1938

The New Deal in Old Rome: How Government in the Ancient World Tried to Deal with Modern Problems by H.J. Haskell [Agner 38.05]

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I Should Have Stayed Home by Horace McCoy [Agner 38.08]

Dwiggins designed the interior and binding for I Should Have Stayed Home and apparently he was going to do the jacket as well. A color comp survives, but George Salter (1897–1967) executed the final jacket. There is no discussion of the jacket in Dwiggins’ correspondence with Jacobs, so there is no explanation for why his design was abandoned. Perhaps the sales department rejected it as too staid, without the pizzazz expected of a novella about “two jobless roommates desperate to become Hollywood stars” whose dreams end in corruption, theft, prostitution and suicide. [5] Dwiggins’ comp has a frame suggestive of a classic movie theatre proscenium with the title roughed out in oldstyle roman letters and the author in italic. The only glitz is the exuberant abstract ornamental border for the borzoi cartouche. The colors—red and black on tan—are equally tone deaf. Yet, Salter’s jacket—clumsy calligraphy reversed out of burgundy and Prussian blue—is even plainer and farther removed from the book’s story. [6]

Color comp for the jacket of I Should Have Stayed Home by Horace McCoy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938). Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

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Run Masked by Robb White [Agner 38.16]

Along with doing the typography and binding design for Run Masked, Dwiggins made five comps for the jacket, one in pen-and-ink and four in color. [8] None of them were used and there is no explanation in the correspondence between him and Jacobs as to why. Dwiggins’ comps apparently failed to appeal to the Knopf sales force, even though they run a stylistic gamut from the wild, abstract and colorful ornamental design of Not Under Forty to the sobriety of Early Americana. But the one thing they are not is pictorial or illustrative. The published jacket, designed by Miguel Covarrubias (1904–1957), is both literal and evocative.

Kirkus Reviews described Run Masked this way:

First rate yarn against the most realistic Caribbean background I have found in fiction or travel books. One can see and feel and hear and smell the place, an island placed near Dominica. And the story takes place on the day of the year when carnival prevails, and the tiny handful of whites, dregs of society, British officialdom, planters, rub elbows with the seething native population of blacks, dangerously close to the primitive with too thin a veneer of civilization to hold up against the coming to a head of drama on that day. [9]

It is unclear in what sequence Dwiggins made the comps, though there are two distinct possibilities. [10] The first is that he began by making jackets (comps 4 and 5) that emphasized the book’s exotic locale, using his stencils to suggest a tropical environment. Then, getting negative feedback from the sales department about the abstract stencil designs, he began to rein himself in and made comps 1 to 3 in that order. The second possibility is an inversion of the first in which Dwiggins began with comp no. 3—possibly before reading an abstract of the book—and then worked up to the exuberant comps 4 and 5 when the sales department found the first three too dull. I think the first scenario is the more likely one.

One interesting feature of comps 3 and 5 is Dwiggins’ integration of the Borzoi dog into the designs. It suggests that they were done sequentially. The designs are reminiscent of the one he made for the title page of The Borzoi Reader (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936) which was reused on the cover of “Some Borzoi Books Published 1927–1937” inserted into The Annual of Bookmaking (New York: The Colophon, 1938).

All of the designs, except for no. 2, provide insight into the process Dwiggins followed in developing his stencil decorations. He roughed out an idea for a design in pencil and then painted it over in color, making adjustments as he went. Thus, he did not build his decorations from existing stencil elements, but instead envisioned a design and then completed them using existing elements, making new ones as needed, and also fine-tuning the whole ensemble with additional black ink or white paint. Unfortunately, these designs never reached fruition so we’ll never know how Dwiggins might have altered them.

Comp no. 1 of jacket for Run Masked by Robb White (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938). Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

Comp no. 2 for jacket for Run Masked by Robb White (Alfred A. Knopf, 1938). Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

Comp no. 3 of jacket for Run Masked by Robb White (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938). Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

Comp no. 4 for jacket of Run Masked by Robb White (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938). Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

Comp no. 5 of jacket for Run Masked by Robb White (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938). Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

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The Barly Fields: A Collection of Five Novels by Robert Nathan [Agner 38.11]

Although Agner credits Dwiggins with the jacket for The Barly Fields I am confident that it is a derivative design. [11] There is no documentation of it in the Knopf archives. The banner with tassels on the spine has been adapted from the one on the spine of The Borzoi Reader jacket. It now has four lines instead of three. The wavy design on the front also comes from The Borzoi Reader with the stencil ornament at the upper left being moved to the lower left. The lettering for Nathan’s name and the subtitle mimic Dwiggins’ lettering styles, though neither copy The Borzoi Reader lettering. But the title lettering is not something Dwiggins would have done. The script is too polished. Dwiggins always based his script on his handwriting and consequently it was full of quirks (e.g. “Knopf” on the spine of The Borzoi Reader jacket or the script on The Old Man’s Coming and The Charlatanry of the Learned jackets). The lettering was most likely done by Sam Bass.

Jacket for The Barly Fields: A Collection of Five Novels by Robert Nathan (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1938). [This Literary Guild version has colors that differ from the Knopf edition with maroon replacing taupe and turquoise replacing steel blue.] Format design and decorative elements by W.A. Dwiggins; lettering probably by Sam Bass.

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First-Class Passenger: Life at Sea as Experienced and Recorded by Voyaging Landlubbers of the Past ed. by August Mencken [Agner 38.09]

Dwiggins did not design the jacket for First-Class Passenger, but he told Jacobs it was “bully”. [7] The jacket has an illustration of sailing ships, steamships, and comic spouting whales with the book’s title hand-lettered in a frame resembling a luggage label and the author’s name plastered on a buoy. It is not the sort of design that Dwiggins was willing to do, but it is one that seemed to appreciate as appropriate to the book’s tone and content.

1939

Napoleon in Review by George Gordon Andrews [Agner 39.01]

“I hope my mildly Maya ornament may not displease,” Dwiggins wrote to Sidney R. Jacobs in February 1939 in regard to his binding design for In American: The Collected Poems of John V.A. Weaver. In the same letter he offered to do the jacket for Napoleon in Review for free if he was paid $50 for the In American binding. [12] Jacobs accepted the offer. “It makes a good poster, doesn’t it?” was Dwiggins’ assessment of his design. [13]

Dwiggins extrapolated the jacket design from his binding design for the book, a common process for him. He took the array of seven bees and elaborated the decorative frame, interposing a simple one between the two elements and then adding two more ornate decorative elements at top and bottom. With the luxury of printing on paper rather than stamping on cloth, he changed the single color binding design to a two-color (blue and red) one. He lettered the title (and the spine) but set the rest of the front text in type (Garamond No. 3 from Mergenthaler Linotype).

Binding front of Napoleon in Review by George Gordon Andrews (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939). Design by W.A. Dwiggins.

Jacket for Napoleon in Review by George Gordon Andrews (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939). Design, lettering, and decoration by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library.

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Henry, King of France by Heinrich Mann.

The jacket for Henry, King of France is copied from the one Dwiggins did for Heinrich Mann’s previous novel, Young Henry of Navarre in 1937. The new lettering is similar to that of Young Henry of Navarre, but it has sharper serifs, an indication that it was not done by Dwiggins. It was probably the work of Sam Bass, one of Jacobs’ trusted New York City lettering artists and someone who Dwiggins was comfortable with imitating him.

Jacket of Henry, King of France by Heinrich Mann (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939). Basic design by W.A. Dwiggins; lettering probably by Sam Bass.

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Mars in the House of Death by Rex Ingram [Agner 39.06]

I have already discussed Dwiggins’ jacket for Mars in the House of Death in The Definitive Dwiggins no. 420. It marks a return to the aggressive designs he was doing in 1936 and 1937—though the color combination of black, red, and gold is more conservative than those for Not Under Forty, The Sea of Grass, Zest for Life, and Serenade. The bold design is much more poster-like than any of the jackets which Dwiggins described as functioning like posters (e.g. Napoleon in Review). It is a full bleed with the text set into various angled bands and snippets of bands in a collage-like manner. It is an astonishing design with no precedent or parallel in Dwiggins’ work.

Jacket (spine and front) of Mars in the House of Death by Rex Ingram (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939). Design and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

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Zones of International Friction: North America South of the Great Lakes Region by Lawrence Henry Gipson [Agner 39.05]

Dwiggins designed the jacket format for the fourth volume in Lawrence Henry Gipson’s series collectively titled The British Empire before the American Revolution (15 volumes between 1936 and 1970), but did not execute the complete design. [14] (It was the first one published by Knopf.) Unfortunately, I don’t have an image of it, only of volume XI. Dwiggins provided the two unfurling banners, but nothing else. The lettering for the various volumes was carried out by someone else. It was not Sam Bass or Frank Conley.

Jacket for The Triumphant Empire: The Rumbling of the Coming Storm 1766–1770 by Lawrence Henry Gipson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956). Volume XI of The British Empire before the American Revolution. Basic design by W.A. Dwiggins; lettering by someone else.

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San Francisco’s Literary Frontier by Franklin Walker

Dwiggins made a colored pencil rough for the jacket for San Francisco’s Literary Frontier. On it he asked Jacobs, “How about this?” [15] For the design Dwiggins reused the decorative frame he had created for The American Language (4th edition) in 1936. He also repeated that book’s spine design. Jacobs must have assented since the printed jacket follows the rough very closely—but Dwiggins did not execute it. The lettering is not by him, even though some of it has Dwiggins qualities. The letterspacing of “Literary Frontier” is too loose and the size of the letters too small; and the author’s name is very different from the type of oldstyle roman capitals Dwiggins commonly employed (e.g. the large bowl of the R in “Franklin”). Given the flaws in the lettering I doubt it is the work of Sam Bass. The spine text is set in Linotype Caslon with “Literary Frontier” too loosely spaced again.

Pencil rough for San Francisco’s Literary Frontier jacket by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

Jacket proof for San Francisco’s Literary Frontier by Franklin Walker (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1939). Basic design by W.A. Dwiggins; lettering by someone else. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

n.d.

This jacket mock-up for Salamandi by A.S. Wainwright is a mystery. [16] There is no such title published by Knopf nor such an author. And there is no mention of the book in the correspondence between Dwiggins and Knopf. The comp is undated, but based on the stencil-style ornament on the front I think it must have been done between 1936 and 1938.

Color comp for jacket of Salamandi by A.S. Wainwright. Design by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas.

1940

Mark Twain’s Travels with Mr. Brown by Mark Twain, pseud. [Samuel Clemens] edited by Franklin Walker and G. Ezra Dane [Agner 40.02]

In April 1940 Dwiggins repeated his earlier desire to only do jackets for Knopf if the publisher insisted—and paid him handsomely.

On Shelley, Crane, Mark Twain—do you mean that you contemplate paying my exorbitant charge, 100 smackers, for these covers?…I have expressed myself as largely off covers and jackets. You have mentioned covers and jackets and I have let your instructions about those items pass without comment (through inertia or overwork!) when I should have taken the matter up with you. I’ll make ’em, if you say, of course, covers 100, jackets say 125. But if my delay, and my fee, lead you to go elsewhere, I shan’t sue for violation of contract. [17]

Jacobs did not insist that Dwiggins do the jackets for any of the books mentioned—Shelley by Ivey Newman White, Stephen Crane: Twenty Stories, and Mark Twain’s Travels with Mr. Brown—but  he did want him to do the bindings along with the typography. Regarding the binding for the Twain, Dwiggins wrote, “Having sweated through the drawing, I am in doubt, at the end, whether you will care to cut such an elaborate scheme. You will see that my shelfback is not a copy of any 1860 design, but an attempt to get the same peppered-over-with gold effect that the ‘elegant’ 1860 books had[.]” [18]

Detail of binding spine of Mark Twain’s Travels with Mr. Brown edited by Franklin Walker and G. Ezra Dane (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940). Design, vignettes, decoration, and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

His binding design has a spine sporting several elaborate decorations including three frames containing a clipper ship, a locomotive, and a horse-drawn carriage—all stamped in gold on pine green cloth. The lettering by Dwiggins is a perfect imitation of the typefaces popular in the 1860s.

Although Dwiggins did not do the jacket for Mark Twain’s Travels with Mr. Brown, he heartily approved of it. [19] The uncredited design by George Hornby (1912–1990) carried through the period approach that Dwiggins had taken with the interior typography and the binding spine.

Jacket for Mark Twain’s Travels with Mr. Bown (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940). Design by George Hornby. Image courtesy of the Beinecke Library, Yale University.

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Happy Days, 1880–1892 by H.L. Mencken [Agner 40.07]

“And what a beautiful job Dwiggins has done in designing book and wrapper!” proclaimed a Knopf advertisement in Publishers’ Weekly. [20] The book in question was Happy Days 1880–1892, the first in a trilogy of memoirs by H.L. Mencken (1880–1956). Dwiggins’ jacket design was, in his view, “a whiz”. [21] Like Mark Twain’s Travels with Mr. Brown, the jacket is a period piece, this time evoking the Artistic Printing movement of the 1870s and 1880s.

The design was an in-joke between Dwiggins and Mencken, who were of the same age. “Nobody in your crowd is old enough to get the true inwardness of this design for The Happy Days jacket, but I think Mencken might,” Dwiggins explained to Jacobs, “This kind of thing, in the great days of ’85, would be in coffee-brown and olive-green and Pompeian red, very dull and dismal, but for our purpose I think it will work in strong primaries.” [22]

Dwiggins’ design deftly blends three common elements of the Artistic printing movement: the folded ribbon, fan, and trompe-l’oeil calling card. His lettering—a combination of Modern and Tuscan types—echoes an earlier moment in the 19th century, but many artistic printers used such “out-of-date” faces.

Jacket for Happy Days 1880–1892 by H.L. Mencken (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940). Design, ornamentation, and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

1941