Arrow re-prints

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Toohey
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Arrow re-prints

Post by Toohey »

These had some pretty awful covers didnÂ’t they?

I donÂ’t know who did the art direction, if you could call it that, but it was pretty tasteless.

The covers are normally a bit readers wives with few silly fetishes on the cover. With covers like these you have to wonder are they trying to stop us buying the book. The worst offender must be the one with the naked women bathed in green, with a wall off fire in front of her and a couple of totems/fetishes surrounded by white flowers! Given that the book in question is the Ka of Gifford Hillary you have to wonder why is she naked and why is she looking so shocked? Calm down love and put some clothes on, thereÂ’s nothing to be scared of! I think that was just a standard cover as Arrow used on a Gateway to Hell to. The Satanist has another nude on the cover, but this time she is holding a crucifix/staff thing. Somebody should have told her that itÂ’s not practical to fight satanic abuse nude.

The pic(s) on the back of the books are normally the silly rams head surrounded by a couple of candles. Clearly indicating the paucity of those Satanists. I like the photo of Whealtey where he looks resplendid in his smoking jacket, shirt with cuff-links etc. But the look on his face says it; clearly heÂ’s seen whatÂ’s on the front of the book.

Were they trying to sell it to the dirty-mac brigade?
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Post by Nick »

I think you must have more experience of nudes than me! I never looked in such detail, Right!! when's my lunch hour and where are my glasses and a magnifying glass! Hey somebody has borrowed my mac!
Toohey
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Post by Toohey »

LOL

I loved the copy of To the Devil a duaghter you sent me. I could tell it was old, the nude there had was err...furry.

Sorry to be crude :-D
Hoyo de Monterrey
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Post by Hoyo de Monterrey »

We're in agreement on this one, Toohey! Mind you, you are obviously thinking of the 60s/70s Arrows - some of the earlier (50s) ones were even worse (no nudes, though!).
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Toohey
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Post by Toohey »

What do you make of Wheatleys expression on the pic on the back of the book?

Looks like he'd going to kill somebody. Has he just been told that Labour have won the general election?
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Post by Nick »

No he's probably run out of Pimms and his Butler has been arrested for counter espionage. As a writer he ought to know the Butler did it, or in DWs case didnt do it correctly.
Toohey
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Post by Toohey »

Or was he trying to use his psyhic powers? He could wound a man with that stare.
Lovely library though, full of handsome, leather bound books. Bet you they were worth a few bob.
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Post by Jim »

<< Lovely library though, full of handsome, leather bound books. Bet you they were worth a few bob. >>

I happen to have Blackwell's catalogue for the sale of Wheatley's library; there are 2274 listings, and several are multi-volume sets. DW's own collection of his books, "sumptuously bound in blue crushed Levant morocco" was sold for a mere £4500! This included "the only extant whole copy of the torn-up photgraph" for WHO KILLED ROGER PRENTICE?, and the typescript of VICE AND VIRTUE. (Damn! Why hasn't the owner made arrangements to reprint this???)

DW's copy of Krafft-Ebing's PSYCHOPATHIS SEXUALIS went for only £8. Wheatley owned all the Scarlet Pimpernel novels, inscribed by their author...

I originally read all the Wheatley novels as Arrow paperbacks, with the "photo" covers of the late 1960s-early '70s. I hated them, but I was lucky even those were available in the States. (There's a wonderful cover for THE RISING STORM that almost makes it look like a romance novel--I wonder how successful it was...)
Toohey
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smoking jacket

Post by Toohey »

I love it, very stylish. I'd love to get my hands on one. He was a very dapper fella.
Garry Holmes
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Post by Garry Holmes »

I still think that the Arrow re-prints were responsible for the generally seedy reputation that DW's work gained in the 70's. When your cover shows blurry, naked green crumpet cowering from skull with a red candle on top, it's not going to do wonders for you image. Fleming had some wonderfully stylish covers from Chopping on his later books, what a shame that DW's publishers never took more trouble in finding a distinctive cover artist for him.As regards that picture of DW, he always looks like he wasn't expecting his photo to be taken and is glaring at the photographer, wondering 'Who the hell is that?'
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