Yesterday in Chapters I also came across some very pretty books -- three of the eight hardback modern classics by women that Virago has just put out to commemorate their 30th anniversary. The cover of each book features the work of an acclaimed textile designer. At first I thought these were some of the Persephone Books I'd read about on Jane Brocket's blog. I'm assuming Virago has stolen the idea from them (not that it would stop me from snapping up these beauties in a heartbeat).
Persephone reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction by women -- they've got a list of 78 titles so far, each with the same grey and cream cover and each with endpages in the pattern of a fabric that is somehow appropriate to the book. You can subscribe to the list and have one sent to you each month. Or you can order them all in one fell swoop, of course. Along with ordering the complete NYRB list, that'd be one of the first things I'd do if I won the lottery. And then I suppose I'd have to buy a new house to put them all in.
A book of Judith Viorst's poetry called It's Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty is among the Persephone offerings. Until this very moment, I did not realize that Judith Viorst wrote poetry for adults. I knew her only as the author of Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, a book we've been reading recently with Luke. The endpages for It's Hard to Be Hip are done in a 1968 Liberty print called "Bangles."
The endpages of Greenery Street, one of the few Persephone books written by a man, features the design that was on the wallpaper in my childhood bedroom:
Be sure to check out all the endpaper designs (and the books themselves, of course) here.
I've got a copy of It's Hard to Be Hip... It's wonderful! And all these are so beautiful...
Posted by: Kerry Clare | August 30, 2008 at 07:50 PM
Kerry, you lucky woman, you've got the biggest library! No wonder you had to change houses...
Posted by: Steph | August 31, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Love love Persephone, Greenery Street is excellent. I have the Viorst but I haven't read it - my favourites are Family Roundabout (Richmal Crompton), Someone at a Distance (Dorothy Whipple) and Hostages to Fortune (Elizabeth Cambridge) - but almost all the ones I've read have been wonderful.
Of those beautiful new Viragos, Provincial Lady is a must. One of my favourite books.
Posted by: Simon T | September 07, 2008 at 05:20 PM