A couple of months ago, during my interview for this page with Hard Case Crime editor Charles Ardai, we talked about his company’s first horizontally oriented paperback cover, for the Russell Atwood novel Losers Live Longer. Ardai remarked that horizontal book jackets are “a quirky aberration, and are unlikely ever to catch on.” Ever since, I’ve been on the lookout for more examples of these aberrations.
Thus far, I’ve collected 19 in addition to Losers Live Longer. Most seem to come from either the crime fiction or soft porn genres, although I did find one example from science fiction (the 1956 Ballantine Books edition of Arthur C. Clarke’s Reach for Tomorrow), plus the sideways cover of Debra Marquart’s non-fiction work, The Horizontal World. If you spot more such book fronts, please let me know in the Comments section below. For the time being, I’ll post all of those I have, and add to their number here as I can.
7 comments:
I love these, especially Reach For Tomorrow. Wish I could remember which others Lance Casebeer used to have on display in his book-filled basement.
Final Country by James Crumley
Here is the image link
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n12/n60229.jpg
Oh and Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski
http://images.indiebound.com/903/713/9780375713903.jpg
Thanks, Brian. As you can see, I've added both of those covers to my collection.
Cheers,
Jeff
Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena
The Dead Fish Museum by Charles D'Ambrosio
"Passionate Playmates" by Hank Janson
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44319507@N08/4636665084/
Thanks for the tip, Severance23. I've now added the cover from Passionate Playmates.
Cheers,
Jeff
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