This weeks random writer is Richard Martin Smith (17/03/1915 to 31/10/2001) PAN published three of his titles with probably the most well know being ‘The Tower‘ which was combined with ‘The Glass Inferno’ to make the film ‘The Towering Inferno’ I was interested to see someone asking £91 on Amazon for ‘Stanfield Harvest’ as I paid 50p for it at a local charity shop.
PAN Piccolo published a couple of editions of ‘Island of the Great Yellow Ox’ by Walter Macken. Both have text illustrations by Charles Keeping but the cover of the 1972 edition is not attributed while the 1977 is by Charles Front (photo) Front illustrated the Piccolo edition of ‘A Child’s Bible’ but he is probably best known for designing the lettering on the 1965 Beatles album ‘Rubber Soul’ Front is also the father of actress Rebecca Front.
Agatha Christie covers came in many different styles including what I called the ‘Double Dagger’ from PAN, the ‘Foxtail’ series from Fontana and I’m now wondering what to call these from Pocket. The odd ‘g’ on the front is not the same as on the back. I’m not sure what the font is but I’m not sure I like it.
I spotted this cartoon on a Facebook page and it appealed to my OCD side. I do find myself tidying up random bookshelves and straightening pictures, especially in pubs.
