@GSS: as I recall, ‘John Collier’ was a low-cost rival to Burton’s or Hepworth’s (thus a precursor to Top Man), so being over-dressed is probably not the problem.
(EDIT: here’s a shagadelic advert from before they hit on the really annoying jingle I had in my head when I saw the cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SeETmUOBTsr For US reades, fifty shillings is just under four dollars today.)
This blurb is so funny. It’s all prim and proper, with an asterisk so we don’t miss it, even though it occupies the center of the page. It takes pains to use the proper case, “Of whom,” so we’re all grammatically in place, and then it just goes off the rails torturing that hoot owl metaphor—by the way, owls have three sets of eyelids. Which one is John Collier using to blink this crazy world into existence?
As a fan of owls, I too found that cover blurb to be entertainingly surreal. As it implies the author, himself, to be an owl, it is both odd, funny and slightly disappointing, as it means the author cannot be the man in a trenchcoat and fedora noteworthy for being the only human on the cover not either naked or wearing faux-Ancient-Greek-style clothing. I wonder who he is.
It’s an anthology of works published elsewhere, so I suppose it’s fitting that the artist cobbled together a bunch of images that probably appeared elsewhere as well. The woman in the lower right is not posed or dressed like a genie coming out of that bottle. I suspect it was stolen from the cover of a hard-boiled detective yarn and she was sitting on a bed.
Anti-Sceptic, Wikipedia says hoot owls eat voles, woodpeckers and even domestic cats. I would consider crazy anyone who does that.
Further research is needed on whether John Collier has a similar diet.
As an aside, Collier was an excellent writer, but I wouldn’t call him crazy. If anything, he was extremely sane. Defamation of character on his own book!
That “F”. The random assemblage of images, all tinted green save fedora guy and naked old dude. The asterisk leading to the wordy, prim blurb with “hoot owl”. Would a hoot owl eat a bantam?
Like @JuanPaul said, it’s very busy yet nothing’s going on. This might have confused/turned off readers in 1953 too.
Seconding that Collier is a brilliant author–if this bad cover at least entices a few people to approach the contents, I’m delighted it was featured here (after all, we’ve learned not to judge a book by its cover!)
April 3rd, 2018 at 11:19 am
So John Collier lived on a diet of voles and other small mammals?
April 3rd, 2018 at 11:38 am
“It’s quarter to three… there’s no one in the place… except you and me… and I shouldn’t have eaten that cheese I found behind the fridge…”
April 3rd, 2018 at 12:09 pm
It’s hard to hail a taxi to get out of this side of town.
April 3rd, 2018 at 12:23 pm
There is a lot happening on this cover, yet nothing is happening on this cover. Medidate on this, I must.
April 3rd, 2018 at 3:54 pm
@GSS: as I recall, ‘John Collier’ was a low-cost rival to Burton’s or Hepworth’s (thus a precursor to Top Man), so being over-dressed is probably not the problem.
(EDIT: here’s a shagadelic advert from before they hit on the really annoying jingle I had in my head when I saw the cover https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SeETmUOBTsr For US reades, fifty shillings is just under four dollars today.)
April 3rd, 2018 at 4:36 pm
A Bantam Giant? That’s a mighty big cock you have there.
April 3rd, 2018 at 4:51 pm
This blurb is so funny. It’s all prim and proper, with an asterisk so we don’t miss it, even though it occupies the center of the page. It takes pains to use the proper case, “Of whom,” so we’re all grammatically in place, and then it just goes off the rails torturing that hoot owl metaphor—by the way, owls have three sets of eyelids. Which one is John Collier using to blink this crazy world into existence?
(I’ll bet DSWBT would know the answer.)
April 3rd, 2018 at 5:13 pm
@B. Chiclitz – Yeah, that blurb is a real hoot!
April 3rd, 2018 at 5:49 pm
As a fan of owls, I too found that cover blurb to be entertainingly surreal. As it implies the author, himself, to be an owl, it is both odd, funny and slightly disappointing, as it means the author cannot be the man in a trenchcoat and fedora noteworthy for being the only human on the cover not either naked or wearing faux-Ancient-Greek-style clothing. I wonder who he is.
April 3rd, 2018 at 6:36 pm
It’s an anthology of works published elsewhere, so I suppose it’s fitting that the artist cobbled together a bunch of images that probably appeared elsewhere as well. The woman in the lower right is not posed or dressed like a genie coming out of that bottle. I suspect it was stolen from the cover of a hard-boiled detective yarn and she was sitting on a bed.
April 3rd, 2018 at 7:10 pm
I like how the cock is shooting lightning from its chest.
April 3rd, 2018 at 9:24 pm
This is a question to all the avian experts here…Are hoot owls really as crazy as the blurb paints them to be?
April 3rd, 2018 at 10:18 pm
Anti-Sceptic, Wikipedia says hoot owls eat voles, woodpeckers and even domestic cats. I would consider crazy anyone who does that.
Further research is needed on whether John Collier has a similar diet.
April 4th, 2018 at 12:10 am
As an aside, Collier was an excellent writer, but I wouldn’t call him crazy. If anything, he was extremely sane. Defamation of character on his own book!
April 4th, 2018 at 12:16 am
That “F”. The random assemblage of images, all tinted green save fedora guy and naked old dude. The asterisk leading to the wordy, prim blurb with “hoot owl”. Would a hoot owl eat a bantam?
Like @JuanPaul said, it’s very busy yet nothing’s going on. This might have confused/turned off readers in 1953 too.
April 4th, 2018 at 5:38 pm
Seconding that Collier is a brilliant author–if this bad cover at least entices a few people to approach the contents, I’m delighted it was featured here (after all, we’ve learned not to judge a book by its cover!)
April 4th, 2018 at 5:42 pm
@Ashley L-M—I think it’s more the other way around at GSS.