“I Care About the Appearance of My Books”

“She was the queen of crime fiction, but Agatha Christie should also be recognized as one of the most formidable businesswomen of her era,” writes Britain’s Telegraph newspaper in a piece explaining how the creator of Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot fought to change the UK cover of her 1940 novel, Sad Cypress. She called the dust jackets proposed by her publisher, Collins Crime Club, “AWFUL--so COMMON!!” Nonetheless, the hardcover façade she found so offensive is the one with which Sad Cypress is now closely associated. The Telegraph piece doesn’t say whether Christie preferred the jacket given to that same book by her U.S. publisher.

READ MORE: “Agatha Christie’s Original French Editions” (International Crime Fiction Research Group).