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20. Strange fruit | |
The science fiction banner that David Pelham introduced across the tops of sf covers in 1972-73 was retained for most of the decade, along with black backgrounds, centred typography and a purple Penguin logo in the top right corner. But while the artwork on earlier covers had identified the books as part of a series, this was less obvious for the books that followed, as the style varied greatly from cover to cover. The trend was started by Pelham himself in 1974 and continued by a number of freelance illustrators whose work began appearing on Penguin sf covers in 1975. |
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The Day After Judgement (3868) by James Blish First published 1971. Published by Penguin Books April 1974 with a cover illustration by David Pelham. |
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The Day it Rained Forever (1878) by Ray Bradbury 1974 reprint with a cover illustration by David Pelham. |
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Fifth Planet (2244) by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle 1974 reprint with a cover illustration by David Pelham. |
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October the First is Too Late (2886) by Fred Hoyle 1974 reprint with a cover illustration by David Pelham. |
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David Pelham's cover for the 1974 reprint of Tiger! Tiger! was one of the covers he discussed when invited to speak at '70 Years of Penguin Design' at London's V&A Museum in 2005. In his talk, Pelham quoted from the blurb on the book's back cover and praised the 'gifted copywriter' at Penguin who had written it, Meaburn Staniland. What Pelham did not mention (and perhaps did not know) was that his former colleague was also an sf author. Staniland's novel about time travel, Back to the Future, was published in 1947 but has been out of print ever since, though its subject and title reappeared in 1985 as a Hollywood movie by the American director Robert Zemeckis. However, the film does not credit Staniland's novel and it is not known if Zemeckis knew of it. |
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Tiger! Tiger! (2620) by Alfred Bester 1974 reprint with a cover illustration by David Pelham. |
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Staniland's blurb for Tiger! Tiger! describes the novel's protagonist Gully Foyle as a 'liar, lecher, ghoul, walking cancer. Obsessed by vengeance, he's also the twenty-fourth century's most valuable commodity – but he doesn't know it. His story is one of the great classics of science fiction'. Pelham agreed, and wanted a portrait of Foyle on the cover, but as he explained, 'you can't depict such a portmanteau character in a conventional portrait because his likeness is no more than a cleverly arranged series of words'. So Pelham created 'a composite portrait made out of debris' in homage to the sixteenth-century Italian painter and 'first surrealist' (who famously did it with fruit) Guiseppe Arcimboldo. Pelham then added Foyle as a little white spot adrift in space near the portrait's eye, 'because that's where we first come across him, barely getting by, living in the tangled remains of a drifting spaceship that has exploded'. And having Arcimboldo'd Bester once Pelham did it again for The Demolished Man, though with a title like that he could hardly have done otherwise. |
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The Demolished Man (2536) by Alfred Bester 1974 reprint with a cover illustration by David Pelham. |
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The Robert Sheckley Omnibus (3982) Twelve short stories and a novella, Immortality Inc., first published in 1973. Published by Penguin Books May 1975, with an introduction by Robert Conquest. The cover illustration is by David Pelham. • Immortality Inc. • Specialist • Bad Medicine • Pilgrimage to Earth • Ask a Foolish Question • A Ticket to Tranai • The Battle • Hands Off • The Prize of Peril • Hunting Problem • Ghost V • Something for Nothing • The Store of the Worlds |
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Final Stage (4039) edited by Edward Ferman and Barry Malzberg An anthology of thirteen short stories, first published in 1974. Published by Penguin Books May 1975 with a cover illustration by David Pelham. • Frederik Pohl : We Purchased People • Poul Anderson : The Voortrekkers • Kit Reed : Great Escape Tours, Inc. • Brian Aldiss : Diagrams for Three Enigmatic Stories • Isaac Asimov : That Thou Art Mindful of Him! • Dean Koontz : We Three • Joanna Russ : An Old-Fashioned Girl • Harlan Ellison : Catman • Harry Harrison : Space Rats of the CCC • Robert Silverberg : Trips • Barry Malzberg : The Wonderful, All-Purpose Transmogrifier • James Tiptree, Jr. : Her Smoke Rose Up Forever • Philip K Dick : A Little Something for Us Tempunauts |
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The Black Cloud (1466) by Fred Hoyle 1975 reprint with a cover illustration by David Pelham. |
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Several of David Pelham's covers shown above were used by the Spanish publisher Ediciones Martínez Roca for its own super ficción series in 1976-78, as were three of his J G Ballard covers from 1974 and one from 1973. Pelham himself was unaware of this and it is doubtful if anyone at Penguin knew. Copyright was often disregarded during Franco's regime and it seems this continued for at least a few years afterwards >> |
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Monkey Planet (2401) by Pierre Boulle 1975 reprint with cover photography by Ian Vaughan. |
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Planet of the Apes was a hugely popular film but few would have known that it was based on Monkey Planet so when the book was reprinted in 1975 Penguin advertised the fact on a large red sash. This no doubt helped to shift more copies but it spoiled an otherwise great cover. |
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Connoisseur's Science Fiction (2223) edited by Tom Boardman 1976 reprint with a cover illustration by Bob Fowke. |
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The Man in the High Castle (2376) by Philip K Dick 1976 reprint with a cover illustration by Peter Goodfellow. |
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The Wanderer (2594) by Fritz Leiber 1976 reprint with a cover illustration by Philip Castle. |
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Time Out of Joint (2847) by Philip K Dick 1976 reprint with a cover illustration by Peter Tybus. |
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Bill, the Galactic Hero (2970) by Harry Harrison 1976 reprint with a cover illustration by Mike Little. |
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The Invincible (3853) by Stanislaw Lem First published in 1964 as Niezwyezony. Published by Penguin Books April 1976 with a cover illustration by Peter Tybus. |
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Lambda I and Other Stories (2275) edited by John Carnell 1977 reprint with a cover illustration by Joe Petagno. |
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Destination: Void (2689) by Frank Herbert 1977 reprint with a cover illustration by Joe Petagno. |
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Into Deepest Space (4401) by Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle First published 1974. Published by Penguin Books January 1977 with a cover illustration by Peter Tybus. |
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Women of Wonder (4867) edited by Pamela Sargent A poem and twelve short stories 'by women about women', first published in 1974. Published by Penguin Books July 1978 with a cover illustration by Candy Amsden. • Sonya Dorman : The Child Dreams (poem) • Judith Merril : That Only a Mother • Katherine MacLean : Contagion • Marion Zimmer Bradley : The Wind People • Anne McCaffrey : The Ship Who Sang • Sonya Dorman : When I Was Miss Dow • Kit Reed : The Food Farm • Kate Wilhelm : Baby, You Were Great • Carol Emshwiller : Sex and/or Mr Morrison • Ursula Le Guin : Vaster Than Empires and More Slow • Chelsea Quinn Yarbro : False Dawn • Joanna Russ : Nobody's Home • Vonda McIntyre : Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand |
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Pulsar 1 (4279) edited by George Hay An anthology of science fiction and science futures, first published by Penguin Books December 1978 with a cover illustration by Adrian Chesterman. • A E van Vogt : Death Talk • David Langford : The Still Small Voice Inside (essay) • Ian Watson : Immune Dreams • John Taylor : Infectious Science (essay) • Christopher Evans : The Time Travellers (interview with Isaac Asimov) • Bob Shaw : Small World • Chris Boyce : The Skytank Portfolio (essay) • Michael Coney : In Search of Professor Greatrex • Stan Gooch : Once More, With Feeling (essay) • Josephine Saxton : Woe, Blight, and in Heaven, Laughs: A Grim Household Tale • Angela Carter : The World as Text: The Post-Literate World as Meta-Narrative (essay) • H G Wells : Foretelling the Future (essay) |
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The Ultimate Threshold (4873) edited by Mirra Ginsburg An anthology of thirteen short stories, first published 1970. Published by Penguin Books 1978 with a cover illustration by Peter Cross. • Henrik Altov : Icarus and Daedulus • Gleb Anfilov : Erem • Anatoly Dneprov : Formula of Immortality • Anatoly Dneprov : When Questions are Asked • Vladimir Grigoriev : The Horn of Plenty • Olga Larionova : The Useless Planet • Herman Maximov : The Ultimate Threshold • Roman Podolny : Invasion • Igor Rosokhovatsky : When You Return • Igor Rosokhovatsky : "One Less" • Vladimir Sheherbakov : "We Played Under Your Window" • Ilya Varshavsky : Preliminary Research • Mikhail Yemtsev and Yeremey Parnov : He Who Leaves No Trace |
For The Ultimate Threshold and John Boyd's novels the science fiction banner was dropped from the top of the cover and a small label was placed beneath the logo, like Alan Aldridge's sf covers in 1967 and Franco Grignani's in 1969-70. |
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The Last Starship From Earth (4875) by John Boyd First published 1968. Published by Penguin Books June 1978 with a cover illustration by Peter Cross. John Boyd was a pseudonym used by the American author Boyd Upchurch. |
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The Pollinators of Eden (4876) by John Boyd First published 1969. Published by Penguin Books July 1978 with a cover illustration by Peter Cross. |
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The Rakehells of Heaven (4877) by John Boyd First published 1969. Published by Penguin Books August 1978 with a cover illustration by Peter Cross. |
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The Girl with the Jade Green Eyes (4996) by John Boyd First published 1978. Published by Penguin Books April 1979 with a cover illustration by Peter Cross. |
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Cat's Cradle (2308) by Kurt Vonnegut 1980 reprint with a cover illustration by Justin Todd. |
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