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29. Plan for chaos | |
The first time Penguin actively marketed its John Wyndham titles as a set was in 1970, when Chocky was published and eight other titles reprinted with covers by « Harry Willock ». All nine books were then reprinted with cover illustrations by « Peter Lord » and a posthumous novel Web in 1980 made it ten. Eight of these were reprinted with « Mark Salwowski » covers in the mid to late '80s, and nine a decade later with covers by Spencer Wilson in the larger B-format. |
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The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham 2008 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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And that was it until 2010, when Penguin published Wyndham's "newly discovered" novel Plan for Chaos with a cover by Brian Cronin, whose tight-lipped thinkers had first appeared on Wyndham reprints two years earlier. Cronin has since provided covers for The Seeds of Time and Consider Her Ways and Others, so Penguin collectors and Wyndham fans will be waiting to see if The Outward Urge and Web make this the first set of all eleven Penguin titles. |
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The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham 2008 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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The Chrysalids by John Wyndham 2008 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham 2008 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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Trouble With Lichen by John Wyndham 2008 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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Chocky by John Wyndham 2009 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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Penguin promoted Plan for Chaos as "the newly discovered companion novel to The Day of the Triffids" and in one sense this is true, as Wyndham is thought to have written it during an eighteen month break from writing Triffids, but other than that the novels could hardly be more different. The English sf author M John Harrison called Plan for Chaos "an almost unreadable book" and it is telling that much of the introduction by Christopher Priest discusses The Day of the Triffids. Wyndham admitted to Frederik Pohl in 1951 that "I've messed about with the thing so much that I've lost all perspective" and when the book was rejected by publishers on both sides of the Atlantic he subsequently abandoned it. |
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Plan for Chaos by John Wyndham First published 2009. Published in Penguin Books January 2010 with an introduction by Christopher Priest and a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
The manuscript resurfaced after the John Wyndham Archive was acquired by Liverpool University in the UK and was published on the fortieth anniversary of the author's
death. Its interest to academics goes without saying, though fans of Penguin's other Wyndham titles are in for a surprise.
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The Seeds of Time by John Wyndham 2014 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
MORE COVERS >> | |
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Consider Her Ways and Others by John Wyndham 2014 reprint with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
MORE COVERS >> | |
As of 2016 there is still no sign of Cronin covers for The Outward Urge or Web but his artwork does appear on the first Penguin publications of Wyndham's early sf novels The Secret People and Stowaway to Mars. |
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The Secret People by John Wyndham First published 1935 as The Secret People by John Beynon. Published in Penguin Books September 2016 with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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Stowaway to Mars by John Wyndham First published in 1936 as Planet Plane by John Beynon. Published in Penguin Books September 2016 with a cover illustration by Brian Cronin. |
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