2013 | The Book Haven

vintage penguin cover

As you know, we here are The Book Haven simply worship creative retro covers. We have made many posts on how websites, movies, or new books would look as vintage paperbacks. Here is another instance, which comes with a noble purpose.

To make people aware of the benefits of using a library card, Ann Leonard, the librarian at Pinal County Library District (PCLD), has designed 30 elegant graphic images. Check a few of them below. You can see the complete set on Pinterest.

Do the images remind you of something? Yes, of course they do. They have been inspired by the iconic Penguin/Pelican covers, which were designed by Italian art director Germano Facetti. We hope that Ann’s covers will be a success and revive interest in libraries.

To know more about the project visit Pinal County Reads.

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Back in the 1950s, Dennis Wheatley was a big name in the pulp market. His first novel — The Forbidden Territory — was an immediate success. It was reprinted seven times in seven weeks, translated in multiple languages, and the film rights were brought by none other than Alfred Hitchcock himself. Thereafter, Wheatley wrote numerous bestselling novels. His most famous work is the celebrated black magic potboiler — The Devil Rides Out.

Outselling Agatha Christie, Wheatley was one of the most popular thriller and occult writer of his time. But like Edgar Wallace, he faded into oblivion soon after his death. His distinctive world of jumbled pulp and esoteric was forgotten. No doubt, that was largely undeserved. James Bond is still widely popular, but few readers are aware that Wheatley’s Gregory Sallust Series had substantial influence on Ian Fleming. As The Guardian rightly points out, Fleming borrowed three major elements from Wheatley — sex, snobbery and sadism.

Dennis Wheatley fans will be delighted to know that Bloomsbury Reader, which offers a large selection of out-of-print ebooks, is re-publishing his books in print and ebook format. They have published 20 ebooks and three paperbacks (The Forbidden Territory, The Devil Rides Out, and To the Devil a Daughter) in the first lot and more will follow. Click here to get the complete list of Wheatley books available from Bloomsbury.

dennis wheatley This is the first time Wheatley’s books are available in digital format. For those of you who love e-books, this is great news. Also, a lot of old pulp books are hard to find these days, like those written by Seabury Quinn. I do hope that Bloomsbury re-publishes them too.

Dennis Wheatley’s titles are published by Bloomsbury Reader on 10th October 2013; eBook GBP RRP: £6.99, Paperback RRP: £7.99;

www.bloomsbury.com/denniswheatley/

With the retro trends getting popular again, Wheatley’s second innings should be a successful one. Moreover, his novels are tailor made for Hollywood. Hammer Films made some fine movies based on his books (The Devil Rides Out is a cult classic), but special effects were hardly the strong points of those films. With the highly developed modern CGI, remake of The Devil Rides Out and other Wheatley movies can yield phenomenal box office results. Wheatley’s novels — replete with satanic rituals, diabolic corruptions and political machinations — can make incredibly dramatic scripts.

Welcome back ‘The prince of thriller writers”. Thanks again Bloomsbury.

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