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●
EDWARD GOREY.
The Bell, the Book, and
the Spellbinder.
Ink, pencil and watercolor on stiff
paper, dust jacket design for John
Bellairs’s Johnny Dixon in The Bell,
the Book, and the Spellbinder by
Brad Strickland, New York: Dial
Books for Young Readers, 1997.
283x368mm; 11
1
/
8
x14
1
/
2
inches,
sheet. Unsigned. Glassine paper
with inked note about cropping in
printer’s hand taped in two places
along top edge verso. Accompanied
by Gorey’s original pen and India
ink layout of cover and spine lettering.
[6,000/9,000]
GOREY
’
S MOST COLORFUL DUST
JACKET DESIGN
.
In his Goreyana blog,
Irwin Terry explains Gorey’s process of
designing the lettering: “[he] always
hand drew the typography for the
Bellairs covers as a separate piece of art.
This way he was able to work with India Ink and have the type reversed to appear white on the final
printing.Working this way allowed him more freedom to paint, while keeping the type crisp on the
final dust jacket.When designing the artwork, Mr. Gorey also had to consider the practical needs of
the publisher. The lower left corner of the back was left free for the UPC code, and while he hand
wrote ‘Dial’ on the spine, he had to leave room for the official publisher’s logo”—
goreyana.blogspot.com.
[
SEE ALSO OVERLEAF
]
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