Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Hooks Hits: “Watch the Northwind Rise”

Part of a series saluting artist-illustrator Mitchell Hooks.



Watch the Northwind Rise, by Robert Graves (Avon, 1963). Originally published in hardcover by Creative Age Press, 1949. The UK version of this novel was titled Seven Days in Crete.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was originally Watch the North Wind Rise , which at least makes sense, and the British title was Seven Days in New Crete . Which - if either - was Graves's own choice and why the title was changed, I don't know.
If they didn't proofread the cover, what was the book like inside?

J. Kingston Pierce said...

You don't know how much I wanted to change "Northwind" to "North Wind" in reference to this book! But I stuck with the title as it appears on the cover.

Cheers,
Jeff

ukemon said...

I have a copy of this book - I think that's my scan above from Flickr. The front matter page and the title page both refer to the book as "Watch the Northwind Rise" Nowhere in the Avon edition is there any mention of the UK title. I think I found that info in the catalog of copyrights for 1949. The copyright entry has the title as "Watch the north wind rise" [sic] and lists the publisher as Creative Age.
However, I found a copy for sale on eBay and the Creative Age dust cover has the title: "Watch the Northwind Rise", so I suppose we have to blame them! The 1969 Avon edition also spells it "Northwind".
Here's a link to the eBay page (I hope Blogger can take links): https://www.ebay.com/itm/273809383653

Regards,

Steve

ukemon said...

Another thought regarding the title change. It was not unusual for American publishers to retitle British books usually with the goal of making them more marketable to American readers.

In this case the "North Wind" reference has to do with the climactic final chapter "Whirlwind". The North wind is unleashed preparing the way for the transition to the next phase of history of New Crete.

Steve