e.e. cummings each have patterns credited to Stephen Russ, who I assume probably created the rest.
Ah the Penguin Poets series, an impossibly handsome bunch eh? I’ve got most of the editions with pattern designs from Stephen Russ here at the library at Weir HQ and they’re easily some of my favourite Penguins. Think my favourite is the cover design of Contemporary American Poetry: https://www.instagram.com/p/BZbVKS_hXrM/?taken-by=mrdanielweir If you like these I’d also recommend investigating the Scores series, really great work. DWx
If anyone appreciated these I knew you would be amongst them! The American Poetry cover is truly gorgeous – Nick has more of the collection and probably will find this one next week!
The scores are also a great collection – I’ve not seen these before – another investigation on the Lestaret list…
What other goodies are lurking on the shelves at Weir HQ?