Friday, September 26, 2014

Paperback 820: Strangers on a Train / Patricia Highsmith (Bantam 905)

Paperback 820: Bantam 905 (1st ptg, 1951)

Title: Strangers on a Train
Author: Patricia Highsmith
Cover artist: Stanley Zuckerberg

Yours for: $17

Bant905

Best things about this cover:

  • That dude wins Best Everything at the Paperback Cover Art Oscars. Best Eyes, Best Facial Expression, Boniest Hands, Best Gun-Caressing, Best Damned Trousers On The Planet, etc.
  • What year is it? She looks she just walked out of a saloon circa 1889.
  • This cover reminds me that I really need a flask. Bourbon is never close enough at hand.


Bant905bc

Best things about this back cover:

  • Even the handwriting is "tense and frightening."
  • "Superbly Revolting" is my new go-to ambiguous pseudo-compliment.
  • You can't really see what the original hardcover art was like, but I assure you, it's pretty bleeping ugly. And no Demented Trouser Guy, so … I'll stick with the cheap stuff, thanks.


Page 123~
He longed to merge his life with hers.
And the winner for Best Euphemism goes to …

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

3 comments:

Greg Bucher said...

I think trouser man is David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth!

Stoutcat said...

Bingo! Looks like the Thin White Duke to me, too.

Anonymous said...

A little Christopher Walken in his face too, no?