Paperback 1148: Murder at Hazelmoor / Agatha Christie (Dell 937)

Paperback 1148: Dell 937 (1st ptg, 1957)

Title: Murder at Hazelmoor

Author: Agatha Christie

Cover artist: Milton Glaser

Condition: 8/10 

Value: $12

[Part of my Big Christie Haul from Autumn Leaves, late summer '25]

Best things about this cover: 

• Look, I know there's not a lot going on in this painting, but the more I look at it, the cooler it gets. It's by legendary graphic designer Milton Glaser (creator of the I 🩷 NY logo among many other iconic images), and the composition and details are really compelling if you give them the time of day.
• I love the tiny details, like the fringe on the rug, and the two little untied laces. The tread on the heels of those shoes is also amazing. Those shoes seem expensive, as do those (exquisite) socks.
• The dude's pants, though, are the coup de grâce. They are perfectly, stiffly triangular. No wrinkles, no folds, an impossible fabric that defies gravity and gives the whole picture an air of whimsy (and despite all the murder in Christie stories, whimsy is never far off)

Best things about this back cover: 

• Oh hell yes, Mapback (advent calendar edition)!
• Look at those damned trees. The little stylized trees holding up perfect little arcs of snow. Where do you find those? Probably the same place you find those pants on the cover. And the little gingerbread houses, and the stars. Gorgeous.
• I know (from the cover of another version of this same paperback) that there's a seance involved, and I'm newly obsessed with seances and hauntings and ghosts and people's belief in ghosts, so I think I'll put this away and save it for a nice midwinter read. Something to lighten the gloom of midwinter.

Page 123~

    "The only other person in the village is Captain Wyatt. He smokes opium, I believe. And he's easily the worst-tempered man in England. Anything more you want to know?"

    "I don't think so," said Emily. "What you have told me seems pretty comprehensive."

Disagree. I need to know more about Captain Wyatt right now. He sounds fascinating.

~RP

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Paperback 1088: Pale Horse, Pale Rider / Katherine Anne Porter (Signet CP137)

 Paperback 1088: Signet CP137 (1st Signet Classic, 1962)

Title: Pale Horse, Pale Rider

Author: Katherine Anne Porter

Cover artist: Milton Glaser

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5-10

[Autumn Leaves, Ithaca, NY, June 2024]

Best things about this cover: 

• Sometimes the $1 shelves outside the bookstore cough up things of beauty
• I bought this solely for the amazing Milton Glaser cover. I'd've bought it on his name alone (he's a distinctive and pioneering graphic designer); huge bonus that the cover image happens to be truly stunning
• "We need to take some xrays" "Can I do it on horseback?" "Of course"
• [Extreme Sugarloaf voice] "Green-haired lady, horse-ass lady..."

Best things about this back cover: 

• I'm guessing this has nothing to do with the Clint Eastwood movie Pale Rider (1985). He was probably cool with the Pale Rider part, but the Pale Horse was a bridge too far. "I'll be damned if I'm gonna be upstaged by a damned horse. The horse is a regular horse color or I walk!"
• Ooh, novellas (i.e. "short novels"). You don't these those much these days. Perfect size!
• Noon wine? I'm more a 5 o'clock cocktail person. If you see me drinking noon wine, I am on Va-Ca-Tion or else I need help.

Page 123~

(from "Pale Horse, Pale Rider")

No, she did not find herself a pleasing sight, flushed and shiny, and even her hair felt as if it had decided to grow in the other direction.

Been there, sister.

~RP

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Paperback 1079: Jonathan Wild / Henry Fielding (Signet CQ660)

Paperback 1079: Signet CQ660 (1st ptg, 1962) (actually 3rd ptg, year unknown, probably early-mid '70s)

Title: Jonathan Wild

Author: Henry Fielding

Cover artist: Milton Glaser

Condition: 7/10

Value: $5

Best things about this cover:

• Another acquisition outside my normal (1939-69) collecting range, but Glaser's covers for Signet are special, so I think I'm going to start making them a special subset of my collection (esp. since they can be found all over and procured for super cheap)
• There's a borderline cartoon quality to Glaser's pop art take on the classics (his most famous work for Signet was the covers of all the Shakespeare plays). Love the intricacy of his designs, and the low-key bawdiness of this particular image—the deep cleavage, the hint of thigh above the stocking, the (I'm guessing) randy bewigged leonine figure standing behind her. . . though if he's randy for anything, it's probably that jewel he's fondling.
• The colors are vibrant and the design on her stockings is absolutely aces. Her shoes are special too.

Best things about this back cover:

• Bah! Mere description! 
• I've never read this novel, but the cover copy here is promising. Love the idea of naming your wild-ass main character "Wild." 
• The book is part biography (of an actual criminal), part social satire, part picaresque novel. Honestly, it sounds amazing, and I am tempted to dive right in.
• Is Gin Lane bad? I want to live on Gin Lane. There's gin there, right?

Page 123~

Wild, immediately at his return to town, went to pay a visit to Miss Laetitia Snap, for he had that weakness of suffering himself to be enslaved by women, so naturally incident to men of heroic disposition.

"Suffering himself to be enslaved" is some choice phrasing, but not as choice as the name "Miss Laetitia Snap"—that is an all-time name. The implications of "Snap" are suggestive but ambiguous ... unlike the implications of "Miss Straddle" (p. 88), which seem pretty straightforward.

~RP

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Paperback 920: Frankenstein / Mary Shelley (Collier)

Paperback 920: Collier (unnumbered) (6th ptg, 1973)

Title: Frankenstein
Author: Mary Shelley
Cover artist: Milton Glaser

Estimated value: $5-10

Best things about this cover:

• Milton Glaser rules. So cool to see his '60s psychedelic style brought to bear on Frankie's monster.
• I love how this painting makes the monster soft, serene, beautiful, human.
• I should really reread this. It's been forever.

Best things about this back cover:

• Blah, text. Next.

Page 123~

"I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me. You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he contemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness; and, instead of injury, I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries: if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear; and chiefly towards you my arch-enemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care: I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth."

God I love this. One of literature's great break-up speeches.

~RP

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