Book Jackets/ Covers, a question and proposal

I would like to ask a question first, does anybody know if it is possible to buy replacement covers / dust Jackets for the hardback S&A books.

I have a much read and treasured set of books dating to the 1940s but unfortunately some of the jackets are missing and the others are tatty to say the least. I would dearly love to replace these.

If replacement covers are not available I have a proposal, It is important to note that this proposal depends entirely on getting permission from the literary executors / copyright holders.

Surely between the members of TARS we must be able to put together one complete set of covers in good condition. If the owners were willing to lend them we could scan them and make a limited print run.

I would be willing to do the scanning, I have an A3 scanner and have photoshop so could make minor repairs to tears etc. It is likely that some correction work will need to be done on the spines to restore colour fading.

We could then make the covers available to TARS members.

I would hope that the literary executors would look kindly on a request to do this as I see it as more of a "repair" to books we already own than copying books for example.

Anyway what do other think?

Peter

I found several places in this line of work not long ago. I'm in two minds about whether I'd 'enjoy' a dust jacket that I knew was not original! There is also the complicated issue of selling a book with a new jacket without telling the buyer.

This chap has the S&A series for sale:

http://www.reprojackets.co.uk/index.php?cat=Arthur_Ransome

This chap also has them, though his website does not actually list any AR books:

http://www.facsimiledustjackets.com/ 

(I emailed last year and was told he had all 12 covers and they were 22 dollars each).

I also spoke with several people about Mariners Library jackets, but there are not available yet.

Thanks Magnus, Ouch, it would be about £120 for the set!

Even so I shall seriously consider it.

To save £120 I think you had the right idea in the first place! I have acceptable covers of WDMTGTS and ML but of course they are faded. Perhaps Geraint can clarify copyright issues. I see someone must own a licence for the cover designs as there are mugs for sale with them on! (Not TARS merchandise.)

To clarify as Magnus requests:

The Jonathan Cape book covers are designs created by the publisher, so they belong to Random House  Ltd. They are of course composed using drawings belonging to the Literary Estate, so the Estate also has a copyright interest if or when the cover designs are used, copied, or merchandised beyond their original licenced purpose (ie to cover new books being sold by the publisher).

At the present time Random House act as the Estate's agents for all S&A series merchandising, so enquiries relating to the Cape (or Red Fox) book covers should be addressed to Random House. 

At the TARS end, if you are contemplating making these available within TARS (selling them?) then you ought to speak to Linden Burke re the implications for the TARS Stall. I expect he will have practical experience and advice that may help you. However, my view is that any such initiative iwould not be covered by any existing permissions granted to TARS by the Estate.  It would, therefore, need to be specifically negotiated via Random House. Approval would not be automatic because both the Random House and the Estate would have to weigh up your proposals against other existing or anticipated opportunities to use the designs.

Thanks Geraint for the full explanation, of course I do not want to breach copyright as I said in my first mail.

To answer your points, I did not anticipate making any money personally from the production of any covers, I had anticipated that they would be made available to TARS members either at cost or with a modest uplift which would go to TARS funds.

Being a new member I am unfamiliar with the correct protocol but if there was enough interest perhaps someone could approach Random house. Of course if there is no interest then the idea just dies.

At the moment I will wait and see if others are interested, if so then I will speak to Linden as you suggest.

This always raises the question, in my mind, of which dust jacket to use. The dust jackets have changed throughout the life of the series especially on the back page.

Examples are

Until the series was complete, each further book bought about an alteration in the content and layout.

The price has changed steadily in the last 70+ years.

Barcodes have been introduced, with shops like Foyles in London putting the own version of a barcode sticker over the Cape/Random House version.

The front cover has also changed at times

Again examples are

The change from Webb to AR illustrations in the early editions of SA & SD.

Change of descrioptive wording in the title box.

Change of cover design in SA, with the leading lights in the the dark picture being repaced by the cannon bieing fired at S & A.

Possibly an informative article could be written for MM on all the changes.

I think by changing the cover content, Cape/Random House will refresh their design right in the cover which otherwise might have expired.

There is interest in replacement covers. Ted Alexander who used to run the TARS stall said it was one of his most frequently requested items that he was unable to fufill.

Peter, I have restored wrappers. I have added wrappers to books which lacked wrappers. choosing wrappers which relate to the book of the same period. I personally try to follow the code, Clean, Strengthen but only restore in the last resort. I attach a strengthened Winter holiday cover to show what can be done. I like it very much.

I agree John, this is how a first edition cover should be treated. I have gone a stage further to protect the very few of mine by using a removable Brodart type cover of a protective plastic film. I can then add to the protective film with a tapewriter the nomenclature "First Edition" to the spine and the front. This will be a possible clue to my executors of any value of the book.

For later editions, where little monetary value is involved, I will restore further, perhaps photocopying or copying from the web a damged portion of a cover, then pasting up and reinforcing the cover edges with archival tape.

Thanks John and Owen, I agree this is the way to preserve existing covers for 1st editions. My set all date from around the 1940s and I don't have a full set even in bits! so its probably not worth trying to patch them up.

I think I would be satisfied if I could replace them with new ones. I did contemplate trying to download the artwork from the net but putting together a complete cover, front, spine, back and leaf is nearly impossible.

Owen's reported comment from Ted Alexander about covers being the most frequently requested item shows there is some interest in obtaining covers. I wonder if Random house would be prepared to sell a limited number of covers to TARS members?

Have managed to make up a few covers for personal use using the net, Peter.  You can easily capture the front although the spine is more difficult.

I have actually typed out the back in MS Word, Book Antiqua is a good match to the Cape typeface for the rear cover. I used the columns and rows feature to replicate the layout on the back and, where necessary, a spine. This spine is plain with just the double lined boxes for title, author and publisher.

Because of the ability to left and right hand justify blocks of text, I vainly think I have tidied up the Cape layout on the quote attributions. I was able to use a colour on the book titles to match the front .

Because I have only an A4 printer, I have used archival tape to join front and back, I then trimmed the cover to match the book height.

I could post an example as an attachment as the file size is 37.5KB, but hesitate to do so as I am not sure of the position regarding Cape/Random House design right which I have copied to some extent. Otherwise I would be willing to share this example.

I suspect Random House will only produce covers when they reprint the particular book. these will be up to date covers with barcodes. It may be a long time, if ever, before some of the less popular books are reprinted. However it would be worth approaching them in the way that Geraint has suggested.

Hello Owen, The way you have recreated the covers is certainly food for thought and I would love to see an example, perhaps Geraint could comment on the copyright implications of posting a single example to see what has been achieved.

What could certainly be done if, Owen is willing, is to post a Microsoft word template with all the page layout, margins, justifications etc set up and some random text as a place holder. This would enable others to recreate their own covers without having to recreate the layout.

Thinking about this further, Peter, perhaps the quotes are actually the copywright of the reviewer or maybe the journal or paper for whom they were written - if they were paid for commissioned articles. (unless Cape made them up - not unknown in publishing/dramatic/ film reviews - although I have no reason to think that Cape would need do this as some of them were AR's friends)