The first two of these mid-century modern book covers come from the library of my great Uncle John, who died in 1993 in his 80s. He was an architect and a lot of other things. He had an amazing life that spanned the 20th century in really interesting ways (he used to carpool to work at Harvard with Walter Gropius). But I won't get in to all that now. I have been digging through his books, which are at my parent's house, to look for the kind of modernist book covers I like, I have not been disappointed. I bought the third book just the other day at a book sale. I have no intention of reading any of these, but that probably goes without saying.
Because the receipt is still in it, I know that Uncle John purchased this book for $3.45 at the Harvard Book Store on the 27th of February 1968.
©1963, Science Editions, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. / Cover design: Davis/Aviles, 5.5" x 8.25"
No receipt in this one but "John S. Nickols, Jan 1967" is written on the inside cover. There are also several pages of hand written notes stuck between the pages.
©1961, A Clarion Book, Published by Simon & Shuster, Cover design: John+Mary Condon, 5.25" x 8"
This is from the same series as Your Wonderful Body, the book I posted about in DBG #60. Published in 1966, it was aimed at an elementary school audience in the run up to the Apollo missions. I find these illustrations unsettling, particularly the astronaut with the thermometer, hot or cold, death seems eminent.
